A Scanner Darkly

I don't know very much about this up coming Richard Linklater release, other than it is based upon a book by Philip K. Dick...(which, I've never read). However, in watching the television preview the other day I noticed something curious.

The preview I saw showed a man lying down in bed, preparing to kill himself, when a gazillion eyed creature appears to read off a list of his sins. What was curious, was that the man had a book lying on his chest...the book was very clearly Ayn Rand's *The Fountainhead*.

I have no idea what this will mean (if anything) in the context of the film, but it was an interesting (and lengthy, in terms of previews) inclusion/allusion.

RCR

Post 1

Tuesday, July 11, 2006 - 8:15pm

I noticed that as well. It makes me want to see it :-)

Post 2

Tuesday, July 11, 2006 - 8:25pm

I like paranoid scifi films. Always good acting despite being a bit silly along the way. ^_^

-- Bridget

Post 3

Wednesday, July 12, 2006 - 9:24am

Ethan:

"I noticed that as well. It makes me want to see it :-)"

Yes; the allusion will likely draw my $10 bucks as well. I do suspect the reference will not be positive, and in the vein of the horrible, and deeply misguided *Dirty Dancing* reference...blech.

Bridget:

"I like paranoid scifi films. Always good acting despite being a bit silly along the way. ^_^"

Yeah, they tend to be visually interesting as well, but I do find myself deeply annoyed by the distopian tendencies in these films, as well as their somewhat typical metaphysical stance that reality is as stable as a tower of Jello.

:-)

RCR

Post 4

Wednesday, July 12, 2006 - 10:27am

That fucking reference in Dirty Dancing pissed me off. Nothing worse than a dishonest summation of what Objectivism is about. Shit like that makes it harder to get the real message across.

Ethan

Post 5

Monday, July 17, 2006 - 5:16am

Alright, seen it this weekend.

All I can say is that it reminds me of Requiem for a Dream, a really screwy movie. Basically there is a drug out there that makes coke look like Ruffles potato chips. Supposedly 1 in Americans is hooked on the stuff and Reeves character plays an undercover narc (and how they did that was really weird). Of course he uses also and most of the story is how he reconciles that with his work.

Cochrane�s character Freak is the one holding The Fountainhead in that scene. As far as I can tell it means absolutely nothing, he�s about to commit suicide and does a lot of weird things so he can go in what he thinks is the proper way. He dresses in a suit and holds the book upright so they will find him in what he thinks is a dignified position (he�s an addict so what he thinks isn�t exactly what�s real).

Post 6

Monday, July 17, 2006 - 12:16pm