Psychoactive Science Fiction
To understand A Scanner Darkly (Richard Linklater, 2006, USA) and it’s historical significance one must first realize the film’s origin. The film is based on a novel of the same name written by prominent science fiction author Philip K. Dick. Dick’s original story was published in 1977, seemingly as an afterthought and reflection on the prevalence of heavy drug use among young people that blossomed in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Understanding the time in which the story was written, and the years it proceeded, is key in understanding it’s characters substance use, abuse, and downfall into paranoia and madness.
The film A Scanner Darkly reveals itself as a science fiction film when we first realize that the story is taking place somewhere in the near future. We know it is taking place in our world, as it presents familiar locales such as its southern California backdrop. We are given our first glimpse into the technological advancement of the time when we meet Fred, an undercover police officer. To protect his identity Fred wears a high tech “scramble suit” designed to alter every aspect of his physical appearance while simultaneously masking his voice. This suit is also our first insight into the high tech and far reaching surveillance employed by the police in the film, which we learn will play a huge role in its outcome.
The film’s director, Richard Linklater, is not usually associated with the science fiction genre, and of all of his films this is really the only one that fits into that category. Most people would recognize Linklater’s work on such films as the 1970s high school party epic Dazed and Confused (Richard Linklater, 1993, USA) or the family friendly The School of Rock (Richard Linklater, 2003, USA) starring comedian Jack Black. However, it is easy to draw comparisons between Linklater’s A Scanner Darkly and his earlier film Waking Life (Richard Linklater, 2001, USA). In comparing these two films the most obvious shared characteristic is the use of rotoscope, in which animation is placed over the live action images to create a surreal animated effect. This technique is extremely useful in A Scanner Darkly when portraying the hallucinogenic effects of “substance D”, for example the multi-eyed alien seen by the character Freck. This technique also lends itself to the notion of the “hyperreal” where “doubles abound, draining away all sense of identity”(1).
The film adaptation of A Scanner Darkly sets itself a few years into our own future, where the book, written in the seventies, takes place in a fictional 1994. The book’s portrayal of paranoid drug addicts is obviously a reference to the drug culture boom of the late 1960s and early 1970s, a time at which Dick was writing and an active member in this culture. Though there are many differences between the book and the film, neither glorifies the use of drugs, though they are prevalent in the story. Rather, this substance abuse is seen as an epidemic among Americans, one that is under extremely close watch by the government.
Another film released in 2006 that examines an epidemic under the watchful eye of the government in an uncertain future is Children of Men (Alfonzo Cuaron, 2006, USA). Though Children of Men and A Scanner Darkly offer two decidedly different depictions of a chaotic future, both seem to represent a fear of the years to come, as if the future was not a new era of hope and prosperity, yet one of doubt and questionable authority figures. These representations seem feasible when considering the many setbacks to civil rights and privacy brought on by the Bush administration and a time post-Patriot Act.
While A Scanner Darkly doesn’t play on many of the conventions popularized by much of the science fiction genre, I think it helps the genre progress by taking a closer look at the inner workings of the mind, and exploring the willful “dehumanization” as experienced by addiction. Christine Cornea writes:
“What I hope has become apparent in this brief history is the variety of traditions and influences that can be witnessed in what has come to be known as science fiction film.”(2)
Endnotes
(1) J.P. Telotte, “Science Fiction’s Double Focus: Alluring Worlds and Forbidden Planets”, Replications: A Robotic History of the Science Fiction Film, 1st Edition, (University of Illinois Press, 1995), pg.111
(2) Christine Cornea, Science Fiction Cinema Between Fantasy and Reality 1st ed., (Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick New Jersey, 2007) pg.22
