At not one point do I even see him do the drug, and since he is neurotic, and articulate at best, was he even a user in the books? Either way RDJ is the best part, of this thing.
Proud Member of the House of Zod
I'm not sure, but your post looked lonely after four days of silence. I presume he is a user, since he knows all about the effects, and he's crazy.
shareHe uses it as he claims to and references times.
shareAnyone think it would make more sense that Barris was completely drug-free...
In the sense that its more poetic to have someone made so paranoid by the way society has become that he displays all the characteristics of a junkie but yet, ironically, is not one at all..
This point makes me think of how, in the book Blade Runner is based on, the idea that humans have become dehumanised by whats happened to the planet that they may as well be replicants. I say the book because, of course, Deckard is a human in the book and replicant in the movie..
Actually is Barris an undercover cop?
By the roadside you don't actually see him properly swallow the pills...
Also another thing thats only just occured to me... slight spoiler alert - I don't know what the tag is...
... and this will be obvious to many I know but only just so to me - cop Audrey [Donna/Hank] is supplying the drugs to all of them... you never hear of anyone being supplied with D in any way other than this in the whole story... this movie definitely takes on a whole new weight when you fully realise what's going on.. :))
FYI, the coding for spoilers is found here: http://www.imdb.com/help/boards/markup
Addressing your points:
1) Barris is not an undercover cop. There's a lot of minor evidence for this (such as his various attempts to kill the other household members) but the best evidence for this is the last scene with him, where he goes in to give his "evidence" that is intended to frame Bob and Donna. Only cops have scramble suits, so if Barris were a narc he'd have worn one to the meeting. Donna (as Hank) knows who the agents on the operation are, and clearly knows that Barris isn't one of "them." She also arranges for Barris to get arrested at the end of that interview... something she would not do if Barris were a cop.
2) In the book, Donna was not Hank, but she was a cop. You are correct that she was supplying D to the people in the house. However, it is specifically small amounts (for personal use) and Arctor/Fred's plan (not knowing she was a cop) was to buy larger and larger quantities from her, eventually surpassing her capabilities as a distributor and ultimately get referred to who her supplier is -- thus homing in on the ultimate source.
Now, remember that the real plan was to get Arctor hooked on D and trojan horse him into New Path. Having Arctor buy from Donna and get hooked by her was a way to add verisimilitude/"street cred" to the plan, especially since no one knew Donna was a cop.
Al: "What do people do for fun in this town?"
Max: "They eat the dinner."
Thanks for reply..
1) Think what I was getting at was the wild idea of Barris being an undercover cop of a different kind that didn't have a scramble suit; who was from a different force or something like that... or even working for some other organisation, but when you explain it again that idea does seem more far-fetched. I guess its just the way he's so keen to shop everyone else and his knowledge of things and even the computer in his house plus the slight ambiguity as to whether he's taking the pills which you don't clearly see and if he is taking D he seems to be able to control the side effects way better than anyone else on it (is there may be an intolerance one develops after having gone through New Path, which Barris may or may not be implying from the initial diner scene - also its curious the way he says "you're either on it or you've never tried it" - has he never tried it, but then he must have to speak on it the issue with such authority I guess).. plus when Hank says that the arrest is just a formality almost as if they've planned to take him in which would make sense because he is a very minor target, if he's even a legit target at all, and it would fit in with the larger plan to intoxicate Arctor; to rehearse the charade with Barris so as to do it convincingly in front of Arctor.. I'm just ranting out my thoughts very quickly here apologies!
2) Yeah I just find it curious that the film never depicts anyone else in the community on D except the house members but I guess that's just the way the story's framed rather than any deeper conspiracy to do with the police, or some of them, supplying D to the people of Anaheim more widely.. think it was the fact NewPath are also the sponsor of the expensive police operation that made me wonder about this...
We'd have to know what Barris was like before he started taking D to be absolutely sure, but I think the film does show how he is impaired by the drug. Substance D affects each user differently: Arctor has split personality and cross-chatter, Freck thinks bugs are all over him, etc. Barris has gone subvertly homicidal, plus his brain is messed up enough that none of his ideas/schemes ever work.
The book does show other users outside the household, and they are just as messed up as the group shown. Charlie Kaufman's screenplay included at least one scene lifted from the book, though Linklater chose not to incorporate it in his own draft. Even then, there's the scene in the movie of Arctor freshly checked into New Path, and the other people there are obviously one step away from being zombies, and prolonged D use is the obvious cause.
Al: "What do people do for fun in this town?"
Max: "They eat the dinner."