The film Dark Days follows the lives of an array of homeless citizens of New York who are living in the subway tunnels below the city. Some of these people are runaways, drug addicts, or simply caught in a bad situation that forced them into homelessness. Regardless of how they arrived to be homeless they all end up finding ways to survive and thrive in the tunnels below the city. Most of the residents live in “shacks” that they build out of materials that they have found typically from garbage in the city. Often times they have common things in these makeshift houses like tv’s and stoves that they have found tossed out in garbage throughout the city. The people in these tunnels have access to electricity that costs them nothing. Essentially these people are living in the tunnels without having to pay any bills which is how many of them explain how they got trapped in this situation. During the day many of the residents resurface to search through garbage for anything to sell. By doing this daily some claim to make $60 on a good day. Without having bills to pay this allows them to buy food and maintain their lifestyles in the tunnels. Unfortunately, amtrak decided that they were going to use the tunnels that the homeless people were living in and were going to remove all of the inhabitants of these tunnels in a short period of time. Luckily for the residents of the tunnels a group that helps homeless people in New York talked with Amtrak about extending the time they had to get all of the homeless people out and even found a government program that helps homeless people in New York attain temporary housing. Thus, at the end of the movie we see many of the people who were living in the tunnels below the city now living in actual apartments that are provided to them by the government. Clearly this documentary shows us how being a part of a community in any situation is beneficial in that even in the tunnels a community was created that looked out for one-another. The ideas on community and an American bond are relevant in that at the end of the film we see these people rejoining the larger community and living a better life than before.
2 replies on “ERA “Dark Days””
Andrew, I feel this is a very good summary of the movie. It is interesting that even though the tunnels doesn’t provide the ideal life for these people, before Amtrak, they have no real incentive to move. They have there very won society underneath the world of the city, with different rules, but altogether a sense of togetherness. I feel like since the community under the tunnels face the same challenges, they are even closer than the American public. I wonder if this means that the American public should foster a sense of community, or have a greater enemy to face together in order to do so.
I think it is interesting to view the sense of community presented in these tunnels. These people formed their own community in which they together were able to build lives for themselves and become reliant on tunnels below Manhattan. Once they became evicted this community was threatened but luckily able to find housing which was better than before. Although it is necessary to look at the positives as they did eventually receive a better housing and possibly better life at the hands of the government support, it is sad to recognize that they were only prompted to receive this once AmTrak came into the picture and wanted the tunnel. In this case, although this statement is not necessarily fair, it can be argued that the tunnel was almost more valued than the people. The people were only rushed into the housing once the tunnel became of value. This issue could have been viewed and resolved earlier, but people became reliant and sometimes comfortable enough that they were eventually trapped in a cycle of poverty underground in tunnels in need of help and support to escape.