ABSTRACT
This chapter offers a close reading of Kathryn Bigelow’s film Strange Days and argues that the film uses a cyberpunk visual sensibility to interrogate contemporary political issues, making it relevant to Veronica Hollinger’s concept of “science fiction realism.” The film speaks to the issues of race and racism that preoccupied American culture in the years immediately following the beating of Rodney King and the LA Riots, issues that speak to the Black Lives Matter movement today. Finally, in its reference to the work of Laura Mulvey and the ‘male gaze,’ the chapter also contemplates the feminist implications of the film’s engagement with voyeurism and scopophilia, especially when these engagements are mediated by burgeoning technological hardware.
