Starring: Rory Cochrane, Robert Downey Jr., Mitch Baker, Keanu Reeves, Sean Allen (II) Directed By: Richard Linklater Average Rating: Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1 Audience Rating: R (Restricted) Binding: DVD Format: AC-3, Animated, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC Label: Warner Home Video Number of Items: 1 Region Code: 1 Release Date: December 19, 2006 Running Time: 100 minutes Theatrical Release Date: July 28, 2006
Product Description: Set in a not-too-distant future where America has lost its "war" on drugs Fred an undercover cop is one of many people hooked on the popular drug Substance D which causes its users to develop split personalities. Fred is obsessed with taking down Bob a notorious drug dealer but due to his Substance D addiction he does not know that he is also Bob. Based on a classic novel by Philip K. Dick. Starring Keanu Reeves ("Constantine" "The Matrix" trilogy) Academy Award-nominee and Golden Globe-winner Winona Ryder ("Girl Interupted" "Mr. Deeds") Academy Award and Emmy-nominee and Golden Globe-winner Robert Downey Jr. ("Good Night And Good Luck" "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang") and Academy Award and Golden Globe-nominee and Emmy-winner Woody Harrelson ("North Country" "The People vs. Larry Flynt"). Directed by Academy Award-nominee Richard Linklater ("Before Sunset" "Dazed and Confused"). Filmed in live-action and then animated using the same critically acclaimed process that Linklater used in his previous film "Waking Life."Running Time: 100 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: SCI-FI/FANTASY UPC: 012569594173 Manufacturer No: 59417
Amazon.com: How well you respond to Richard Linklater's A Scanner Darkly depends on how much you know about the life and work of celebrated science fiction writer Philip K. Dick. While it qualifies as a faithful adaptation of Dick's semiautobiographical 1977 novel about the perils of drug abuse, Big Brother-like surveillance and rampant paranoia in a very near future ("seven years from now"), this is still very much a Linklater film, and those two qualities don't always connect effectively. The creepy potency of Dick's premise remains: The drug war's been lost, citizens are kept under rigid surveillance by holographic scanning recorders, and a schizoid addict named Bob Arctor (Keanu Reeves) is facing an identity crisis he's not even aware of: Due to his voluminous intake of the highly addictive psychotropic drug Substance D, Arctor's brain has been split in two, each hemisphere functioning separately. So he doesn't know that he's also Agent Fred, an undercover agent assigned to infiltrate Arctor's circle of friends (played by Woody Harrelson, Winona Ryder, Rory Cochrane, and Robert Downey, Jr.) to track down the secret source of Substance D. As he wears a "scramble suit" that constantly shifts identities and renders Agent Fred/Arctor into "the ultimate everyman," Dick's drug-addled antihero must come to grips with a society where, as the movie's tag-line makes clear, "everything is not going to be OK."
While it's virtually guaranteed to achieve some kind of cult status, A Scanner Darkly lacks the paranoid intensity of Dick's novel, and Linklater's established penchant for loose and loopy dialogue doesn't always work here, with an emphasis on drug-culture humor instead of the panicked anxiety that Dick's novel conveys. As for the use of "interpolated rotoscoping"--the technique used to apply shifting, highly stylized animation over conventional live-action footage--it's purely a matter of personal preference. The film's look is appropriate to Dick's dark, cautionary story about the high price of addiction, but it also robs performances of nuance and turns the seriousness of Dick's story into... well, a cartoon. Opinions will differ, but A Scanner Darkly is definitely worth a look--or two, if the mind-rattling plot doesn't sink in the first time around. --Jeff Shannon
Looks even better in Blu-ray I have this on normal DVD format so I thought I get it in Blu-ray since I just bought a new player. I think this is a great DVD to have in your Blu-ray collection. The whole comic look to the movie is what I really enjoyed. It just looked awesome seeing all the colors in full detail.
Great movie! This was a great movie. It had a specific message, and it really made me think and consider some of the things that go on in our world. I would definitely recommend it.
RICHARD LINKLATER, OPUS 13 ***** 2006. Based on Philip K. Dick's A Scanner Darkly and written and directed by Richard Linklater. Los Angeles, California, near future. An undercover cop starts to take the substance D drug, a new dangerous substance. He suffers soon from hallucinations that prevent him to concentrate on his job. If I was more than reluctant and dubious after having seen Robert Zemeckis's Beowulf (Unrated Director's Cut), I don't have with A SCANNER DARKLY the slightest reservation. Richard Linklater's decision to use the rotoscoping animation device in order to recreate the paranoid world of Philip K. Dick was a very smart idea. Without a doubt, the film is a masterpiece.
Interesting movie This movie really makes you ponder. It's based off an old book that in my opinion was way ahead of it's time. It makes some interesting points about the society that we live in. I recommend checking out the bonus features and whatnot. The animation was trippy too. Really cool looking. Possibly not recommended for those who get sick playing video games. :P
A Humor Darkly ...Capsule Review...
I liked this film. Linklater manages to achieve a similar effect found in Goodfellas--people who literally amuse themselves to death. I can relate to the theme of friends divided and conquered. That said, if you don't enjoy drug humor or dark satire, steer clear.
...Main Review...
I watch a lot of movies and I read a lot of books, but few affect me. Most stories are either pure thrills, full of bull puckey, or both. While Richard Linklater's latest film, A Scanner Darkly shovels plenty of both, it also offers more heart and tells more truth than most manage.
Mainly because it adapts from Philip K. Dick, one of those writers who deserves to be much more well known than he actually is. A Scanner Darkly is the first novel I've read in years that has set me on fire. Published the year I was born, this tale of drug punishment flows with one humorous vignette after another, all atop a treacherous undertow.
...A Synopsis Darkly...
The movie plays faithfully to the book. America is being destroyed by Substance D, a drug turning people into docile zombies. A rehab-industrial complex handles the mindless citizens, who become janitors and farm laborers.
Especially around Southern California, and a ring of friends who deal in "slow death". Bob Arctor is a noob Dr. Feelgood who dates veteran Donna Hawthorn. Together they hang with Bob's housemates: the surfer-turned-addict Ernie Luckman, the mechanic-turned-paranoid Charles Freck, and fried intellectual Jim Barris.
Bob rooms these crazy kids because he is also undercover agent Fred. Unfortunately, he has become closer to the dealers than to his fellow cops. Close enough to become as sincere an addict as a friend... As Fred climbs the chain, his grip on his own sanity begins to slip. And as Bob becomes close to his partners-in-crime, it becomes clear that one is out to burn him. Clear to all but Fred-Bob, whose drug-addled view of himself becomes very dark indeed.
...Don't Get High on Your Own Supply...
In both book and film, Fred claims he needed the cover to blend in; an excuse so weak the audience jumps on him before Hank does. His real motivation remains unspoken: Fred is loyal to the law, but Bob is loyal to his people.
Unfortunately, the film doesn't convey the love for these people that the novel implies. Most of Dick's soliloquies are reduced to voice-over monologues. More troubling, the characters antagonize each other more, as the film pumps up existing confrontations and introduces new fights. They sweat suspicion. Overall, the book characters are much more sympathetic, which reflects Dick's theme of kids punished overmuch for what they did. The novel prefers to imply tension through plot and scene development.
Both approaches work, however, because the characters become so stir-fried that the most obvious signs of betrayal get lost in D-induced head trips.
As real conspiracies become more murderous, one character calmly reveals that he rigged a hidden microphone, to be activated if the front door opened. To be sure intruders don't sneak in elsewhere, he left the front door unlocked, with a note for good measure. This scene is hilarious. But even as the audience belly-laughs, they might feel a knot of tension. Because Fred arranged for the police to plant cameras in their absence.
Plans within plans, as the late Frank Herbert wrote. Our protagonists are more like those in a Douglas Adams novel, stumbling around a dark basement for a clue locked in the bottom of a file cabinet in a disused bathroom marked "Beware of the Leopard". As much as these scenes play for laughs, Linklater knew to keep the undercurrent of desperation.
...Window Pain...
So Link manages a bit of character study. Like Bob, the audience gets to know these folks better than the "straight" people, who all look the same behind sunglasses, makeup, riot helmets, or scramble suits. The movie is structured so the audience can be sucked into the head-trips of the characters; I recommend doing this because otherwise some of the plot twists will seem too predictable.
Personally, I found the movie easy to understand. People made the mistake of dismissing dialogue in Pulp Fiction as pointless, and so they missed all clues and a lot of spice. ASD also requires an attentive ear.
It already attracts the eye. The film uses animation traced over live footage to generate a graphic novel texture. Actually, I didn't notice the overlay most of the time. It's rendered as life-like as possible while still being animation. However, the technique enables the film to reproduce effectively the hardware and hallucinations of the novel. Scramble suits and holo scanners look purty cool. Since America does not have a strong adult animation industry, at least in Hollywood, I'm pleased to see this attempt.
On a final note, plenty of minor differences and surprises exist between the book and the movie. Linklater combines several characters, such as Jerry Fabin and Charles Freck. He updated most references to the 1960's and `70's, especially the slang. I found it amusing when, amid all of the futuristic gadgetry, a character pulls out a modern digital player. Dick still had people using eight-tracks in his future, you see.
I don't think it's the great American Movie, but A Scanner Darkly inspired me to read the novel. I think many viewers can relate to the theme of friends who fall apart, and take the strength of the group with them.
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