I so loathed the film adaptation of "Bladerunner" that I didn't watch "A Scanner Darkly" until today

Stutter out a few words. That’s probably all I’ll do for a long while is stutter a few words here and there.

Writing (off-blog, y’know) is, for the time being, like there’s this field filled with little shards of broken glass, some surface, some muffled by the earth, and my chore is cataloging each tiny piece and figuring out where it might go. None of it is sharp glass and it’s all well worn so figuring out where it goes is problematic.

I’m so stuck in the field though (which I can see very clearly in my head, its short brown/green variegated grass, its earth, the few trees on surrounding hills) that coming over here and writing is difficult. But I did want to say something about “A Scanner Darkly”, which Marty rented yesterday from Blockbuster.

We both, lovers of P. K. Dick novels, had hated what Hollywood did with “Bladerunner” and weren’t eager to see what would be done with A Scanner Darkly. I expected the rotoscope animation to be no more than a gimmick.

And Keanu Reeves? I’ve had no use for him. I hated the Matrix films. C’mon. Fashion kills all. What else is there to say?

The opening moments of “A Scanner Darkly” I had my doubts. So did Marty. But the film was telling me already to be patient, to let it build. And I sensed this could be it. This could be on its way to being a great film.

A couple of minutes in and I was more than receptive. Whether it stayed true to Philip K. Dick, I wouldn’t know until the end.

Wow. Build it did.

People will think I’m insane but that build (gotta have the build, can’t go into it cold) culminating in the long scene where Arctor makes his way home from work, Keanu narrating as Arctor approaches the derelict remains of his suburban tract house, observing lost possibles, the distance between What Is and the dream, entering, continuing to narrate as he goes to lie down on his sofa…well, as I said, I know people will think I’m crazy but I think that scene makes up some of the most honest moments that Hollywood has ever managed to put on film. Partly because it’s P. K. Dick at his finest, and the script stays pretty true to him (I’ll have to pull out the book), partly because Linklater’s use of rotoscoping works in that lucid dreaming way he apparently intended it to work (there is just enough room between the film stock and the vectoring for our imaginations to flow in, take hold and make the experiences more ours than those of just the actors), and partly because Keanu Reeves’ acting and narration is just so damn good. He pegs Arctor’s meditation and its shifts with a remarkable, heart-rending sensitivity.

I hadn’t even bothered to look at reviews but have since read that some give it at as not emotionally involving and going nowhere and I wondered just how desensitized these critics are. Or guarded.

The cast is great. Rory Cochrane as Freck (I’ve known that character), Robert Downey Jr. as Barris (“Galapagos!” I’ve known that character too), Woody Harrelson as Luckman (known that character as well) and Winona Ryder as Donna (I’m not sure I’ve known that character but can imagine her, to a point).

An important scene has Donna spurning Bob Arctor’s advances, again one of the better not-going-to-make-it-to-being-a-love-scene moments on film, not overwrought, the need to hold, to give affection and receive it beautifully depicted, having less to do with sexual desire than the despair of isolation. Because Arctor is a man who is fragmenting, being torn apart, crucified, but is emotionally present and aware of that reduction. Bewildered and in awe of it, he suffers it as he must, every exit shutting down, only one path remaining.

The reviewer James Berardinelli writes, “What’s new about a culture benumbed by drugs…” But that’s not the point of the film. It’s not what Arctor’s crucifixion is about. The drug addiction is a vehicle for examining identity, what is “I” and what is “other”. As an old Rolling Stone interview points out,

Philip K. Dick has described his novels as books that ‘try to pierce the veil of what is only apparently real to find out what is really real.’

P. K. Dick managed to be both a humane and seeringly honest author. Linklater’s effort to honor that goes beyond what I imagined possible out of Hollywood.


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4 responses to “I so loathed the film adaptation of "Bladerunner" that I didn't watch "A Scanner Darkly" until today”

  1. nina Avatar
    nina

    This is really interesting to read what you wrote here. I don’t think I ever read any P.K. Dick, though I did, at one time, read a lot of other science/speculative fiction. I found it interesting to read that you loathed Bladerunner, the movie. Since I only know it as the movie, I don’t know in what ways it falls short of the book. I will confess that I did really love the movie. But now you’ve made me curious to read the book (I think the book it was based on is something like Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?) and to see A Scanner Darkly.

  2. Idyllopus Avatar

    Yes, “Bladerunner” is based on “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?”

    It’s been about eight years since I’ve read some of these books and I need to pull them out again. Been about five years since I’ve reread his Valis trilogy and “The Shifting Realities of P. K. Dick” which is a collection of essays, interviews etc.

    You ought to try out a couple of his novels. “Radio Free Albemuth”, his last book, I think is essential reading for post 9/11 America. Read that again about two or three years ago. And could read it again! He’s that kind of writer.

  3. nina Avatar
    nina

    Steve and I just finished watching A Scanner Darkly. I felt like crying at the end. It is rather fascinating, hovering as it does between dream and reality. I feel as if I’ve known several of those characters, too. It evoked some of the feeling of being around environments like that from many years ago. I found it depressing then, and in looking back on it now. Thanks for writing about it. And I’ll check out the other movie you mentioned , the one by Antonioni.

  4. Idyllopus Avatar

    Nina, having watched the movie, I think you’d really like the book. It’s not that intensive a read. But I know your time is locked up and the movie more than adequately communicates the book’s intention and atmosphere.

    While you’ve got it, you might want to check out the commentary track. It has a daughter of PKD’s and she was quite pleased with the film.

    Dick knew how to write his characters. Having reread the book, I had some thoughts on the manner of dialogue but I doubt I’ll do a post on it.

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