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[BlueTsunami]

I love Philip K. Dick and I feel that when I've ended most of his stories I'm not left as muddled as I was when I watched "A Scanner Darkly". I don't really think it was the ending that confused me but everything else. I plan on picking up the book now... so it got me interested but shit.

I enjoyed the Rotoscope and everything though and I'm not bagging the movie at all. I'll probably watch it again after I read the book.

 

[jax (old)]

I don't know about the reading but visual "style" aside, it wasn't a good film at all.

 

[Falch]

No, the book is a great read.

Though I did enjoy the movie a lot too.

 

[BlueTsunami]

I should have probably read the book first. I guess my feeling is that the movie was disjointed in some way, left me confused.

 

[White Man]

It's one of those movies that feels more like scenes from the book rather than a complete movie by itself. I still love it. Woody and RDJ and Rory Cochrane are brilliant in. Keanu isn't terrible, but even though I can't name an alternate, he definitely didn't do so hot at embodying the conflict at the heart of the story.

 

[Aaron]

It's probably one of Dick's more straight forward books, and also one of his best. The movie has problems near the end where it rushes over or skips important details that make it more difficult to understand than it should be.

 

[Cranehand2ndComing]

It's one of those movies that feels more like scenes from the book rather than a complete movie by itself.

This is spot on, and its also why the movie ends up being so confusing. Read the book; you won't be disappointed.

 

[Alucard]

I think the movie is an excellent companion piece to the book. The book was my first PKD novel, and I devoured it within a 24 hour period. (Can someone recommend a PKD novel of equal quality? I tried starting Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and got a little bored) I thought the best parts of the film were Arctor's monologues, so if you liked those, there are plenty more to enjoy in the book. It's an incredibly sad, tragic, and affecting piece of work about the destruction of innocence.

There is one part of the film/book that I'm still not clear on, and I was hoping someone might be able to clarify me on this point.

Spoiler

Did Arctor sleep with Donna or Connie? In the film, you get the sense it was Connie, until Arctor goes back to the lab and you clearly see Donna laying beside him. Unless he altered the video without remembering it, because of the affects of substance D?

I just watched the movie again last night. It was on Teletoon in Canada around midnight, and I think I actually liked it even more the second time. Robert Downey Jr. is absolutely phenomenal in it, and I love how much intelligence and articulation exists in the dialogue, despite the muddled subject matter. Parts of it are still a little muddled to me as well, but the overall impression left on me by the film and the book respectively is a deep appreciation for the mind of PKD, and regret for those he lost to addiction.

 

[clockradiospeakers]

Yeah, just read the book. It's one of my favorites of PKD. That said, I don't really remember the movie...

Then read The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch...!

 

[Phobophile]

This is spot on, and its also why the movie ends up being so confusing. Read the book; you won't be disappointed.

Well I can't blame them for trying to rush the movie. They could have tossed in an extra 20-30 minutes to fill it out without making it feel long but hand drawing each frame? That shit got expensive fast.

 

[VALIS]

A Scanner Darkly is definitely a page turner, especially compared to things like the VALIS trilogy of books where you can often get lost in the metaphysical pondering and have to re-read the last couple pages.

Can someone recommend a PKD novel of equal quality?

Confessions of a Crap Artist.

 

[blindrocket]

I love the movie, and its look.

 

[permutated]

I thought it was a thoroughly enjoyable film, but I understand that hate.

The ending was the best part IMO, and I think it requires for me to view it a second time to really get all of it.

 

[Tyrone Slothrop]

i read Valis when i was 18 and it completely changed the way i look at reality. then in college i read a slew of other PKD books, one of them being A Scanner Darkly. to be honest i thought the books plot was kind of turgid, but that could've just been because of my age or whatever. but i liked it's message, as a lot of my friends shared the same fate as bob arctor (vegetable)

when i heard linklater was going to do a rotoscoped adaption I nearly shat myself and imagined it'd be one of the greatest movies of all time. i can't really say it lived up to my expectations, though. it's a real gem of cinema, but somehow i feel it came up short. that said, i'd like to see linklater do this with another PKD book. preferably VALIS.

 

[HugBasket]

ending

Spoiler

doens't he just find out that the goverment has been making the drug?

i'll have to read the book, didn't think the movie was that bad

 

[Fix The Scientist]

The book is excellent, the best parts of the movie are all straight from the book.

 

[Deleted member 1235]

I don't know about the reading but visual "style" aside, it wasn't a good film at all.

that was one movie I couldn't sit through, it was just really really bad. I didn't even 'get it' by half way when I switched it off either.

 

[Killthee]

ending

Spoiler

doens't he just find out that the goverment has been making the drug?

i'll have to read the book, didn't think the movie was that bad

Spoiler

The rehab company was growing the blue flower from which Substance D was made from at the rehab farms where they kept the ones most fucked up by the drug. By the end of the movie Arctor's mind is too fucked up to understand anything going around him and is unable to comprehend the situation. Donna/Hank/Audrey planned the whole thing and purposely got Arctor addicted to D without his knowledge. Donna's plan was to subliminally give Arctor hints of what to do at the farm before his brain got fucked (the repeated mention of blue flowers), get him to do enough D to be sent to the farms, and hopefully get him to bring back some evidence that the farms are growing D (the blue flower he puts in his boot at the end of the movie to give to his friends on Thanksgiving).

 

[permutated]

Spoiler

The rehab company was growing the blue flower from which Substance D was made from at the rehab farms where they kept the ones most fucked up by the drug. By the end of the movie Arctor's mind is too fucked up to understand anything going around him and is unable to comprehend the situation. Donna/Hank/Audrey planned the whole thing and purposely got Arctor addicted to D without his knowledge. Donna's plan was to subliminally give Arctor hints of what to do at the farm before his brain got fucked (the repeated mention of blue flowers), get him to do enough D to be sent to the farms, and hopefully get him to bring back some evidence that the farms are growing D (the blue flower he puts in his boot at the end of the movie to give to his friends on Thanksgiving).

Fucking brilliant. Honestly.

Has to be one of my favorite endings ever, and you summarized it pretty perfectly.

 

[White Man]

Can someone recommend a PKD novel of equal quality?

The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. I would rank it amongst my favorite books. It's like a big ol' potluck of everything PKD. UBIK is up there, too.

 

[Cranehand2ndComing]

Not entirely off-topic:

I read Radio Free Albemuth, but I haven't read the VALIS trilogy. Is RFA basically a rewrite of VALIS, vice-versa, or are they entirely different?

 

[7Th]

It's one of those movies that feels more like scenes from the book rather than a complete movie by itself. I still love it.

I think the movie is an excellent companion piece to the book.

This.

Regardless, I thought the ending in the movie was pretty straightforward and understandable.