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Title:
A Scanner Darkly: Widescreen
Region:
One
Genre:
Sociological Science Fiction
Stars:
Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey Jr., Woody Harrelson, Winona Ryder, and Rory
Cochrane
Writer:
Richard Linklater
Based
On The Novel By: Philip K. Dick
Director:
Richard Linklater
Feature
length: 100 minutes
Extras:
Commentary By Keanu Reeves, Writer/Director Richard Linklater, Producer Tommy
Pallotta, Author Jonathan Lethem, and Philip K. Dick’s Daughter Isa Dick
Hackett, One Summer In Austin: The Story Of Filming A Scanner Darkly, The Weight
Of The Line: Animation Tales, Theatrical Trailer
Languages:
English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Subtitles:
English Closed Captions and English, French, and Spanish Language Subtitles
Packaging:
Amaray Keep Case
Chapter
Stops: 26
Sound:
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Year
of Theatrical Release: 2006/DVD Release: 2006
Theatrical
Distributor: Warner Independent Pictures
Home
Video Distributor: Warner Home Video
MPAA
Rating: R
Reviewer:
Mark A. Rivera
In
2001 Writer and Director Richard Linklater released a stream of consciousness
type animated experiment in rotoscoping entitled Waking Life, which
followed through both third person and first person point of views a dreamer
trying find out how to wake up or discern the difference between the dream and
the real world. The film was in many ways more of an artistic exploration than
it was a conventional story, but it contained a hint of things to come with
Linklater appearing near the end of the film to discuss Gnosticism and Author
Philip K. Dick with the dreamer. Five years later we have on DVD the big screen
adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s A Scanner Darkly with Richard Linklater
serving as both screenwriter and director and George Clooney and Steven
Soderbergh acting as executive producers plus a cast that includes Keanu
Reeves, Robert Downey Jr., Woody Harrelson, Winona Ryder, and Rory Cochrane and
the same rotoscoping technique used in Waking Life, only now it is more
refined and is only trippy when the story calls for it. The animation over the
live action serves the film well in capturing a graphic novel like feel for the
story and it finds interesting ways to bring Dick’s words to life on screen.
---
Spoiler Warning—Synopsis—Spoiler Warning--
Set
seven years in the future from a wisely unsaid predetermined time that helps to
give the film a timeless quality, a drug referred to as substance D or
“dropping death” has hooked twenty percent of the American populace and use
of the super-narcotic is growing so far beyond the control of law enforcement
that now two out of every ten or so people are spies directly working for or
indirectly working for law enforcement as informers. The drug is instantly
addictive. There are only two types of people: those addicted to substance D and
those who have never tried it. The effects of long-term usage lead to brain
damage and death. The organization New Path, which specializes in detoxing
substance D abusers, is under suspicion of being the culprit behind the
substance D epidemic. Of course New Path also appears to be the only
organization equipped to handle substance D abusers and has grown in itself to
become a powerful private industrial arm of American government. Thus proving
the connection between the spread of substance D and the company that is
supposed to rehabilitate addicts is both dangerous and next to impossible. Since
the detoxification of addicts takes a very long time, no one has ever really
seen a rehabilitated substance D abuser back on the streets. If the drug
doesn’t impair their brain functions or cause pancreatic damage and so forth
that results in the permanent hospitalization and or death of the abuser behind
the closed doors of New Path, the addicts are shipped off to remote locations
far away from their environment as a part of the rehabilitation process. Since
New Path is a private organization and also has legally binding confidentiality
agreements with regard to patient care, staff couldn’t reveal the status of a
patient or “consumer” to the public even if they really knew for certain
where that individual was and at what point in the long detoxification process
he or she is in. Thus the best way to get inside New Path is to become a
substance D user and get committed into what essentially could be seen as a
one-way ticket or suicide mission to find out the truth, let alone reveal it to
anyone who might be able to do something about it.
So
since the probe to determine if the big catfish is polluting the tank it is
supposed to clean is perilous at best, the government and law enforcement
focuses on the endless surveillance and violation of what appear to be suspended
constitutional rights on an increasingly apathetic society that is ripe to try
substance D. Using scrambler suits, a type of camouflaging device that hides the
law enforcement officer’s true identity while he or she is on the job, suspect
groups are infiltrated, recorded, and basically manipulated to serve whatever
the agenda of law enforcement is, which in this case appears to be on the
surface, apprehending rings a substance D users and dealers not so much to get
at the source of where the dealers are getting their drugs though it certainly
would be appreciated, but rather to make it seem as if progress on the war on
drugs is occurring with the endless incarcerations of ordinary citizens who fall
victim to substance D abuse to escape the progressively more authoritarian
government administrations that are slowly but surely turning America into a
virtual third world country. Keanu Reeves plays an undercover narcotics officer
who on the job is hidden beneath his scrambler suit gathering evidence against a
suspected dealer in the LA suburbs that just happens to be him. In other words
he is spying on himself and as both a substance D user and dealer on the
outside. He is quite possibly the ultimate inside man being prepared for the
undercover operation of his life regardless if he realizes it or not since the
brain damage that has already occurred is causing him to lose touch with who he
is inside and outside the scrambler suit.
---End
Of Possible Spoilers---
The
casting for A Scanner Darkly is excellent with everyone perfectly suited
for his or her roles and providing memorable character moments. The standouts
are Robert Downey Jr., who appears to have been born to play the character he
does in this film and constantly improvises to make each scene he’s in
excellent. Rory Cochrane is also fantastic as the ill-fated Freck, whose ticks
and hapless hallucinations torment his daily life straight through to his final
destination and beyond. Winona Ryder has not looked so beautiful on screen as
she does in this film. Rotoscoping seems to agree with her, but she is equally
easy on the eyes when one sees the behind the scenes live action shooting in the
special features section of this DVD. Keanu Reeves just slips into his role as
the protagonist informing ultimately on himself and I have to say that for this
film, the animation technique never gets over-the-top or freakish. The melding
of live action and art has truly become much more streamlined and lifelike in
the five years since Walking Life and I honestly feel that for this story
in particular, Linklater’s choice to present the film in this format was best.
Somehow a straight live action version just wouldn’t serve the subtext quite
like the animation melding over live action does. Make no mistake, A Scanner
Darkly is a film that becomes increasingly dark and loses much of it’s
comedic elements as the film heads to the inevitable conclusion with only the
slightest flicker of hope.
In
the feature length audio commentary with Keanu
Reeves, Writer/Director Richard Linklater, Producer Tommy Pallotta, Author
Jonathan Lethem, and Philip K. Dick’s Daughter Isa Dick Hackett, Linklater
discusses about how the film is not really a science fiction story in the
traditional sense and he is correct, but I personally see stories like A
Scanner Darkly, Brazil, and The Handmaid’s Tale to name a
few to be what I call sociological science fiction, which means that the story
is character driven rather than high concept, the science fiction part is
usually a catalyst that alters human behavior whether it is an addicting super
narcotic, a bureaucracy so far gone that it dehumanizes the citizens it serves
and punishes them indiscriminately regardless if they are guilty or not, or a
totalitarian America where separation of Church and State no longer exists and
women still capable of having children are commodity for the famous, wealthy,
and powerful as are any young children that can be reprogrammed at a young age
to forget their parents. Substance D is not as important as how the perceived
threat of it has lead to the world which it personally effects and infects the
characters in various ways. In my synopsis I use the word “consumer” to
describe a substance D addict despite the fact the word is never used in the
film to describe one. I use the word “consumer” because I know from personal
experience working for non-profit state or grant funded organizations that
people with physical or mental and emotional disabilities are often called
“consumers” as a politically correct alternative to the word patient. Thus a
person suffering from schizophrenia or manic depression that is being treated at
a clinic is referred to as a consumer of mental health services as if they
walked into a store and decided to shop for some Zoloft to help them with their
anxiety and depression or went out to acquire a mental illness or disability the
way people go shopping for clothes or wait on line for fast food.
The addicts in A Scanner Darkly are treated ultimately as
consumers who are sold New Path services as if they ever thought or wanted to
become addicts in the first place.
The
audio commentary is mostly introspective in nature rather than screen specific.
It is supported by two documentaries that cover the making of the film (26:23)
and the animation technique (20:44). They are both presented in a (1.33:1)
aspect ratio and feature vintage footage with Philip K. Dick, including Dick
reading an excerpt from his novel A Scanner Darkly. The theatrical
trailer (1:58) is presented in a matted widescreen aspect ratio enhanced for 16
by 9 televisions as is the feature presentation itself. The picture and sound
quality are terrific. No blemishes or anomalies to note. The film is presented
with English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound with English Closed Captions for
the Deaf and Hearing Impaired as well as English, French, and Spanish Language
Subtitles encoded as options. The menus are standard interactive still frames
that are easy to navigate. Fans of
Philip K. Dick will definitely want to check this film out on DVD when it debuts
at retailers on and offline on Tuesday, December 19, 2006 courtesy of Warner
Home Video.
©
Copyright 2006 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
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