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 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
Support our Rapists and Murderers in Iraq (aka ‘Support our Troops’)
More disturbing (but unsourced, unverified) evidence of how ‘the troops’ have been conducting themselves in Iraq.
What was the most fun things?
The most fun thing, umm….definitely the women.
Yeah? They had chick insurgents, man?
No, they didn’t have chick insurgents.
Something goes down, they just grab everyone around, you know, fuck em. I mean, you gonna have 35 trials? No, you know. People are like, “Oh they’re innocent.” You know what, I don’t give a fuck. As far as I’m concerned, they’re all guilty. You know what? They should have kicked Saddam out themselves. Instead, we’re there doing the fucking job. We’re losing guys…
Were those people in the World Trade Center guilty? No. Fuck them. They fucked us, so now we’re fucking them. Fuck them, dude, anyone with a fucking rag on their head is fair game.
….girl, she was probably like 15 years old. Yeah, she was hot dude. The body on that girl, yeah, really tight. You know, hadn’t been touched yet. She was fucking prime. So…
One of the guys started pimping her out for 50 bucks a shot. I think at the end of the day, you know, he’d made like 500 bucks before she hung herself.
Video: http://www.alternet.org/blogs/video/47472/ at Alternet posted by Evan Dercacz.
Transcript: Abu Ghraib video transcript: Alleged Former Abu Ghraib Guard Discussed Gang Rape in Video from Iraq Slogger
See also, Hadji Girl on Sheldon Rampton’s blog at PRWatch sponsored by the Center for Media and Democracy.
Copyright © 2007 Henry Edward Hardy
More on the Najaf Incident: hundreds of terrorist children defeated?
I’ve collected some more links on the Najaf ‘incident’. I find it very peculiar that the US media are sticking to the rather unlikely sounding ‘official story’. BBC to its credit followed up its initial reporting of the ‘official story’ with a skeptical analysis by Roger Hardy (no relation AFAIK). Apparently of the 500-1000+ casualties being reported among the ‘terrorists’ over 100 were what I guess in the Orwellian Newspeak of the Bush Administration would logically be termed ‘terrorist children’.
Roger Hardy Confusion surrounds Najaf battle BBC
The official version of events has not gone unchallenged.
According to accounts on an Iraqi website and in the British newspaper The Independent, the drama began with a clash between an Iraqi tribe on a pilgrimage to Najaf and an Iraqi army checkpoint.
The fighting escalated, army commanders called for reinforcements, and US aircraft launched an intense aerial bombardment – with significant loss of life.
According to this account, the involvement of the Soldiers of Heaven appears to have been accidental.
Dahr Jamail and Ali al-Fadhily Pilgrims massacred in the ‘battle’ of Najaf Asia Times, Feb 1, 2007
Battle in Najaf: Is US-Iraqi Claim of Gunfight with Messianic Cult Cover-up for a Massacre? Democracy Now Includes interviews with Patrick Cockburn and with a local doctor, Dr. Amer Majid who says he treated the wounded. Video and Audio feed available.
Peace Voter Najaf: Victory or Massacre? Daily Kos
James Risser Massacre in Najaf: Maliki learns that the best way to deal with dissent is with US bombs Daily Kos
Mike Whitney The Media Cover-up of the Najaf Massacre uruknet.info
DoD Identifies Army Casualties AubreyJ.org
See also: Keyword ‘Najaf’ on scanlyze
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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