Insomnia (2002)

I forgot how much I liked this movie. It's been so long since I first saw it. I just watched it the other night and forgot how good of a movie it is. It's eerie, but good

Summary

-An LA police detective and his partner go to Alaska to investigate the murder of a local teenaged girl. While chasing the suspect through fog, he accidentally shoots his partner. Between the guilt and the incessant daylight, he loses sleep and becomes delusional. Meanwhile officer Ellie Burr begins her own investigation into the shooting

Cast

-Al Pacino: Will Dormer

-Robin Williams: Walter Finch

-Hilary Swank: Ellie Burr

-Martin Donovan: Hap Eckhart

-Paul Dooley: Chief Nyback

-Nicky Katt: Fred Duggar

-Larry Holden: Farrell

-Yan-Kay Crystal Lowe: Kay Connell

-Maura Tierney: Rachel Clement

Did You Know?

-This movie, and 1995's Heat, are two movies where Al Pacino's character, who is doing a stakeout, are ruined by incompetent officers. In 1995's Heat, he and his officers are in a box truck across the street from an area where a crew of bank robbers are attempting to break in. An incompetent officer with an assault rifle against his back goes to sit down, hitting the metal wall and making a loud clang. This tips off De Niro's character Neil McAuley that there is a suspicious presence in the area. In this movie, during a stakeout, an officer mistakenly hits the squawk option on a bullhorn, tipping off the suspect and giving them time to run away

-In the original script adaptation by Hilary Seitz, the script had Dormer as an Oregon police officer instead of a Los Angeles police officer. It was suggested that Pacino's character had planted evidence at a crime scene, thus convicting an innocent man and sending him to prison in Los Angeles. And that Internal Affairs Bureau, the ones responsible for arresting "dirty" cops, was running an investigation into Dormer and looking to bring him back to Los Angeles. And that it was the crimes in Alaska that were similar to the crimes he investigated in Los Angeles that brought him to Alaska, not so much to help his friend, Chief Dooley. These changes were so popular that Christopher Nolan added them to his director's pass on the script

-This movie is Christopher Nolan's first film to be fully done in color. One of his previous movies was 2000's Memento, which featured black and white and color scenes

-In the biography Robin by David Itzkoff, Robin Williams had been sober for years. While filming this movie, he took up drinking again. Because of the strong isolation of Alaska, he could only talk to people in bars

-To lift the somber tone of the movie, Robin Williams told jokes related to the filming, which made the cast and crew laugh

-Even though Al Pacino's character Will Dormer and Robin Williams' character Walter Finch were supposed to be competing with one another, they got along very well with one another when not filming. Williams would crack jokes and he even pranked Pacino during an interview by slumping behind him and quoting the 1979 film And Justice for All. He would imitate Pacino's voice and say "You're out of order!" before laughing out loud

-In the scene where Will Dormer and Walter Finch meet on the ferry was not rehearsed at all between Al Pacino and Robin Williams. This unfamiliarity would work out for both of them when their characters did finally meet face to face

-In the scene where Dormer sees Rachel sleeping on his bed, there were rumors they slept together. Christopher Nolan removes those rumors, saying they simply talked through the night

-The original script had Will Dormer with a hot temper, smashing the phone down whenever he talked with Walter Finch. Al Pacino modified his character to use less anger and be more cool and calm under pressure

-It has been proven possible to stay awake for six days straight. One person set a record for staying awake for 11 days straight under medical supervision

-When Dormer mentions child murderer Dobbs, this is based on an actual child murderer named Westley Allan Dodd