A SCANNER DARKLY

A Graphic Novel

review by

Mike Nappa

A SCANNER DARKLY (GRAPHIC NOVEL)

by Philip K. Dick & Richard Linklater

(Pantheon Books)

Reader Appeal: Adults

Genre: Fiction / Graphic Novels

Science fiction master, Philip K. Dick, passed away in 1982 but his eerie, haunting storytelling has continued to live on in Hollywood through movies like Blade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report, and most recently, A Scanner Darkly.

All these movies are based on various Dick short stories and novels, and all show a world that's almost normal but also unfathomably out of control. What's especially interesting about the latest film, A Scanner Darkly, is auteur director Richard Linklater's unconventional cinematic take on the story. Using a four-step process known as "rotoscoping," Linklater filmed the entire movie with live actors, then overwrote their images with animation and backgrounds to create a sort of hybrid live-action/animated theatrical experience. While the jury is still out on whether or not that process is good filmmaking, one thing is certain: it makes for a dynamic and visually artistic graphic novel. So, using only photo stills from the animated version of the film, Pantheon Books has released A Scanner Darkly: A Graphic Novel as a companion book to the original novel and film.

While it's not unusual to see a science fiction story rendered in graphic novel form (such as Star Wars, Serenity, Aliens, and others), it's something unexpected to see a graphic novel that is almost literally the entire movie affixed to the printed page. The artistic result is stunning (and don't worry, we'll talk about the story itself in a moment). Every page of this hardcover, prestige package of Linklater's film is impossible to ignore. Like the movie, this book "stars" Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey Jr., Woody Harrelson, and Winona Ryder, each one presented in near-lifelike stills, frame by frame, from beginning to end of the book. On artistic merit alone, this graphic novel is certainly among the best out there at present and easily deserves an “A” rating.

However, there is more to a book than it's artful, artistic presentation, and that’s where A Scanner Darkly falls short. The story is basically this: Seven years in the future a new drug “Substance D” has penetrated the underground drug scene, becoming the latest lethal addiction of choice. Fred (Keanu Reeves) is an undercover police officer trying to track down the source of this deadly drug, and in the process has set his targets on drug dealer, Bob Arctor, and his circle of addict friends. What Fred doesn’t know is that he himself is a Substance D addict, which has resulted in a split personality and, voila, Fred is also Bob Arctor, drug dealer.

Sound a bit convoluted? Well, it is, and it only gets more so. In fact, although Keanu Reeves plays this same guy throughout the story, he is alternately named Fred, Bob, and even Bruce. Winona Ryder plays Bob’s girlfriend (SPOILER ALERT) and also his masqueraded superior officer in the police force. Robert Downey Jr. (spouting some of the most interesting dialogue of the story) is James Barris, who is either a criminal mastermind and the true brains behind Substance D, or just a pathetic addict with delusions of grandeur. And all these folks roll around in the squalid fringes of society, needing their next fix just to cope, paranoid, irrational, prone to frightening and absurd hallucinations, and doomed to be forever under the control of the drug that was supposed to free them. And, of course, a government conspiracy lurks in the background…

The passion and lesson behind Philip K. Dick’s story here are evident: Drugs are deadly. The story, however, just doesn’t measure up to Dick’s other trippy masterpieces like Minority Report or Blade Runner. The characters are so earnest in their self-destructiveness and the plot elements often seem contrived, as if Dick is practically shouting, “Look! Don’t let this happen to you!” While the sentiment is admirable (and encouraged by this reviewer!), the heavy-handed literary style makes this story feel unsatisfying.

As with all Philip K. Dick works, there are some impressively creative elements in this story, however. The futuristic “scramble suits” that hide a cop’s identity by flashing millions of recorded faces in seconds are a cool idea. Also, in an interesting side story, one character ("Charles Freck," played by Rory Cochrane) commits suicide only to find that his hellish eternity is to be spent laying in bed listening to an otherworldly creature recite every trivial sin he’s ever committed—an experience not so much frightening as it is mind-numbingly boring, like listening to an endless reading of the phone book or math equations. This brief, subversive view of hell resonates more with the reader than all the previous attempts at portraying the bleakness of a junkie’s life in A Scanner Darkly. Had Dick brought that kind of storytelling to the book as a whole, this review would be a much different affair.

Overall, A Scanner Darkly is a both an artistic masterpiece (thanks to Richard Linklater) and (by Dick’s standards) second-rate storytelling. Fans of Philip K. Dick may want to read this just to get a glimpse of the author’s sorrow and passion. Most others will prefer the more tightly written works like Minority Report.

One final caution before you (or your teens) read this book. Remember that as a film, A Scanner Darkly was rated R for drug and sexual content, language, and a brief violent image. Since this graphic novel is made entirely from photo stills in the film, it also contains those same elements, including partial nudity, frequent profanity, drug recipes, and graphic depictions of the harsher side of a drug addict’s life. While not always gratuitous, these elements may be offensive for many readers, so please be aware of them.

FAMILYFANS RATING:        

            Artistry: A

 --MN