MovieChat Forums > A Scanner Darkly (2006) Discussion > For some time while watching the movie.....

For some time while watching the movie...

posted 15 years ago by nickpick89
7 replies | jump to latest

I thought both Donna and Bob were civilians being used by the police to track other civilians. I had this crazy vision in my head of a futuristic government making every civilian a part of the police force, and using scramble suits to keep identities hidden. A perfect system: you YOURSELF are your own correctional unit.

I think this idea could have made the plot a lot thicker and more interesting than it already is.
As it is, I love how this movie manages to make concrete something that is constantly nagging in the back of my head, in the back of all our heads really. I can't even explain it or describe it properly but it's like there is no need for a "substance D." As a society we are already anesthesized and addicted to so many things that keep us in the loop, that we lose touch with "reality". Whatever that is.

[–] sirmalker 15 years ago

I was thinking the same thing and thought that this could've been Phillips idea. But I can't be sure as I am not, in a total sense, Phillip K. Dick.

I'm better than you.

[–] SeisCinemaSeis 15 years ago

I'm totally agree with your second paragraph but I just would like to change this sentence from ur 1st paragraph:
A perfect system: you YOURSELF are your own repressive unit.

That would be the ideal fascist state, where every citizen is brainwashed enough (Either by using a new kind of drug or by sheer "conviction") to repress, expose, or plain and simple "eliminate" their own friends, relatives, neighbors, etc.
The Nazis were close, but failed.

[–] nickpick89 15 years ago

hey, just wanted to point out, repression is a type of correction ;)

as for your ideal fascist state, i feel as if it already happens without it being called fascism. we hurt ourselves with cigarettes, we expose people when we don't want to take the blame, we eliminate the competition by getting job promotions others won't get.

I think this movie may highlight the process of natural evolution and selection, and the survival instinct. that or i'm high :)

[–] vincentvegas64 15 years ago

We had that before, it was called german democratic republic, the institution was called STASI ("Staatssicherheit"). Every one around you could have been working fot them undercover, even your son, daughter, husband, wife. That life must have been a horror.

[–] akin-2-grieve 15 years ago

It's happening NOW! We are more and more slaves to money, we are encouraged to be like INFANTS (this is becoming quite prevalent in many Capitalist countries), we are becoming dumbed down and encouraged to spend our time on meaningless drivel, we are encouraged to be machines - like Paranoid Androids! Civil liberties are taken away and laws changed for outrageous reasons based on FEAR - for example, the 'war on terror.' Who, or what, is 'terror'? Rights are being taken away because of FEAR of an enemy that can't even be defined - and what's worse, most people say 'bring it on - take my rights away, I AM SCARED!'

So this story is extremely relevant today I think and I think it will become more so as time goes on.

[–] sirmalker 14 years ago

Keep on fighting the power my brother.

I'm better than you.

[–] denny7777 14 years ago

I thought both Donna and Bob were civilians being used by the police to track other civilians. I had this crazy vision in my head of a futuristic government making every civilian a part of the police force, and using scramble suits to keep identities hidden. A perfect system: you YOURSELF are your own correctional unit.

That sounds a lot like Hell to me.

Be excellent to each other... and party on dudes!