The first thought that the John Anderton of the short-story has is “ I’m getting bald. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. It represents how strange and incomprehensible things are, the mindset of the characters, and why we can’t even believe that what we are reading is what truly happened. ( Log Out /  Book / Movie comparison: A Scanner Darkly (Philip ... Review: A Scanner Darkly (Philip K. Dick blogathon), SuspendYourDisbelief on Twitter Counter.com. Film reviews, features, articles, trailers, posters and general musings on the world of cinema. However, in creating a more faithful adaptation, director Richard Linklater has distanced his film from mainstream audiences. Unlike other directors who have transformed Dick’s works into movies, like Ridley Scott (Blade Runner) and Steven Spielberg … His most famous work is probably “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” but you will recognize its big screen neo-noir adoption “Blade Runner.”  I hope to review both that movie and book on this blog at a later time. A portion of him turns against him and acts like another person, defeating him from inside. and his adaptations. Dick books to pass the time. Then when we are with Fred viewing the events back, we realise what they signified. When Fred views some of these moments back on one of the Holo-Scanners he uses for surveillance on his house, he hears Arctor reciting, partly in German. The film sounds way cool – animating the actors! So should you read the book or watch the movie? There are also moments in the book when the text is interspersed with lines of German that aren’t explained and seem completely random. This book, written in 1977 won many awards in the science fiction literary world. That being said and absolutely nothing being equal, I'm a big fan of P.K. A man inside a man which is no man at all. P.K is like, oh i don't know, a good glass of scotch. There are a number of extra moments in the book, which the film obviously didn’t have enough time to add in. Dick. This is great casting and if you like Downey you will like him in this part. Add in one beverage type plug-in cooler with drinks and snacks kinda like the 'god' mode on first person shooter games where they don't run out and I'd be right on my way to one helluva retreat. This shows the muddled up nature of his brain, affected by drug use and paranoia. Change ), You are commenting using your Google account. I'm looking forward to sharing my love of film with you all. Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com. The scramble suits would have been my main concern if I was a fan of this book in the 70’s and found out someone was going to try to put it to film. Scanner Darkly is a book by Philip K. Dick, a SciFi legend in literature. I guess that is the way of the blog-o-what-have-you but some recipricate any varying ways like not saying hello at all to which I pishaw, wtf?Great points about P.K.
When Fred meets with the two medical deputies, the dialogue is combined with memories they remind him of and medical articles about the mind. Robert Downey Jr. may be the biggest star in this film, but when it was made he was still doing little movies while he worked through his own drug issues.

Which is no man at all.” (Page 147). “Any given man sees only a tiny portion of the total truth, and very often, in fact almost perpetually, he deliberately deceives himself about that little precious fragment as well.
The biggest one is taking one of the biggest, most talented casts around, shots the film with them over the course of 23 days, then spends 18 months animating it. The first one went the way of the dinosaur. Linklater takes some risks, but I really liked the final product. I watched this movie back when it came out, recently read the book and then re-watched the movie to compare the two. I tried this in one part but the system said no way. All that to say I found your site and please feel like doing me a solid and returning the favor and dropping over to my current place of ramble-on-e-nous and drop me a note. An interesting device used in the novel is interspersing events with other unrelated facts, dialogue or moments from the past. During the road trip, Arctor pays a visit to Kimberley Hawkins, an individual he hasn’t seen in a while, to check up on her. Change ), You are commenting using your Twitter account.

Many of the scenes have seemingly ... Mike Riggins is an American ex-special forces officer, locked up in a prison in The Balkans for smuggling weapons. Substance D is the drug in the world of Scanner Darkly and our protagonist Bob Arctor is an undercover cop in this world. This suggests that Philip K. Dick’s works are not readily welcomed by mainstream viewers in their pure, undiluted form. My favorite Noir Director is Billy Wilder, though I like Neo Noir as well. I am probably one of only a handful who actually liked Minority Report (not making comparisons or relations to the novel, just STeve's adaptation) and as I mentioned, Bladerunner is a fav.Loved your quote choice, pg 147. Woody Harrelson plays a friend of Bob, that is also addicted to substance D.  Rory Cochrane, a Linklater favorite also plays a key role. This is a very remarkable method used by the author. The fact that it is very successful as an adaptation seems to have caused it to be unsuccessful in terms of attracting a large audience. Substance D is the drug in the world of Scanner Darkly and our protagonist Bob Arctor is an undercover cop in this world.

( Log Out /  This gives the film a very cool look, almost in the way black and white transformed the real world in the classic era of film-noir the animation transforms the modern world of southern California. And I was happy to not have either spoiled for me. Him and his friends are paranoid of everything and don’t know who to trust in their everyday lives. A Scanner Darkly is the most accurate film adaptation of a Philip K. Dick story that I have seen so far. Review: The Bird with the Crystal Plumage. A Closer Look at Ann Sheridan and Lizabeth Scott: Detectives and Dames: A Flicker Alley Noir Blog-a-Thon! Maybe both. He is in love with Donna, played by Winona Ryder, unfortunately she may not feel the same way. Clive Connelly (Michael P... Douglas Quail dreams of Mars. The book and movie are both great and if you can, I would look at reading the book and then watching the movie. Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. Powered by. Then enters one of the best directors in modern film, Richard Linklater. Thanks for the post. I haven’t seen the film or read the book – though I’ve heard of the film. Dick may be one of the earliest writers to combine the science fiction genre with noir style. Happened twice today. If I were going to be stuck on an island somewhere out in the middle of the ocean and said island had an electrical outlet, well a couple, I'd have a nice easy chair and one of those giant awnings that retract (I'm sure the stars would be pretty amazing out there) with a big t.v., er, LCD or whatever they are called these days, a DVD player, Bladerunner, a handful of other top pick flicks, and a stack of dog-eared P.K. Our lead is played by Keanu Reeves, playing the undercover cop that maybe to undercover for his own good. I watched this movie back when it came out, recently read the book and then re-watched the movie to compare the two. Feel free to check out some of my older posts on Noir Classics. Or excursion. I’ve subscribed to your blog, thanks for subscribing to mine. This is an interesting take on the underground drug world of the 1970’s, and a neo-noir classic. That's my quarter and a nickle worth of opinion. He is very similar to Douglas Quaid, of Total Recall , in that respect. So I ramble. Part 2But I digress. These aren’t in the film but aren’t vitally important and have no real bearing on the story. Though Linklater doesn’t typically do much noir type films, he has made some of the best independent films of the last 25 years. It makes reading. If you are not familiar with Dick as an author you are familiar with his work. I've added you to the feed reader so I can catch your next pithy pith.cheers->Roryabove the line:practical movie reviews. I can see why most thought this book would not be film-able. You can take pictures of it, video even, maybe figure out a way to make one of those scratch and sniff patch thingies, but the end result is nothing is as good as the real dealio.