"What Does A Scanner See... Does It See Into Me Clearly, Or Darkly?"

Seil · 10-29-2010, 01:25 AM

In lieu of reviewing horror flicks - Imma do that on Halloween 0 I wanna talk about a movie called "A Scanner Darkly." Here is the trailer.

The movie, at least from the trailer, looks science fiction-y abstract-y and art-y. The last one is true. The second one is also true. It's not so much science fiction-y. It focuses on Keanu Reeves, playing an undercover cop named Bob Arctor. Downey Jr. and Harrelson are his addicted room-mates, and Ryder is "his girl." Arctor is trying to stop the spread of a drug called "Substance D." Shown to be highly addictive, one of the characters - played by Rory Cochrane - is the first sight we see. He's paranoid about aphids crawling all over him, his dog and his house.

The animated stly is pretty neat, it's fun to watch... if a little too reminiscent of flicks like "Fear And Loating In Las Vegas," without the narration. The ending kinda stinks too, there's not really any closure, but I need to read the book.

See, the movie is based off of a book written by this guy named Phillip K. Dick, who I hear is pretty neat. Anyone have a beat on him?

synkr0nized · 10-29-2010, 01:28 AM

hahaha Oh, this is what they were referring to with that Metroid LP title.

Magus · 10-29-2010, 03:57 PM

Phillip K. Dick started out as a somewhat offbeat science fiction writer, but he was still within the realm of sanity. He is well known for writing short stories that were later made into movies (such as "A Scanner Darkly", "Total Recall", "Minority Report" or the movie Blade Runner, originally titled "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?"), however the movies were fairly different from the stories in a lot of cases, and he's written several novels like The Man in the High Castle (my personal favorite), Ubik, and Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said
.
However, later in life he basically went completely insane and his books and stories became more and more surreal. He visited the dentist and while under the influence of anesthesia basically had some kind of religious hallucination where he became convinced he was the reincarnation of a Christian who was martyred by the Roman Empire. He saw the U.S. and modern governments as simply being a reincarnation of the Roman Empire, continuing to unjustly persecute people throughout cyclical time. His stories reflect his fractured mental state which became more and more unhinged throughout his life, so if you read him you'll see the stories get crazier and crazier as they go, but they're still a good read up to a certain point before they kind of fall off a cliff into unintelligibility. I think Ubik was the last one that was really enjoyable from what people have told me, but I haven't read it yet, or it may have been Flow My Tears, which won an award.

I think the one people have a problem with is Ubik or VALIS, which is supposed to be a really zany book, but once again I haven't read it.

Philip K. Dick on Wikipedia

10-29-2010, 01:25 AM	#1
Seil Super stressed! Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: British Columbia Posts: 8,081	"What Does A Scanner See... Does It See Into Me Clearly, Or Darkly?" In lieu of reviewing horror flicks - Imma do that on Halloween 0 I wanna talk about a movie called "A Scanner Darkly." Here is the trailer. The movie, at least from the trailer, looks science fiction-y abstract-y and art-y. The last one is true. The second one is also true. It's not so much science fiction-y. It focuses on Keanu Reeves, playing an undercover cop named Bob Arctor. Downey Jr. and Harrelson are his addicted room-mates, and Ryder is "his girl." Arctor is trying to stop the spread of a drug called "Substance D." Shown to be highly addictive, one of the characters - played by Rory Cochrane - is the first sight we see. He's paranoid about aphids crawling all over him, his dog and his house. The animated stly is pretty neat, it's fun to watch... if a little too reminiscent of flicks like "Fear And Loating In Las Vegas," without the narration. The ending kinda stinks too, there's not really any closure, but I need to read the book. See, the movie is based off of a book written by this guy named Phillip K. Dick, who I hear is pretty neat. Anyone have a beat on him?

10-29-2010, 01:28 AM	#2
synkr0nized synk-ism Join Date: Nov 2003 Location: throughout the Wired Posts: 6,857	I did not even bother to look it up. hahaha Oh, this is what they were referring to with that Metroid LP title. __________________ Find love.

10-29-2010, 03:57 PM	#3
Magus Archer and Armstrong vs. the World Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Pennsylvania Posts: 7,164	Phillip K. Dick started out as a somewhat offbeat science fiction writer, but he was still within the realm of sanity. He is well known for writing short stories that were later made into movies (such as "A Scanner Darkly", "Total Recall", "Minority Report" or the movie Blade Runner, originally titled "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?"), however the movies were fairly different from the stories in a lot of cases, and he's written several novels like The Man in the High Castle (my personal favorite), Ubik, and Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said . However, later in life he basically went completely insane and his books and stories became more and more surreal. He visited the dentist and while under the influence of anesthesia basically had some kind of religious hallucination where he became convinced he was the reincarnation of a Christian who was martyred by the Roman Empire. He saw the U.S. and modern governments as simply being a reincarnation of the Roman Empire, continuing to unjustly persecute people throughout cyclical time. His stories reflect his fractured mental state which became more and more unhinged throughout his life, so if you read him you'll see the stories get crazier and crazier as they go, but they're still a good read up to a certain point before they kind of fall off a cliff into unintelligibility. I think Ubik was the last one that was really enjoyable from what people have told me, but I haven't read it yet, or it may have been Flow My Tears, which won an award. I think the one people have a problem with is Ubik or VALIS, which is supposed to be a really zany book, but once again I haven't read it. Philip K. Dick on Wikipedia __________________ The Valiant Review Last edited by Magus; 10-29-2010 at 04:13 PM.