Everything is Not Going to be OK: Richard Linklater’s A Scanner Darkly
Everything is Not Going to be OK:
A Scanner Darkly
by Henry Edward Hardy
Richard Linklater’s film, A Scanner Darkly (2006) explores the boundaries of consciousness and identity. Based on the book by Phillip K. Dick, it revolves around the character of Agent Fred, who has been assigned to infiltrate a California commune in order to discover the ultimate origin and means of production of a new powerful psychoactive drug, “Substance D”.
—Note: spoilers follow—
Substance D produces hallucinations and dissociation between the two hemispheres of the brain. As in the book, The Erasers by Alain Robbe-Grillet, the officer turns out to be tracking himself. Agent Fred ends up investigating his alter ego, Substance D dealer Bob.
Phillip Dick was a methamphetamine user and suffered from visions and visitations as he describes in the afterward of the book. He was also a prophet and a very fine writer. His works have been made into some notable science fiction movies such as Blade Runner, Total Recall and Minority Report. Dick, like novelist John Brunner were social critics and visionaries who in the 1970s foresaw a 2000s with a “war on drugs” in which the government suppressive apparatus and the drug kingpins are ultimately one and the same.
The film is live action heavily overlaid with computer graphics. The result is beautiful, but also psychotic and disturbing. Linklater uses a “digital Rotoscoping” process invented by MIT Media Lab guru Bob Sabiston, and earlier used by Linklater in his 2001 film, Waking Life. Produced by Stephen Soderbergh and George Clooney, A Scanner Darkly is a subversive canvass for provocative, and one might say paranoid, ideas and images.
The phrase, “a scanner darkly” is a reference to 1 Corinthians 13:12, For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. A common enough conceit, and one which features in many other “through the looking glass” tales, notably the manga Ghost in the Shell. But an interesting taking off point for a further exploration of consciousness, and the social construction (or destruction) of reality.
A Scanner Darkly (IMDB)
A Scanner Darkly (wikipedia)
A Scanner Darkly (Rotten Tomatoes)
A version of this article appeared previously in Current Magazine and on Electric Current.
Copyright © 2006-2007 Henry Edward Hardy
Snips of Ike: Eugene Jarecki’s Why We Fight
Snips of Ike:
Why We Fight
by Henry Edward Hardy
Eugene Jarecki’s Why We Fight takes as its framework snippets from President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s famous televised farewell to the nation in 1961, often called the “military-industrial complex” speech. Jarecki is best known for The Trials of Henry Kissinger.
One may or may not be sympathetic to the premise of the film, that the United States has become an American Empire, and as such, is behaving badly in the world. Why We Fight makes clever use of icons of the Republican Party such as John McCain and Eisenhower and neoconservatives such as William Kristol and Richard Pearle to make its points.
Why We Fight is also the title of a series of films made for the U.S. government by Frank Capra during World War II. They were commissioned in response to the Nazi use of mass media in films like Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will. Since then the title has been (mis-)appropriated a number of times, such as the book by former “Drug Czar” William J. Bennett subtitled “Moral Clarity and the War on Terrorism”, and the name of a popular Danish rock band.
Jarecki’s Why We Fight has not been widely seen in the U.S. It was shown on the BBC in March 2005 and won the American Documentary Grand Prize at Sundance in 2005. The film would be stronger if it were better-organized and had a less transparent point to make. For those unfamiliar with some of Eisenhower’s later and more progressive thinking, this film is an interesting introduction.
A version of this article appeared previously in Current Magazine and on Electric Current
Copyright © 2006-2007 Henry Edward Hardy
BBC: More on Tal Afar Iraqi soldiers rape accusation
BBC quotes acting Tal Afar mayor Brig Gen. Nijm Abdullah with more information regarding the alleged rape and torture of a mother of 11 by Iraqi soldiers in northern Iraq:
Iraqi soldiers charged with rape
…Gen Abdullah said he had received a complaint from tribal leaders that a group of soldiers had entered the woman’s house “a few days ago” and raped her.
“One of the soldiers did not approve. His name is Mushtaq Taleb from Basra. He wanted to stop his comrades by threatening them with weapons because it is an immoral act, but the rape took place anyway,” Gen Abdullah added.
He said he had referred the troops to the judiciary for prosecution.
The woman is thought to be a 40-year-old married mother of 11 from Iraq’s Turkoman minority.
The defendants are identified as a lieutenant and three enlisted men.
If the BBC report is correct, then Mushtaq Taleb should be commended for trying to stop the rape and torture of this mother.
Copyright © 2007 Henry Edward Hardy
Xinhua news agency: ‘Four Iraqi soldiers arrested for rape in N Iraq’
The second public accusation of rape by Iraqi soldiers this week was reported by the Chinese news agency Xinhua. According to Xinhua,
Four Iraqi soldiers arrested for rape in N Iraq
http://www.chinaview.cn 2007-02-22 21:55:06MOSUL, Iraq, Feb. 22 (Xinhua) — Four Iraqi soldiers have been arrested for raping an ethnic Turkoman woman in the town of Tal Afar, some 400 km north of Baghdad, the second such allegations being leveled against Iraqi security personnel in a week, an official said on Thursday…
The 40-year-old woman first appeared on a Turkoman satellite channel on Wednesday evening and alleged that she was raped by the soldiers after Iraqi forces stormed her house in the town. The woman said they also videotaped the rape, then tortured her and threatened to rape her young daughters if she didn’t cooperate with them and provide them with information on terrorists.
Copyright © 2007 Henry Edward Hardy
BBC Report: ‘Sleaze alleged in CIA’
Interesting 9 minute video report from BBC regarding alleged financial and sexual corruption in the US intelligence agency:
Newsnight investigates alleged CIA sleaze
Launch report in stand-alone player
Duke Cunningham (wikipedia)
Cunningham, Randy Duke R-CA (namebase)
Kyle Foggo (wikipedia)
Foggo, Kyle (namebase)
Porter J. Goss (wikipedia)
Goss, Porter J., R-FL (namebase)
Brent Wilkes (wikipedia)
Wilkes, Brent R. (namebase)
Copyright © 2007 Henry Edward Hardy
About Scanlyze
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Scanlyze is an online magazine of essays, commentary, satire, and analysis. Were we half as clever, for inspiration we would take Mark Twain, Ambrose Bierce, Swift, Montaigne, or Seneca.
“The men who create power make an indispensable contribution to the Nation’s greatness, but the men who question power make a contribution just as indispensable, especially when that questioning is disinterested, for they determine whether we use power or power uses us.”
John F. Kennedy, October 26, 1963
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