Movies - A Scanner Darkly

[maxmoe]

Has anyone read the book by Philip K. Dick? I have read it numerous times and it make me laugh/cry each time. Probably the best novel about drugs EVER! And the movie?

[maxmoe]

Well Confessions of an Opium-Eater by Thomas De Quincey is also pretty good. But I have the concentraion of gnat now and the prose is to difficult.

[Armageddon]

yes I know it very well, but I prefer three Stigmats of Paul Eldrich The way drugs link you to another worlds or make you godlike powerfull - it's a real fantasy ! D

[maxmoe]

Dude another P.K.Dick fan! Ya The Three Stigmata of Paulmer Eldrich is another awesome novel. What where the drug names, Chew-Z and Can-D?



I like how you take the drug and then never know when it wears off, your never sure. And basicly now your cursed like 'orginal sin' because you took Eldrich's drug a now you can never be sure your not seeing an illusion made up by Eldrich or the 'real' reality. It's a mind bender.

[brainwaxd]

a scanner darkly... nice.


here's a question about that, what drug on the streets today most resembles the terrible Substand D?

[Bajeda]

Has anyone seen this movie? I am probably going to go see it this weekend but was wondering what people thought of it.

Specifically, I'm wondering about the message of the film, and the stance it takes on the drug war and drug usage in general. I know at the end it lists all of Dick's friends that died or became brain damaged from drug use, and it shows the negative side of drugs more so than the positive, but from reviews I have read I still can't tell exactly what the movie conveys about them.

I'll post a review after I see it, but for now does anyone have anything to say about the film?

[Forthesevenlakes]

Havent seen the film yet, but based on philip k. dick's other works, it probably shows an overwhelmingly negative side to drugs. Dick had problems aside from his amphetamine use, but in particular he focuses on drug use in some of his works (my feeling after reading Valis was that he blamed some schizophrenic tendencies on drugs, which may not be too far off.) at the end of the book he states, “drug misuse is not a disease, it is a decision, like the decision to move out in front of a moving car.”

however dont let that dissuade you from seeing the movie. swim found that all of dick's books were incredibly good, and he wants to see the film as soon as he gets paid.

[bewilderment]

I haven't seen it yet, but am incredibly excited about seeing it once it comes to my city (it's not playing yet). I loved Linklater's movie Waking Life and this seems to be in a similar vein albeit with a plot. I know that Linklater has a lot of respect for Philip K. Dick and his work so he would be most likely to do one of his story's justice. I haven't read the book though. My wife is reading it at the moment however.

[sg43]

Iv'e been wanting to see this movie badly as well, unfourtunately I live in a small town and I dont think our local theater is going to have it, guess im gonna have to take a 30min drive, I hope its worth it

[elbow]

Go see this movie, it will not disappoint! I was totally worried they would turn it into some bs movie like "enemy of the state" and try to impose some nonexistent plot structure by excluding all the great dialog that made the book a true classic. Luckily, they stayed pretty faithful to the book and almost made the story more clear. Of course, some things are omitted for the sake of not haveing a 4-hour movie, but I think the film will become as revered as the book.

SWIM never goes to see movies in the theater because they are overpriced and SWIM likes to smoke weed while watching. So it is saying something that even SWIM wasn't disappointed with Scanner.
He went to an alternative theater downtown and at leat 25% of the people in there were tripping. At the end of the film some people were just curled up in their seats like "woah" and some loony toon caused an outburst, yelling something about the government being out to get us.
SWIM took some 2c-i and it went very well with the film, all the speeded freak dialog and the rotoscoping.
So if you can see this at a theater frequented by wierdos, then that is probably the best place to see this movie.

[goslamsomeTHC]

i would really reccomend the book. as soon as i saw a short teaser for this around the bginning of this year i meticulously researched it. found it is based on one of Phillip K. Dick's. and i had to read it. really great. i love the ending.

[Bajeda]

Ok I saw the movie a little bit ago, forgot I made this thread.

I have to say I really enjoyed it. The animation was quite trippy, though it took a bit of getting used to at first. The movie had a good deal of dark humour near the beginning and sporadic bits of humour throughout that made it entertaining to watch, and the acting was great. It was overall a very well done film.


I am debating whether to buy it when it comes out on dvd. I liked it quite a bit but I'm not sure how many times I would watch it the dark depressing themes of the film would negate the cool trippiness factor from the animation if swim were to watch it while under the influence of other substances.

See this film whenever you can (probably when the dvd comes out by this point!) if you haven't yet. Its quite a good watch and has inspired me to go and read the book.

[bewilderment]

Originally Posted by Bajeda

Ok I saw the movie a little bit ago, forgot I made this thread.

I have to say I really enjoyed it. The animation was quite trippy, though it took a bit of getting used to at first. The movie had a good deal of dark humour near the beginning and sporadic bits of humour throughout that made it entertaining to watch, and the acting was great. It was overall a very well done film.


I am debating whether to buy it when it comes out on dvd. I liked it quite a bit but I'm not sure how many times I would watch it the dark depressing themes of the film would negate the cool trippiness factor from the animation if swim were to watch it while under the influence of other substances.

See this film whenever you can (probably when the dvd comes out by this point!) if you haven't yet. Its quite a good watch and has inspired me to go and read the book.

Have you seen Waking Life? It's a movie by the same director which uses the same animation technique of rotoscoping, but deals with the big questions in philosophy as well as lucid dreaming. I haven't had a chance to see a Scanner Darkly yet (although I keep making plans to), but I'm willing to bet that Waking Life is a quite a bit "lighter". Waking Life is probably my favorite movie...or at least it's in the top 2.

[pappascowler]

saw it yesterday, it was pretty good but a bit predictable.

the weird 'cellshaded over live action ' gives it an orgional edge.

[DrMuffy]

Has anyone seen the movie "A scanner Darkly". it was in theatres like a month ago, but I just remembered how good it was and decided to post a post about it. Im sure the book is better, but the effects in the movie are pretty damn cool. There is definatly alot of for lack of a better word, "Smartness" hidden within it, ah complex would fit much better. If you have seen it, i suggest you do. And by the way for those who have no idea bout what im talking about, it is about a man in the future who is addicted to a drug call "Substance D", and one of the side effects of regular usage is multiple-personalities. So the main character, Keaono (i dont recall how to spell his first name, haha) Reeves, is a Substance D addict, a Substance D drug lord, and an undercover cop who is after the drug lord. Anyhow, just thought i would throw this out there for y'all

[Nature Boy]

SWIM read the book years ago and can't remember it very well. He might check out the movie if he sees it around.

[elbow]

You guys should read Ubik, another Philip K. Dick book.
I'm reading it now and it is so good!
It is about a group of people in the future who might be dead. No one can tell because once people die in the book they are kept articifially half-alive so their relatives and friends can continue to speak with them once a year and nobody knows how it feels to be in half-life, so when they are in it they can't really tell if they are dead or not.
I can't really describe it, but I'd say it is the best PKD book I've read yet.

[DrMuffy]

Yeah Philip Dick is a very good author, i am reading a scanner darkly now, and it is better than the movie, but that was very good too

[Demonslayer]

Hmm. Substance D is made from little blue flowers and sounds like it has some sort of disasosiative effect. Dosn't Salvlia Divinorum have little blue flowers?
SD, coincedence?

[zera]

Originally Posted by Demonslayer

Hmm. Substance D is made from little blue flowers and sounds like it has some sort of disasosiative effect. Dosn't Salvlia Divinorum have little blue flowers?
SD, coincedence?

Interesting theory... I've heard Substance D compared to everything from heroin to LSD over at the IMDB forums. I highly doubt that Substance D is salvia though as Dick wrote the book in the late 70s before salvia was popularized, and as far as my knowledge goes I've never heard of PKD ever even mentioning the stuff. Also it's pretty different stuff, Substance D (Death) is highly addictive (something like 20% of the population are addicts) and appears to last a quite long time because the characters go a long time without using, but are still under the effects. Also it doesn't really seem to produce any short term hallucinatory effects, it seems to be more like an opiate or marijuana that just makes the user's "hemispheres split" over extended use.

[allyourbase]

Id like some verification....were they growing the plant which contained substance D at the rehab farm??

[zera]

Originally Posted by allyourbase

Id like some verification....were they growing the plant which contained substance D at the rehab farm??

*SPOILERS*


Yes. The whole thing about the movie was that Winona Ryder and the other drug unit cops picked out Bob and put him on a mission to get him addicted to Substance D. He wasn't actually investigating anything, he was the dealer, and Winona was his supplier, both were cops. The point was just to get him to take a ridiculous amount of Substance D, and when he became addicted they could send him to New Path. They suspected New Path was growing it, but couldn't get any evidence because it was the only place where the government didn't have any of its scanners. The hope was that something would click in his head and he'd bring back evidence, which he does when he says "A present for my friends at Thanksgiving." and picks up the flower to save it.

Swim highly reccommends that you see it twice just to because you pick up so many things that you have no idea of the first time. Swim saw it sober first, then under the influence the second time. This is the best way in Swim's opinion because the first time you see it you want to get the facts and really understand it, but the second time you'll be amazed at all the ways everything interconnects.

Reputation Comments on this post:

she cleared it up for me...

[DrMuffy]

Oh wow, lol im a dumbass, i didnt even get any of that shit when i watched it. Well, on the other-hand SWIM was pretty stoned when he saw it, so im surprised he got even half of it. haha

[elbow]

MORE SPOILER TALK





Actually, when I read Scanner Darkly I didn't even pick up on the fact that Donna was in the other scramble suit, etc.! It only clicked for me when I saw the movie. I guess many PKD books are like a scramble suit: what is really going on plot-wise is not what is happening on the surface but underneath.
He's also pretty great at tricky twist endings.
The man was a total genius.

[Demonslayer]

Originally Posted by zera

Interesting theory... I've heard Substance D compared to everything from heroin to LSD over at the IMDB forums. I highly doubt that Substance D is salvia though as Dick wrote the book in the late 70s before salvia was popularized, and as far as my knowledge goes I've never heard of PKD ever even mentioning the stuff. Also it's pretty different stuff, Substance D (Death) is highly addictive (something like 20% of the population are addicts) and appears to last a quite long time because the characters go a long time without using, but are still under the effects. Also it doesn't really seem to produce any short term hallucinatory effects, it seems to be more like an opiate or marijuana that just makes the user's "hemispheres split" over extended use.

If salvia had been highly addictive it would sure cause some serious long term psychological problems. I wouldn't like to spend my days (addicted) shifting between salvia reality and consensus reality. You'd probably be in very great doubt as to what was real, who you are and where you were.