We saw the movie of Phil Dick’s A Scanner Darkly as soon as we got back to CA. I'd really looked forward to it, I was jumping out of my skin to see it. I think of Scanner as the best-ever stoner humor novel — well, on this front, William J. Craddock's Be Not Content is at the same level. And Scanner is more than that, too, in fact for me, it was a big inspiration in forming my ideas about how to write SF in a fresh way, it set me to thinking about a “transreal” way to fuse autobiographical beatnik-like literature and science fiction. One edition of Scanner had a blurb on it describing the book as “transcendental biography,” which was probably the reason I coined the word transreal. I first read the book at Seacon in Brighton, like 1979, and I was laughing so hard I almost forgot my suitcase on the train platform.
But as a movie, I dunno, it didn't work as well as I'd expected. Maybe I was expecting too much. Robert Downey Jr. is wonderful, and most of the dialogue is lifted straight out of the book (which I pretty much know by heart, having read it three or four times), which is nice. Although it’s really a funny novel when you read it, on screen it didn't come off as comical as I remember it seeming. They didn't punch the lines as hard as they could have, I think. And when you read, you can reread and muse and savor the wit.
I'm of two minds about the animation. It's slick and pretty, but you get more information out of a real face than an abstraction of a face; like the close-ups of Keanu were somewhat blank and I bet in photo he'd look more tortured and deeper, not that Keanu does look that deep. Certainly some Downey twinkles were lost. And the scramble-suit gimmick started hurting my eyes. Way too much of that, which was really quite minor in the book. Sometimes the animation was just right though, making the scene like a Robert Bechtle painting. The freeway scene looked just right, so California.
Really it is such a sad story, as well as being funny. Reading it I always “hear” mournful oboes in the background.
As discussed in his bio, Phil was living alone in a trashed little packing-box of house with big jars of little dexedrine pills letting street kids crash at his place during the time that the novel is transreally about. He did go into treatment at one point, although, as the novel makes clear, he didn't like it there 🙂
Even with the best talent and intentions, it's not really possible to have an intimate book wearing the necessarily monumental carapace of a movie.
But I want to go see it again soon. It'll be good on DVD too, because then you can turn on the subtitles. Watching it, I was anxious that the audience wasn't fully picking up all the great little turns of phrase. I was laughing louder than anyone near me at Downey's lines, kind of wanting to encourage people to love Scanner enough. When the lights came up the kid next to me gave me a look. “Want to score some D?” I asked him.
In another vein, we also saw Pirates of the Caribbean last night, a good hot summer movie. A real Hollywood production, no expense spared. It was fun, and thank you, Johnny Depp, for keeping the film lively. His love scenes with Keira Knightly are very hot and transgender. The part when the prisoners are climbing a cliff in a ball-cage made of bones is great, especially when the some guys gleefully try and push ahead of the others.
There’s great squid and tentacle stuff in there too. Davy Jones has a face like Cthulhu’s, although with no beak or mandibles. The giant squid a.k.a. kraken is perfect Hollywood glee. I loved it so much when the giant squid attacked Cptn. Nemo’s sub years ago — but this tentacle attack is way better. Near the start there’s a perfect cartoon image of a tentacle rising a hundred yards into the sky with a struggling sailor in the grip of the tip. Heavenly. New fashion look: put a quarter teaspoon of black squid ink into your mouth to Goth up your lips and teeth when entertaining at home! Not many images from either film are online as yet…
