City of Angels (film)

In Los Angeles, California, Seth is one of many angels who watch over humans, protecting them in unseen ways. His main responsibility is to appear to those who are close to death and guide them to the next life. During this task, Seth and one of his fellow angels, Cassiel, ask people what their favorite thing in life was. Despite these daily encounters, they have trouble understanding human beings and their ways, as angels lack human senses. While waiting to escort a man undergoing heart surgery to the other world, Seth is impressed by the vigorous efforts of the surgeon, Maggie Rice, to save the ill-fated man's life and her sincere anguish at her failure to do so. Seth soon becomes focused on Maggie and makes himself visible to her. They develop a connection, which soon turns to mutual attraction, although she is already involved with one of her colleagues, Jordan Ferris. Seth then meets Nathaniel Messinger, one of Maggie's patients, who senses Seth's presence. He tells him that he, too, had once been an angel. But, as free will is granted equally to mortals and angels, Nathaniel decided to become human by "falling". Seth begins to consider being with Maggie, and she learns through Nathaniel that he is an angel. is featured in the film. Seth becomes human by jumping from the top of a skyscraper. Immediately upon awakening, he starts to experience many human feelings and sensations that he had never been able to understand, beginning with physical pain. As a human, Seth heads to the hospital to see Maggie but is told she has gone to her uncle's mountain cabin at Lake Tahoe. Penniless and naïve, he cannot pay for the journey and gets mugged. He eventually hitches a ride to Lake Tahoe and appears, soaked and cold, at Maggie's doorstep. She realizes he has become mortal for her love, and they have sex. The next morning, as Seth is showering, Maggie rides her bicycle to a local store. On her way back, happy and fulfilled, she rides her bicycle with her eyes closed and her arms wide open. Her happiness is cut short when she fails to notice a logging truck crossing her path and is gravely wounded in the collision. Seth senses that Maggie is in trouble and runs to her aid. He arrives in time for her to tell him she sees the angel who has come to accompany her. Although Seth can no longer see angels, he senses one nearby and frantically begs Maggie not to look at them. She tells him she is not afraid anymore and that when they ask her what her favorite thing in life was, she will say it was Seth, and she then dies. Grieving and alone, Seth is visited by Cassiel. He asks if he is being punished for becoming human, which Cassiel assures him is not the case. Sometime later, Seth expresses his joy in being human and the fact that he has accepted his new life by running into the ocean, feeling the waves at dawn, in sight of the angels. stars as Seth. ==Cast==

s. City of Angels invokes the idea of the fallen angel in Seth's transformation into a human. However, author Scott Culpepper argues this is not related to evil or exile from heaven, and is instead based on free will. The fact that Maggie is killed very shortly after Seth's transformation poses the question of whether Seth left "heaven for ashes", but the conclusion is that "the very temporality of relationships, experiences and feelings are what make them meaningful". Seth's realization is followed by the concluding scene in which he dives into the ocean, and the otherwise "stoic" Cassiel smiles for him. Sociologists Albert Bergesen and Andrew Greeley write that this communicates "not only the glory of being alive ... but the seeming approval by heaven of that choice". Writer Brian Godawa interprets the film as having a "humanistic worldview" in which physical experiences humans can enjoy have more value to angels than the spiritual. However, Godawa feels this contradicts 1 Peter 1:12, where "things which angels desire to look into" are spiritual truths in the gospel of the Holy Spirit. Encyclopedist Andrew Tate writes Maggie is a surgeon with no spiritual faith and, through Seth, she "learns to trust the invisible", while Seth learns the wonders of life through her. ''. Professor Christopher R. Miller observes Seth's book recommendation for Maggie is Ernest Hemingway's A Moveable Feast, but Miller suggests John Milton's Paradise Lost would have been more interesting. Miller contrasted Milton's epic, in which "angels were matter and spirit" and "sybaritic show-offs", with the depiction of the supernatural beings in the film. Tate believes the fact that angels reside in libraries indicates that they represent "an age of reason, order and learning", though these principles led to decline in faith, contemplating Nathaniel's line "They don't believe in us anymore". Miller questions the "no one believes" line, pointing to 1998 New Age book sales, the play Angels in America and the television series Touched by an Angel. On the choice of Los Angeles as a setting, Gabriel Solomons contrasts the depiction of the city as a door to heaven to other films depicting it as a "psychological dead end" or actual hell (as in Constantine). However, Professor Jeff Malpas says that, whereas Wings of Desire was informed by Berlin, Los Angeles, sometimes known in real life as the "City of Angels", "provides nothing more than a convenient location". ==Production==

Development Director Brad Silberling praised Wim Wenders' 1987 Franco-German film Wings of Desire, calling it "truly the most incredible cinematic experience of observation of human detail". Silberling, while acknowledging Wenders' film was meant as a tribute to West Berlin, remarked that it became "a larger human discussion". However, production was delayed, as Steel took the project to The Walt Disney Company and Turner Entertainment before finally settling at Warner Bros. Pictures. Silberling secured the position of director after his success with the 1995 film adaptation of Casper. While Steel's husband Charles Roven said she "felt that there was another movie in the idea for Wings of Desire", screenplay drafts by various authors dissatisfied her. Stevens professed admiration for Wenders' original and believed she could "capture its essence", while reconsidering its nonlinear narrative. She also defended the California setting, saying "Los Angeles is metaphorically more representative of America than any other city ... It has every personality, and I like the idea of angels being among all these different ethnic cultures". Though Silberling did not use the black-and-white the angels see in the original Wings of Desire and Faraway, So Close!, the remake does borrow the idea of angels inhabiting libraries. Wenders and his crew also developed the costume design of overcoats for angels, with Wenders telling Silberling they experimented with costumes during production before deciding on this look. Silberling claimed there was minimal supervision from Warner Bros. throughout writing and filming, due to priority given to the Batman film franchise. Casting Originally, Silberling envisioned employing novice actors in the lead roles, but acknowledged performers with the level of recognition of Cage and Meg Ryan would attract support for the production. He remarked on having to adopt the mindset of a child, and act impressed by commonplace experiences such as feeling rain or sunlight. A rig for the camera was built for the scene where the angelic Seth sees Maggie look in the mirror, and the crew shot the mirror without the actors for one take so Cage's reflection could be edited out from the take with both. Some of the film was shot at Lake Tahoe's surrounding areas and Kern County. The "falling" scene was partially shot at the Los Angeles Bank of America, while Cage was placed on a moving rig over a bluescreen. Its two singles, the Goo Goo Dolls' "Iris" and Alanis Morissette's "Uninvited", were released to U.S. radio in March and were still receiving substantial radio airplay by August. While composing "Iris" for the film, songwriter John Rzeznik described feeling inspired to write the lyrics from the point of view of a character, rather than in his own voice. Music author John Braheny wrote that Rzeznik's composition in "Iris" follows a form where a melody, represented by A, is given AAA repetition, with an added repeating chorus lyric. ==Release==

In test screenings, Silberling said the film had favorable reactions, though with some confused viewers. In 2014, Warner Home Video released a Blu-ray in Region A, with audio commentary from Silberling, Roven and Stevens. ==Reception==

Box office The film opened first in the box office, making $16.1 million in its opening weekend. It displaced Lost in Space, which was first in the box office for one week, after overtaking Titanic, first for 15 weeks. Titanic ranked third behind City of Angels and Lost in Space. City of Angels reached the $100 million mark by October 26, 1998. It finished its run after grossing $78,685,114 in North America and $120 million in other territories, for a total of nearly $200 million. Writer Craig Detweiler concluded the remake drew more viewers than the original. Aggregated critical reception Meg Ryan received positive reviews for her performance. The film has a 58% score on Rotten Tomatoes based on 60 reviews, with an average rating of 6.2/10. The site's consensus states: "City of Angels may not tug the heartstrings as effortlessly as it aims to, but the end results will still leave more than a few viewers in tears." The film has a rating of 54 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 22 reviews, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale. Professional critical reception Roger Ebert gave City of Angels three stars, saying Meg Ryan was at her best here, but the film was "more of a formula story" than the original Wings of Desire, and that many of its qualities were lifted from there. In Variety, Emanuel Levy positively reviewed Cage as "endlessly resourceful" and Ryan as "terrifically engaging". In The Christian Science Monitor, Jennifer Wolcott compared it to Ghost (1990) and Contact (1997) as a U.S. film that could explore religion and love, highlighting Maggie's realization that her life will continue after the death of her blood cells, and that love is more than "a chemical reaction". Sun-Sentinel reviewer Roger Hurlburt praised the acting, direction and "profound" feelings, and advised readers, "don't forget the Kleenex". Wenders was satisfied with the adaptation of his work, remarking, "It's done with respect, with a sense of discovery all its own". David Denby wrote in New York that unlike Berlin, Los Angeles offers "the sunlit paradise" where people do not need convincing as to how nice life can be. Entertainment Weekly gave the film a C, with Owen Gleiberman describing it as "a hymn to sappiness". CNN's Paul Clinton dismissed the remake as a "schmaltzy" and "vapid" version of Wings of Desire. The Washington Posts Michael O'Sullivan dismissed it as "a mawkish debasement of its source material", asking "When will Hollywood learn to leave well enough alone?" Michael Wilmington gave it two and a half stars in the Chicago Tribune, enjoying the appearance of the film but concluding it feels "forced and mechanically weepy". Andrew Johnston writing in Time Out New York concluded: "In the final reel, what began as a philosophical study of death and longing becomes a blatant tearjerker, but even then the accumulated momentum sweeps you along. Mainstream films are seldom more lyrical." In 2012, Time included it in its Top ten On-Screen Depictions of Heaven list, for its portrayal of the "go toward the light" afterlife experience. In his 2015 Movie Guide, Leonard Maltin gave it two and a half stars, judging it "still intriguing" though losing much of the atmosphere of the original. That year, Indiewire, in reviewing remakes, called City of Angels "a sickly bastardization" of its source material, though remarking Wenders himself was unable to duplicate its success with his 1993 sequel, Faraway, So Close!. In 2017, MSN included it in its 20 All-Time Worst Movie Remakes list, acknowledging it as a financial hit but "a schmaltzy tearjerker" compared to the poetry of the original. Accolades City of Angels: Music from the Motion Picture received nominations at the 41st Grammy Awards, and the film received nominations and awards at ceremonies honoring cinema: ==See also==