Misplaced Pages

A Scanner Darkly (film): Difference between revisions

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
Browse history interactively← Previous editNext edit →Content deleted Content addedVisualWikitext
Revision as of 19:14, 12 July 2012 editAoidh (talk | contribs)Autopatrolled, Checkusers, Oversighters, Administrators58,141 edits Unless you establish a WP:CONSENSUS that WP:FILMPLOT doesn't apply, then it will be reverted, so stop reinserting it and discuss and get a consensus.← Previous edit Revision as of 19:15, 12 July 2012 edit undoMoviebob (talk | contribs)8 edits Undid revision 501929102 by SudoGhost (talk) some ppl just can't leave things aloneNext edit →
Line 32: Line 32:


==Plot== ==Plot==
In the near future, America has lost the ] with 20% of the population considered addicts. Substance D is currently sweeping the nation due to its powerful psychoactive effects, causing intoxication and bizarre hallucinations. The government attempts to fight the spread using high-tech surveillance and a network of informants and undercover agents. To protect agent identities, they use code names and wear specialized "scramble suits" that completely alter their visual identity while discussing their cases with their fellow agents. Seven years from now America has lost the ], with 20% of the population being addicts. The highly addictive 'Substance D', a powerful psychoactive drug causing a dreamy state of intoxication and bizarre hallucinations, has swept across the country; chronic users may develop a split personality, cognitive problems, and severe paranoia. In response, the government develops an invasive, high-tech surveillance system and puts in place a network of informants and undercover agents.


The film opens with Charles Freck awakening in his cramped apartment to hallucinations of insects crawling all over him and his sleeping dog. Freck takes a shower, hoping to wash the insects away, but he is unsuccessful and contacts James Barris for help. Barris agrees to meet Freck in a cafe, where they both daydream and hallucinate. Both of them are drug addicts and both are addicted to 'Substance D'. Barris muses - "You're either on it...or you haven't tried it".
Bob Arctor is one such agent, assigned to try to track down the supplier of Substance D. Arctor plays out his role living with addicts Ernie Luckman and James Barris in a suburban Anaheim home, but becomes addicted to Substance D in the process. He meets a woman named Donna, a ] addict and supplier of Substance D to the home; Arctor plans to use Donna's connections to meet her supplier, but instead starts to fall in love with her. However, Donna refuses his advances; Luckman and Barris note they have also previously failed to woo Donna.


Bob Arctor is an undercover Police detective assigned to immerse himself in the drugs underworld and infiltrate the supply chain. Arctor and his housemates, Ernie Luckman and James Barris, live in a suburban house in a ] in a run-down part of ]. They pass their days by taking drugs and having long, paranoia-inspired conversations. At the Police station Arctor works as a detective codenamed Fred, and he hides his identity from his fellow Police officers by wearing a high-tech scramble suit that constantly changes every aspect of the wearer's appearance. Arctor's senior officer Hank, and all of the other undercover officers at the station, also wear scramble suits.
"Hank", Arctor's superior in the police, orders "Fred" (Arctor) to step up surveillance. "Hank" believes "Fred" is one of the members of the household but unsure which one, but tells "Fred" that he believes Arctor is the ringleader. Meanwhile, the members of the household become paranoid about police surveillance, dragging Arctor into their fears. Barris suspects Archor and Donna as part of a terrorist organization and reports this to "Fred" at the police station. Between the effects of Arctor's addiction on his brain, and conflicting messages from both the police and those he lives with, he struggles to determine his true identity: at one point he believes he has a wife and two daughters, while at another, believes him to be single.


Whilst posing as a drug user, Arctor becomes addicted to 'Substance D'. Arctor also befriends an attractive young woman named Donna Hawthorne, who is a ] addict; she is Arctor's supplier of 'Substance D' and part of the drugs scene. Arctor hopes to purchase large enough quantities of 'Substance D' from Donna so that she is forced to introduce him to her supplier, but Arctor develops romantic feelings for her. Donna rejects Arctor's sexual advances and Barris questions the true nature of their relationship. Barris implies to Freck that he too has made advances towards Donna only to be similarly rejected.
Barris tries to provide fake evidence to the police to accuse Arctor and Donna as terrorists, but this leads to his arrest. "Hank" informs "Fred" that he has used the process of elimination to determine that "Fred" is Arctor; the goal of Arctor's role in the household was to cause Barris, the suspected supplier of Substance D, to become overtly paranoid and reveal his true self. Arctor is incapable of distinguishing between himself as "Fred" and as Arctor, and "Hank" reprimands Arctor for becoming addicted while on duty. "Hank" contacts Donna to take Arctor to New Path, a corporate-run rehabilitation center for addicts. As Arctor is restrained, "Hank"'s identity is revealed to the viewer as Donna. At New Path, Arctor goes through dangerous withdrawal symptoms and psychological reconditioning treatments, and suffers from brain damage.


Hank orders Fred to step up surveillance on the group. Hank assumes that Fred is one of the members of the Arctor household, but does not know which one. Hank suggests that Fred concentrate his surveillance on the suspected ringleader, Arctor, thereby unknowingly ordering him to spy upon himself. Meanwhile, the household members are paranoid that the Police have bugged their home and are watching their every move. Their paranoia reaches extreme levels and Arctor becomes wrapped up in the concerns of his housemates, forgetting that he is an undercover Police officer. Barris secretly contacts the Police and tells them that he suspects that Donna and Arctor are part of a terrorist organization. Barris unknowingly conveys this information to Arctor at the police station, when Arctor is wearing his scramble suit in his role as Detective Fred.
Some time later, Donna speaks with another officer named Mike who has been working undercover at New Path as an orderly. They discuss the larger goal: to plant an unwitting agent within New Path to discover their true intent, believed to be the suppliers of Substance D; their treatment of Arctor was designed to make him addicted to the drug and a perfect candidate for New Path. However, both are now concerned that Arctor is too far gone to know what to do if he finds evidence. As the film ends, Arctor, while working in cornfields as part of New Path's farming prison, finds a blue flower, shown several times through the film to be the source of Substance D; he places the flower in his shoe, planning on giving it to friends when he returns to the clinic at Thanksgiving.

Due to Arctor's use of 'Substance D', he develops cognitive problems which stops the two hemispheres of his brain from communicating with each other, causing him to receive two different sets of information that are in conflict with one another. Throughout the story Arctor experiences flashbacks to his family life, wherein he has a wife and two daughters, and he reminisces about the times he spent with them. Arctor later learns that he does not, in fact, have a family.

After Barris supplies the Police with a fake recording which he alleges proves that Donna and Arctor belong to a terrorist organisation, Hank orders that Barris is held on charges of providing false information to the Police. After Barris's arrest Hank reveals to Fred that he has deduced, through the process of elimination, that Fred is really Arctor. Arctor is surprised to learn of his own true identity and he becomes extremely confused and upset. Hank informs Arctor that the whole point of the surveillance was to catch Barris, not Arctor; the Police suspected Barris of being involved in the 'Substance D' supply chain all along, and were setting Barris up by increasing his paranoia until he attempted to cover his tracks. As a result of his 'Substance D' addiction Arctor is no longer able to distinguish between the roles of his undercover character and his real job as a Police officer. Hank reprimands Arctor for becoming addicted to 'Substance D' and warns him that he will be disciplined.

Whilst a clearly distressed Arctor begins to break down, Hank phones Donna and asks her to take Arctor to New Path, a corporation that runs a series of rehabilitation clinics. After Arctor leaves the office, Hank enters the locker room and removes his scramble suit, at which point his true identity is revealed to be Donna. At New Path, Arctor experiences the severe symptoms of 'Substance D' withdrawal. Also at New Path is Charles Freck, who was admitted after a failed suicide bid. As part of the rehabilitation program, Arctor is renamed Bruce and put through psychological reconditioning treatments. Arctor suffers brain damage as a result of his withdrawal from 'Substance D'.

Sometime later Donna, now using her real name Audrey, has a conversation with another Police officer named Mike (briefly seen undercover as an orderly at New Path). It is revealed that New Path is responsible for the manufacture and distribution of 'Substance D'. Audrey and Mike are part of a Police operation to infiltrate New Path, and Arctor had been selected - without his knowledge or consent - to carry out the sting. It is further revealed that the Police had intended for Arctor to become addicted to 'Substance D'; his well-being was sacrificed so that he might enter a rehabilitation center unnoticed as a genuine addict in order to find proof of New Path's crimes. They debate whether or not there is still enough left of Arctor's mind for him to know what to do if he finds any evidence.

To continue his rehabilitation, New Path sends Arctor to work at an isolated New Path farming prison, where he spots rows of blue flowers hidden between rows of corn. These flowers, referenced throughout the film, are the source of 'Substance D'. As the film ends, Arctor hides one of the blue flowers in his boot, so that when he returns to the New Path clinic during Thanksgiving he can give it to his friends.


==End credits== ==End credits==

Revision as of 19:15, 12 July 2012

2006 American film
A Scanner Darkly
A woman and three men look out a window, obscured by the window blindsTheatrical release poster
Directed byRichard Linklater
Screenplay byRichard Linklater
Produced byTommy Pallotta
George Clooney
Steven Soderbergh
Anne Walker-McBay
Palmer West
Jonah Smith
Erwin Stoff
StarringKeanu Reeves
Robert Downey, Jr.
Woody Harrelson
Winona Ryder
Rory Cochrane
CinematographyShane F. Kelly
Edited bySandra Adair
Music byGraham Reynolds
Production
companies
Thousand Words
Section Eight Productions
Detour Filmproduction
3 Arts Entertainment
Distributed byWarner Independent Pictures
Release datesJuly 7, 2006 (Limited)
July 28, 2006
Running time100 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$8.7 million
Box office$7,659,918

A Scanner Darkly is a 2006 science fiction thriller directed by Richard Linklater based on the novel of the same name by Philip K. Dick. The film tells the story of identity and deception in a near-future dystopia constantly under intrusive high-technology police surveillance in the midst of a drug addiction epidemic. The movie was filmed digitally and then animated using interpolated rotoscope over the original footage, giving it its distinctive look.

The film was written and directed by Richard Linklater and stars Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder, Woody Harrelson, Robert Downey, Jr., and Rory Cochrane. Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney are among the executive producers. A Scanner Darkly had a limited release in July 2006, and then a wider release later that month. The film was screened at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival and the 2006 Seattle International Film Festival, and nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form in 2007.

Plot

Seven years from now America has lost the war on drugs, with 20% of the population being addicts. The highly addictive 'Substance D', a powerful psychoactive drug causing a dreamy state of intoxication and bizarre hallucinations, has swept across the country; chronic users may develop a split personality, cognitive problems, and severe paranoia. In response, the government develops an invasive, high-tech surveillance system and puts in place a network of informants and undercover agents.

The film opens with Charles Freck awakening in his cramped apartment to hallucinations of insects crawling all over him and his sleeping dog. Freck takes a shower, hoping to wash the insects away, but he is unsuccessful and contacts James Barris for help. Barris agrees to meet Freck in a cafe, where they both daydream and hallucinate. Both of them are drug addicts and both are addicted to 'Substance D'. Barris muses - "You're either on it...or you haven't tried it".

Bob Arctor is an undercover Police detective assigned to immerse himself in the drugs underworld and infiltrate the supply chain. Arctor and his housemates, Ernie Luckman and James Barris, live in a suburban house in a cul-de-sac in a run-down part of Anaheim, California. They pass their days by taking drugs and having long, paranoia-inspired conversations. At the Police station Arctor works as a detective codenamed Fred, and he hides his identity from his fellow Police officers by wearing a high-tech scramble suit that constantly changes every aspect of the wearer's appearance. Arctor's senior officer Hank, and all of the other undercover officers at the station, also wear scramble suits.

Whilst posing as a drug user, Arctor becomes addicted to 'Substance D'. Arctor also befriends an attractive young woman named Donna Hawthorne, who is a cocaine addict; she is Arctor's supplier of 'Substance D' and part of the drugs scene. Arctor hopes to purchase large enough quantities of 'Substance D' from Donna so that she is forced to introduce him to her supplier, but Arctor develops romantic feelings for her. Donna rejects Arctor's sexual advances and Barris questions the true nature of their relationship. Barris implies to Freck that he too has made advances towards Donna only to be similarly rejected.

Hank orders Fred to step up surveillance on the group. Hank assumes that Fred is one of the members of the Arctor household, but does not know which one. Hank suggests that Fred concentrate his surveillance on the suspected ringleader, Arctor, thereby unknowingly ordering him to spy upon himself. Meanwhile, the household members are paranoid that the Police have bugged their home and are watching their every move. Their paranoia reaches extreme levels and Arctor becomes wrapped up in the concerns of his housemates, forgetting that he is an undercover Police officer. Barris secretly contacts the Police and tells them that he suspects that Donna and Arctor are part of a terrorist organization. Barris unknowingly conveys this information to Arctor at the police station, when Arctor is wearing his scramble suit in his role as Detective Fred.

Due to Arctor's use of 'Substance D', he develops cognitive problems which stops the two hemispheres of his brain from communicating with each other, causing him to receive two different sets of information that are in conflict with one another. Throughout the story Arctor experiences flashbacks to his family life, wherein he has a wife and two daughters, and he reminisces about the times he spent with them. Arctor later learns that he does not, in fact, have a family.

After Barris supplies the Police with a fake recording which he alleges proves that Donna and Arctor belong to a terrorist organisation, Hank orders that Barris is held on charges of providing false information to the Police. After Barris's arrest Hank reveals to Fred that he has deduced, through the process of elimination, that Fred is really Arctor. Arctor is surprised to learn of his own true identity and he becomes extremely confused and upset. Hank informs Arctor that the whole point of the surveillance was to catch Barris, not Arctor; the Police suspected Barris of being involved in the 'Substance D' supply chain all along, and were setting Barris up by increasing his paranoia until he attempted to cover his tracks. As a result of his 'Substance D' addiction Arctor is no longer able to distinguish between the roles of his undercover character and his real job as a Police officer. Hank reprimands Arctor for becoming addicted to 'Substance D' and warns him that he will be disciplined.

Whilst a clearly distressed Arctor begins to break down, Hank phones Donna and asks her to take Arctor to New Path, a corporation that runs a series of rehabilitation clinics. After Arctor leaves the office, Hank enters the locker room and removes his scramble suit, at which point his true identity is revealed to be Donna. At New Path, Arctor experiences the severe symptoms of 'Substance D' withdrawal. Also at New Path is Charles Freck, who was admitted after a failed suicide bid. As part of the rehabilitation program, Arctor is renamed Bruce and put through psychological reconditioning treatments. Arctor suffers brain damage as a result of his withdrawal from 'Substance D'.

Sometime later Donna, now using her real name Audrey, has a conversation with another Police officer named Mike (briefly seen undercover as an orderly at New Path). It is revealed that New Path is responsible for the manufacture and distribution of 'Substance D'. Audrey and Mike are part of a Police operation to infiltrate New Path, and Arctor had been selected - without his knowledge or consent - to carry out the sting. It is further revealed that the Police had intended for Arctor to become addicted to 'Substance D'; his well-being was sacrificed so that he might enter a rehabilitation center unnoticed as a genuine addict in order to find proof of New Path's crimes. They debate whether or not there is still enough left of Arctor's mind for him to know what to do if he finds any evidence.

To continue his rehabilitation, New Path sends Arctor to work at an isolated New Path farming prison, where he spots rows of blue flowers hidden between rows of corn. These flowers, referenced throughout the film, are the source of 'Substance D'. As the film ends, Arctor hides one of the blue flowers in his boot, so that when he returns to the New Path clinic during Thanksgiving he can give it to his friends.

End credits

The end credits feature an abridged version of the afterword of Dick's novel, in which Dick lists people he knew who have suffered serious permanent physical or mental damage (brain damage, psychosis, pancreatic trauma, etc.) or death as a result of drug use. Dick includes his own name on the list, as "Phil", a victim of permanent pancreatic damage.

Linklater adds another name to the credits and dedicates the film to the memory of Louis H. Mackey, an influential philosophy professor at the University of Texas at Austin; he had appeared in two of Linklater's previous films. Mackey died in 2004.

Cast

  • Keanu Reeves as Bob Arctor / Fred / Bruce. Arctor is an undercover detective who works at the local Police Station. Arctor tries to blend in with his housemates Barris and Luckman, becoming addicted to 'Substance D' in the process. As the film progresses Arctor suffers the effects of being addicted to the drug, and his mind breaks down to the point where he can no longer determine what is fact and what is fiction. In his role as detective Fred, Arctor wears a scramble suit to hide his true identity. As part of the rehabilitation program, Arctor is renamed Bruce and put through psychological reconditioning treatments.
  • Robert Downey, Jr. as James Barris. Barris is a drug addict who lives with Arctor and Luckman. Barris is manipulative in his behaviour towards the other members of the group and he appears to have his own agenda.
  • Woody Harrelson as Ernie Luckman. Luckman is a drug addict who lives with Arctor and Barris. Luckman is the most laid-back member of the group.
  • Rory Cochrane as Charles Freck. Freck is a drug addict who lives in his own apartment and associates with the group. Freck has been using 'Substance D' either more frequently or for longer periods of time than the other members of the group. At the start of the film he is seen suffering severe side effects. His mental breakdown is quicker than the others' and, unable to cope, he attempts suicide. Freck's bid fails and he is admitted to New Path for rehabilitation.
  • Winona Ryder as Donna Hawthorne / Audrey / Hank. Donna is a low-level drug dealer who supplies Arctor with 'Substance D'. At the film's conclusion it is revealed that Donna is really an undercover Police detective named Audrey, who also poses as Arctor's supervisor Hank. Audrey wears a scramble suit whilst at the Police Station to hide her true identity.

Production

Originally, Richard Linklater toyed with adapting the Philip K. Dick novel Ubik but stopped early on because he was unable to obtain the rights and he "couldn't quite crack it." He began thinking about A Scanner Darkly, another Dick novel while talking to producer Tommy Pallotta during the making of Waking Life. Linklater liked A Scanner Darkly more than Ubik and felt that he could make a film out of it. According to Linklater, the challenge was capturing "the humor and exuberance of the book but not let go of the sad and tragic." Linklater was not interested in turning the book into a big budget action thriller as had been done in the past because he felt that A Scanner Darkly was "about these guys and what they're all doing in their alternative world and what's going through their minds is really what keeps the story moving." He wanted to keep the budget under $10 million so that he could have more creative control, remain faithful to the book, and make it an animated film.

After completing School of Rock, Linklater told Pallotta that he wanted to make A Scanner Darkly next. It was important to him that Dick's estate approve his film. Pallotta wrote a personal appeal and pitched a faithful adaptation of the novel to Russ Galen, the Philip K. Dick estate's literary agent who shared it with the late author's two daughters (Laura Leslie and Isa Hackett) who own and operate their father's trust. Dick's daughters weren't too keen on "a cartoon version" of A Scanner Darkly. After high profile adaptations, Minority Report and Paycheck, they took a more proactive role in evaluating every film proposal, including unusual projects like Linklater's. They read Linklater's screenplay and then met with him to discuss their respective visions of A Scanner Darkly. They felt that it was one of their father's most personal stories and liked that Linklater wasn't going to treat the drug aspects lightly, that he wanted to set it in the near future and make it right away.

Casting

For the dual roles of Arctor and Fred, Linklater thought of Keanu Reeves, but figured that the actor would be burnt out from making another science fiction film after making The Matrix trilogy. Robert Downey Jr. was attracted to the film when he heard Reeves was going to star and Linklater to direct. He thought that the script was the strangest one he had ever read. Linklater wrote the role of Freck with Rory Cochrane in mind. The actor was interested but didn't want to recreate his role in Dazed and Confused. Both Woody Harrelson and Winona Ryder agreed to appear in the film based on the script. Both Reeves and Ryder agreed to work for the Screen Actors Guild scale rate plus any back-end profits. As with Linklater's earlier Waking Life, syndicated radio host Alex Jones has a small cameo as himself.

Principal photography

Linklater assembled the cast for two weeks of rehearsals in Austin, Texas before principal photography began in order to fine-tune the script. The result was a fusion of Linklater's writing, the novel and the actors' input. To prepare for their respective roles, Cochrane came up with his character five minutes before he got on the elevator to work; Downey Jr. memorized his dialogue by writing it all out in run-on sentences, studying them and then converting them to acronyms; and Reeves relied on the book, marking down each scene in the screenplay to the corresponding page.

Principal photography began on May 17, 2004 and lasted six weeks. Arctor's house was located on Eric Circle in Southeast Austin. The previous tenants had left a month prior to filming and left the place in such a state that production designer Bruce Curtis had to make few modifications so that it looked like a run-down home. The filmmakers had looked at 60 houses before settling on this one. Linklater shot a lot of exteriors in Anaheim, California and then composited them into the Austin footage in post-production. Since the live action footage was to be animated over later, makeup, lighting and visible equipment, like boom mics, were less of a concern. However, cinematographer Shane Kelly carefully composed shots and used a color palette with the animators in mind. Sometimes, they would show up to tell Kelly what they needed. Because the movie was being shot digitally and then animated, occasionally actors forgot they would later be animated as they worked through a scene. Robert Downey Jr. noted that he completely forgot the scene would later be animated as he worked through several takes in order to produce the smoke ring that would be featured in Barris' first closeup shot.

Extensive on-set footage of the filming of A Scanner Darkly was featured in a UK documentary about Richard Linklater directed by Irshad Ashraf and broadcast on Channel 4 in December 2004.

Animation

After principal photography was finished, the film was transferred to QuickTime for a 15-month animation process: interpolated rotoscoping. A Scanner Darkly was filmed digitally using the Panasonic AG-DVX100 and then animated with Rotoshop, a proprietary graphics editing program created by Bob Sabiston. Rotoshop uses an animation technique called interpolated rotoscope, which was previously used in Linklater's film Waking Life. Linklater discussed the ideas and inspiration behind his use of rotoscoping in a UK documentary about him in 2004, linking it to his personal experiences of lucid dreaming. Rotoscoping in traditional cel animation originally involved tracing over film frame-by-frame. This is similar in some respects to the rotoscope style of filmmaker Ralph Bakshi. Rotoshop animation makes use of vector keyframes, and interpolates the in-between frames automatically.

The animation phase was a trying process for Linklater who said, "I know how to make a movie, but I don't really know how to handle the animation." He had gone the animation route because he felt that there was very little animation targeted for adults.

Post-production problems

Originally, the film was supposed to be released in September 2005. Most of the animators were hired locally with only a few of them having movie-making experience. Six weeks into the animation process, only a few animated sequences were close to being completed while Linklater was off making Bad News Bears. Sabiston had divided the animators into five teams and split the work amongst them. However, there was poor communication between the teams, and the uniform animation style that Linklater wanted was not being implemented. After almost two months some animators were still learning the software and Linklater became frustrated with the lack of progress.

Animation and training for the 30 new artists had begun October 28, 2004. In late November, Mark Gill, head of Warner Independent Pictures, asked for a status report. There were no finished sequences as the majority of animators were still learning to implement the film's highly-detailed style. Under pressure, some animators worked 18-hour days for two weeks in order to produce a trailer, which seemed to appease Gill and Linklater. Sabiston and his team were falling behind on the studio's 6-month animation schedule and asked that the schedule be extended to a year and that the 2 million dollar animation budget be enlarged accordingly. This created tension and in January 2005, while Sabiston and his four-person core team were strategizing at a local cafe, Pallotta changed the locks and seized their workstations, replacing them with two local artists, Jason Archer and Paul Beck. Sabiston's four team leaders Patrick Thornton, Randy Cole, Katy O'Connor, and Jennifer Drummond subsequently received the credit "additional animation" in the film, despite having worked six months designing the general look of the animation and the scramble suit, hiring and training animators, and 3D compositing.

The studio increased the budget from $6.7 to $8.7 million and gave Linklater six months to finish the film. Pallotta took charge and instituted a more traditional Disney-esque production ethic that included a style manual, strict deadlines, and breaking the film up into smaller segments. The animation process lasted 15 months. Linklater said, in regard to the post-production problems, "There's a lot of misinformation out there... Changes took place during the early stages of us really getting going on this had everything to do with management and not art. It was a budgetary concern, essentially."

A test screening in December 2005 went reasonably well. A revised release date was set for March 31, 2006, but Gill felt that there would not be enough time to mount a proper promotional campaign and the date was changed to July 7, putting the film up against Pixar's Cars and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.

Music

The score (more than an hour's worth is in the film) was provided by Austin, Texas-based composer Graham Reynolds. Linklater approached Reynolds in 2003 after a club performance and suggested Reynolds create the score for A Scanner Darkly. Linklater and Reynolds had worked previously on Live from Shiva's Dance Floor, a 20 minute short featuring Timothy "Speed" Levitch.

The composition and recording process took over one and a half years (the unusual time allotment was due to the film's time-consuming animation process) and was done in Reynolds' east Austin home, in his bedroom. This is not a synthesized score; all the instruments except electric guitar and bass were acoustic, though many were transformed through effects. The film also includes clips of five Radiohead songs — "Fog", "Skttrbrain (Four Tet Mix)", "The Amazing Sounds of Orgy", "Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors", (although it appears uncredited), "Reckoner" — and one Thom Yorke solo song, "Black Swan." An early test screening featured an all-Radiohead soundtrack.

Soundtrack

The album is available from Lakeshore Records and includes the score by Graham Reynolds featuring the Golden Arm Trio. Additionally, the CD includes exclusive remixes of Graham's music by DJ Spooky and Jack Dangers (Meat Beat Manifesto). After finishing the film, Reynolds set to work on remixing the surround sound music into stereo. He then selected 44 minutes out of the film score in order to craft a listening CD while attempting to retain some feel of the arc of the film. Some of the shorter cues were assembled into longer CD tracks.

Reception

Box office

A Scanner Darkly opened in seventeen theaters and grossed $391,672 for a per-theater average of $23,039. The film saw some expansion in later weeks, but ultimately was about $1 million short of earning back its $8.7 million production budget. It grossed $5.5 million in North America and $2.1 million elsewhere.

Critical response

Manohla Dargis of The New York Times wrote that the film "has a kind of hypnotic visual appeal". Carina Chocano of the Los Angeles Times found the film "engrossing" and wrote that "the brilliance of is how it suggests, without bombast or fanfare, the ways in which the real world has come to resemble the dark world of comic books". In his review for the Village Voice, J. Hoberman wrote, "What's extraordinary about Linklater's animation, computer-rotoscoped in the fashion of his 2001 Waking Life, is just how tangible the Dickian labyrinth becomes", and praised Robert Downey Jr.'s performance: "Midway through 2006, this supporting turn is the performance to beat in what seems the year's American movie to beat". Andrew Sarris, in his review for The New York Observer, wrote, "Mr. Linklater emerges once again as the Austin auteur par excellence". Empire magazine's Kim Newman gave the film four stars out of five and wrote, "its intelligence makes it near-essential viewing". In his review for the Washington Post, Desson Thompson wrote, "Linklater's rotoscoping process underscores this grave new world with pop-arty creepiness. Its dramatically muting effect, which shaves the highs off the more histrionic performances yet doesn't undercut the more subtle elements ... squeezes everything into a unified nightmare".

Entertainment Weekly gave the film a "C-" rating and Owen Gleiberman was unimpressed, writing that the film is "more fun to think about than is to experience", and found the film's storyline "goes nowhere". In his review for The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw wrote, "The movie is often startling and engrossing, but the question of what the heck is going on, and why, is never entirely absent from your mind". Jack Mathews, in his review for The New York Daily News, called it, "a murky, dialogue-heavy tale of intrigue". Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 68% based on 174 reviews, with an average rating of 6.6 out of 10. Its weighted reception at Metacritic is 73% based on reviews from 33 critics, considered "generally favorable reviews".

Home media

The DVD was released in North America on December 19, 2006 and in the UK on January 22, 2007. The following extras are included: the theatrical trailer; "Weight of the Line", an animation tales feature; "One Summer in Austin", a short documentary on the filming of the movie; and audio commentary from actor Keanu Reeves, director Richard Linklater, producer Tommy Pallotta, author Jonathan Lethem, and Philip K. Dick's daughter, Isa Dick Hackett. Entertainment Weekly felt that the commentary track was "friendly and aimless", but that the featurette on the rotoscoping process, "a lot more lively".

See also

References

  1. ^ La Franco, Robert (March 2006). "Trouble in Toontown". Wired magazine. Retrieved 2007-07-31. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  2. ^ "A Scanner Darkly". Box Office Mojo. Amazon.com. Retrieved 2008-06-04. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  3. "Festival de Cannes: A Scanner Darkly". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 2009-12-14.
  4. ^ Savlov, Marc (July 7, 2006). "Securing the Substance". Austin Chronicle. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  5. ^ "A Scanner Darkly Production Notes". Warner Independent Pictures. 2006. Retrieved 2007-07-31. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  6. ^ Ashlock, Jesse (January/February 2006). "What A Scanner Sees: Richard Linklater Animates a Philip K. Dick Sci-Fi Classic" (PDF). Res magazine. Retrieved 2007-07-31. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  7. Roman, Julian (July 11, 2006). "Robert Downey Jr. Talks A Scanner Darkly and David Fincher's Zodiac". MovieWeb. Retrieved 2009-07-29. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  8. ^ Hernandez, Raoul (July 7, 2006). "Graham Reynold's Scanner Score". Austin Chronicle. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  9. Dargis, Manohla (July 7, 2006). "A Scanner Darkly: Keanu Reeves, Undercover and Flying High on a Paranoid Head Trip". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-07-29. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  10. Chocano, Carina (July 7, 2006). "A Scanner Darkly". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2009-07-29. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  11. Hoberman, J (June 27, 2006). "Brain Candy". Village Voice. Retrieved 2009-07-29. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  12. Sarris, Andrew (July 30, 2006). "Linklater's A Scanner Darkly Finds Slackers of the Future". The New York Observer. Retrieved 2009-07-29. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  13. Newman, Kim. "Linklater's A Scanner Darkly Finds Slackers of the Future". The New York Observer. Retrieved 2009-07-29. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  14. Thompson, Desson (July 14, 2006). "A Scanner Darkly: Finely Controlled Substance". Washington Post. Retrieved 2009-07-29. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  15. Gleiberman, Owen (July 5, 2006). "A Scanner Darkly". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2009-07-29. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  16. Bradshaw, Peter (August 18, 2006). "A Scanner Darkly". The Guardian. Retrieved 2009-07-29. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  17. Mathews, Jack (July 7, 2006). "Drugfest has highs & lows". The New York Daily News. Retrieved 2009-07-29. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  18. "A Scanner Darkly". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved 2009-07-29. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  19. "A Scanner Darkly". Metacritic. CBS. Retrieved 2009-09-22. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  20. Burr, Ty (December 15, 2006). "A Scanner Darkly". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2009-07-29. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)

External links


Films directed by Richard Linklater
Philip K. Dick
Novels
Collections
Short stories
Speeches
Adaptations
Films
TV series
Franchise
Works about
Related
Categories:
A Scanner Darkly (film): Difference between revisions Add topic