Man in the High Castle - Amazon

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by DreadPikathulhu, Jan 17, 2015.

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  1. Solaris

    Solaris a bullet in flight

    Location:
    New Orleans, LA
    I finished season 1 last night, and I found the last couple of episodes disappointing, with the exception of the final scene in Episode 10. I fear they're going to drag this out to inordinate length just to have a second season, and the Frank-Julianna-Joe triangle is already tiresome. The character of Ed made bad decisions simply to advance the direction the filmmakers wanted to go (his character has been given zero motivation for any of the things he does). A pity, because it started so strongly.

    @Jupiter I agree, no one has yet adapted one of PKD's works faithfully to the screen. One film that absolutely has the PKD vibe, though, is eXistenz, the David Cronenberg film about virtual reality. After I watched that movie, I had the same disquieting feeling that I had after reading "Faith of Our Fathers," UBIK and A Maze of Death.
     
    Last edited: Nov 24, 2015
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  2. ubiknik

    ubiknik Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago, IL USA
    EXistenz, that is the film I was trying to remember the name of to myself yesterday -thanks for the memory jog.
    Any chance that anyone remembers a film where there is a scene showing a copy of the Zap Gun on a table of some kind?
    I saw a bit of a strange film on cable in the early nineties and noticed that in a scene and it perked my interest, because of the PKD connection of course.
    Too bad this isn't sounding like all it might be, any one watching the Leftovers? I find this show to have some particularly Dickian overtones overall and am actually really enjoying that show, especially the current episode (s02e07).
    It reminds me of his preoccupation with all known religious concepts and the nature of reality possible beyond our perceptions. Anyone interested in his work should really read a biography about his life and or actually read some of his exegesis writings, another great read is this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Haired_Girl
    Within that book is a great telling of a speech he gives in France (The Android and the Human), at the time he was feuding with Harlan Ellison, so Harlan was outside at the bar and the scene that plays out as the bar fills up with the confused French audience (language barrier heightening the strange structure of Dick's speech) and Dick's confronting Harlan in the midst of all this is pretty funny (they mostly got along I think but had some bumpy patches).
    When I first read about TMITHC production back when it was a BBC/Ridley Scott thing, I also remember reading about 2 possible projects, one with Paul Giamati the other with Bill Pullman playing Dick in a film, nada so far.
    I must say though that after reading about his life and especially his 'adventures' in the seventies that there is some very compelling stuff there for a story.
     
    Last edited: Nov 24, 2015
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  3. vince

    vince Stan Ricker's son-in-law

    Went to the movies to see "ExiStenz":
    I liked it..
     
  4. Deesky

    Deesky Forum Resident

    Not familiar with the original material. So far I've seen the first 3 eps and I'm liking it quite a bit. I'm absolutely transfixed by Juliana (Alexa Davalos). She's got such an interesting face and those eyes are mesmerizing. In fact, she reminds me of Ingrid Bergman.

    [​IMG]

    Not knowing anything about the source material, the newsreel alternate reality thread is very interesting so far.
     
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  5. ubiknik

    ubiknik Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago, IL USA
    Ingrid was definitely hot!
    Dick was totally infatuated/obsessed with Linda Ronstadt and wrote her as a character into the book Divine Invasion as Linda Fox.
    [​IMG]
     
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  6. psychtrailmix

    psychtrailmix Forum Resident

    Location:
    Philadelphia, PA
    Huge PKD fan - didn't know about this. Thanks much!
     
  7. It's been a while since I read A Scanner Darkly (I read it when it first came out) but I seem to recall thst this was the most faithful to Dick's work. I don't think that a completely faithful adaption would work on the screen even for some of his better plotted novels.
     
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  8. Solaris

    Solaris a bullet in flight

    Location:
    New Orleans, LA
    By "faithful" I mean to have captured the combination of surreal paranoia and the profound ordinariness of many of the characters and their surroundings. There's a certain PKD vibe that we're all familiar with. One writer said something once about Dick's heroes and heroines being ordinary people who find themselves in extraordinary circumstances. I would take it a bit further and say many of his characters are spiritually defeated, or on the verge of it.
     
    wayneklein likes this.
  9. I'd say that's accurate. One always gets the feel that Dick's characters have been worn out by the world they live in and the expectations of them much, no doubt, as Dick himself probably felt. They also no longer quite fit in their world, again, a feeling that Dick would have felt--slightly outmof synch with what was going on.
     
  10. Lonson

    Lonson I'm in the kitchen with the Tombstone Blues

    He was obsessed with Victoria Principal too, near the end of his life. He had a thing for the Dark Haired Girl.

    [​IMG]

    I don't stream any shows so I haven't seen MITHC yet, but will savor it if it comes to disc. One of his most intresting novels.
     
  11. His Masters Vice

    His Masters Vice W.C. Fields Forever

    Try to watch this show on Amazon:

    "This video isn't available due to geographical licensing restrictions. "

    Thanks loads Amazon! Only been buying stuff from you since about 1999. It's not like it's available from any other provider in Australia. Of course there are always ways to watch things, but then my country gets a dirty reputation because we can't watch stuff legally.
     
  12. Zep Fan

    Zep Fan Sounds Better with Headphones on

    Location:
    N. Texas
    I went to Amazon Prime to watch something else, but the banner ad for this series captured my interest. I had heard about internet only series being released all at once. I never watched the TV shows Lost or Twin Peaks, except for half an episode of each.... but watching TMITHC, I feel like I'm watching a combination of both !! I binge watched 5 episodes last night.

    The only thing I would change, is that I would spend twice as much time with the parallel story lines, before switching. The short times between the changes now, seem abrupt, sometimes.

    When I watch the Nazi Officer John Smith (Rufus Swell) I think I'm watching Commander Lee Crane from Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea (David Hedison).

    I was really really wanting replica gun maker Frank Fink (Rupert Evans) to get a Mohawk. [​IMG]

    And, "The Marshall" (Burn Gorman), with his duster and shotgun, had me thinking of Tombstone...

    And, I Love the use of the origami animals... this IS a Phillip K. Dick story after all !!!
     
  13. mindblanking

    mindblanking The Bourbon King

    Location:
    Baltimore, MD
    Bought an Amazon firestick the other day just so I can watch this series on my tv and not just my computer. Will be watching the season finale later today. Despite some very uneven acting and huge plot holes, the premise is so damn great I can't stop watching. Rufus Sewell is incredible in this. Loved him in Dark City.
     
  14. Deesky

    Deesky Forum Resident

    I've seen the whole season now and I enjoyed it a lot.

    ...Mild Spoilers...

    I was hoping by the end we'd get some resolution about the films but that wasn't the case, instead we get an enigmatic cliffhanger type ending. I guess I'm okay with that and I look forward to the next season.

    Oh, and I loved the 1960s Pedal Pusher style pants Juliana wore in the end episodes! ;)
     
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  15. redmetalmoose

    redmetalmoose Forum Resident

    Location:
    New England
    When I was younger I enjoyed reading the books of Isaac Asimov,Arthur C. Clarke,Frank Hebert,J.R.R.Tolkien etc. but somehow never picked up a Philip K.Dick novel.I'll fix that soon.Better late than never as they say.
    Was a bit under the weather yesterday so did my first binge watch of a series.I got a Fire box? that I don't use that much.I'm now glad I checked it out.Amazon seemed to go for a quality product and it shows.I liked the X-Ray feature that can show the real history or meaning of something and then show some production trivia.For example, the way the phone booths were designed that way for the alternate reality to resemble WW2 helmets.Pretty cool.A lot of thought went into this series.
    The only complaint I have is the casting of the part of the Marshall.Someone must have been a huge Torchwood fan.
    I'm not bashing the actor here but he was not right for the part.Took me right out of it.
     
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  16. Zep Fan

    Zep Fan Sounds Better with Headphones on

    Location:
    N. Texas
    I've made it through ep 6, which was the most satisfying ep so far, for me. Staring to really flesh out the characters now...

    -------------- Now watching ep 9.... some lovely twists and turns. :whistle:
     
  17. Encuentro

    Encuentro Forum Resident

    I loved this show! I'm tempted to read the novel to find out what the alternate reality films are all about.
     
  18. zobalob

    zobalob Senior Member

    Location:
    Glasgow, Scotland.
    It's a good book and you should read it but the alternate reality films are substituted for a book in the TV series because it's a visual medium, in the book they're a book.
     
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  19. Deesky

    Deesky Forum Resident

    That might be a dicey proposition. Like you, I don't know anything about the books and so am loving how the story unravels. If I read the books now, while the series is still ongoing (not sure if season 2 has been officially announced, but I'd be surprised if it won't be), then it would act as a spoiler and you wouldn't get the same thrill as new developments are revealed. Well, at least, that's just me.
     
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  20. wwaldmanfan

    wwaldmanfan Born In The 50's

    Location:
    NJ
  21. Encuentro

    Encuentro Forum Resident

    I don't really intend to read the book. Perhaps I'll read it when the series ends. It's just going to be a very long time between seasons. That's the one downside to binge watching streaming video service shows. You're done in about a week but have to wait a year to find out what happens next.
     
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  22. ubiknik

    ubiknik Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago, IL USA
    They are two completely different animals, different enough that knowing one will not affect enjoyment of the other.
    If you happened to have read Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? and also saw Blade Runner, then you would know...
    This is using the same premise that Dick had to deal with and some of the characters, he plotted the novel using the I-Ching's advice as he moved through it. The book is more interesting to read knowing that this is about a parallel universe (Germany and Japan win WW2) in which an author writes a book about our universe (the one we live in), written by an author known to immerse himself wholly into a story as though he were living it until the finish.
    Characters in the book ask the I-Ching for advice and ponder the concept of this (our universe) via the book the author has written -which gives them hope because it is such a vivid world he depicts.
    The parallel to the craft of the story - in the story- is the jewelers, who grapple with the finer points of putting their soul into their art as opposed to making art to make a buck.
    Although it is nice to see this work in a serialized format and decently done, I'm pretty sure the writers here are not using the I-Ching for plot direction. This is written and structured more to be serialized and extended through multiple seasons, this is the guiding all element here. The book as it is could be lavishly done in an 8 to 10 part piece.

    The Leftovers is something I am watching and really liking, I have not read that, and now I am totally fascinated to read the book -I'm sure it's the same deal where they are expanding and adding to the story, so I know the feeling.
    I also notice that the Leftovers is not as accessible as most shows, but it is very Dickian in some good ways and I really like where that show is going and how it's getting there.
     
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  23. ubiknik

    ubiknik Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chicago, IL USA
    Thanks for that bit.
    So is Cronenberg still around?...
    It might be fair to say that some of Dick's novels are very challenging as far as adapting for film, IMO I think it's just a matter of lucky pairing.
    I have thought for awhile now that HBO should court Isa (Dick's daughter) for the rights to all of his novels and anthologize them chronologically. Not every single book, but line up the best whole novels and build a quality crew for each book and go -10 episodes per book, this would probably make for good entertainment and decent art hopefully.
    Viewers could get a feel for his evolution as a writer as it goes, and with each story if the quality is there, the game just might be upped for the next crew and in the end it might draw talent wanting to get in on the later heavier stuff.
     
  24. chrischerm

    chrischerm Forum Resident

    Interesting. At least he still wants a good adaptation, but bummer that it's not moving forward. I recently re-read this as an audiobook performed by Anthony Heald (Dr Chilton in the Silence of the Lambs movie,) and it was a great listen. He gave Runciter such a unique voice. Worth a listen.

    I'm liking the High Castle show so far. A winner for Amazon Prime subscribers.
     
  25. chrischerm

    chrischerm Forum Resident

    Oohh. A Conenberg vision of Ubik might be scary good!
     
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