2007-02-25 02:03:14.103091+00 by ebradway 5 comments
I watched the recent movie rendition of Phillip K. Dick's A Scanner Darkly. I found the graphic effects to be a little annoying but I was pleasantly surprised by the adaptation. It was much clearer than the original novel - which was more in Robert Arctor's head - which was more than a little screwed up.
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#Comment Re: made: 2007-02-25 02:14:13.184754+00 by: meuon
I watched it a couple of nights ago, while I enjoyed it, it was like often watching Cheech and Chong, without the comic sarcasm, just the drugged out dialogue and actions. - Which, makes it a fair adaptation of the original.
#Comment Re: made: 2007-02-25 02:44:16.403825+00 by: ebradway
In the "making of" extras, they mentioned that the director tried to keep a sense of humor through the movie. They also worked with Dick's daughters to try to come up with something that Dick might have approved.
Dick's short stories provide the "meat" in the stories behind many edgy, big sci-fi flicks: Total Recall, Blade Runner and Minority Report. The underlying themes of humanity, identity, surveillance are all Dick's.
#Comment Re: made: 2007-02-25 05:08:52.836239+00 by: meuon
A key point: short stories often make pretty good movies. It's really hard to fit a decent book into 90-120 minutes. Too bad a lot of Phillip K. Dick's fame came late. I've got most of his short stories on "audio book" (paid for legally on CD, really). Great stories for road trips. Michael Chrighton's "Prey" recently impressed me, but like many books nowadays, it seems "made for TV".
True visionaries with new and different ideas and stories, or at least, the notable compelling telling of ones floating around for a while, are a rare breed, and Mr. Dick was a favorite.
#Comment Re: made: 2007-02-25 07:24:28.308432+00 by: spl
What a coincidence! I just watched it Friday night for the first time. I haven't read the original, but if it's less clear, I'm flabbergasted! I thought the main plot played out well, but I couldn't keep track of the dialog. Perhaps my eyes were too distracted by the animation...
#Comment Re: made: 2007-02-25 21:28:38.290266+00 by: ebradway
You might not like the book at all if you had trouble keeping up with the movie. Dick is kind of like the James Joyce of science fiction.