Scanners [Blu-ray]

The film that took “mind blowing” to a whole new level!
I bought the Blu-ray; Cronenberg’s “Scanners” has never looked better–although it still looks low-budget and seedy. But five stars anyway. Think about it: if a film has anti-technology themes and yet is technologically stunning, isn’t it contradicting itself? And if, on the other hand, it stands its ground, it’ll need to stand, somehow, at the low-tech end of moviemaking. So that’s one thing, and here’s another: this film has makeup by the great Dick Smith; music by Howard Shore; and, obviously, somebody out there created all those wonderful sculptures we see in the art gallery-scene and in the artist’s studio-scene, so, obviously, a lot of attention was paid to certain details in this film, from which it must follow that if “Scanners” fails to look and to sound as you think a great movie ought to look and sound, then maybe “Scanners” wants to mess with your mind–and let’s not forget that nothing about a motion picture is ever “natural”: your expectations for the movies are mostly all just learned behaviors–or in other words, you’re putty in a smart director’s hands, aren’t you? So try watching “Scanners” with all that in mind; and watch it more than once; and watch it back-to-back with Brian De Palma’s “The Fury”: let your daydreams build a playground on the common ground between the two films. In fact, one of the most remarkable thing about “Scanners” is that it and “The Fury” are two separate films. After all, both were made within just a few years, and both concern the same clash of values between, on the one hand, confused, fragile humanists with too much psychokinetic ability for their own good; and, on the other hand, self-righteous, power mad sociopaths willing to disappear anyone who gets in their way. Plus, “The Fury” ends with a body exploding through the power of the mind, leaving only a head falling back to earth; and “Scanners” had, as its original first scene, a man’s head exploding through the power of the mind, leaving only the body. So, there’s a bit of point-counterpoint going on, which we can take much further: pick at random a few major virtues of De Palma’s “The Fury”– say, (1) an A-list cast delivering bright, charming performances, (2) smart and sharp cinematography, (3) beautiful sets, (4) a typically engaging John Williams score, and (5) a high-level, Pakula-like conspiracy at the root of the on-screen action. Well, sure enough, Cronenberg presents us with (1) a relatively unknown cast giving mostly wooden performances, (2) quite a bit of amateur-looking camera work, (3) decidedly ugly sets, (4) a musical score that Amazon reviewers disparage, and (5) at the heart of the action, a grass-roots conspiracy of apparent street punks hoping to take down corporations. So, all that’s all flip for flop, isn’t it? And it doesn’t end there: the politics of “The Fury” are those of a James Bond flick (Kirk Douglas in the white hat; Cassavetes in black), while those of “Scanners” are a mess: the only heroes are a handful of doomed, pacifistic outcasts; and just who the “bad guys” are, and what they want, and why they want it, are beyond the viewer’s grasp from first to last–and then, even beyond the last and into the credits, as the viewer beside you is heard to mumble, “Uh…, what just happened?”It must be true then, all things considered, that the wooden acting in “Scanners” is, for some reason, what the director wanted. Why? Well, wooden acting does keep the viewer slightly outside the drama. Maybe that means it can also help keep us thinking critically. “Scanners” compares well, in that respect, to “Frenzy,” another auteur work that deliberately exploits an unknown cast in order to keep the viewer from taking sides: with no Jimmy Stewarts on deck, we’re on our own.Take a look at the sets in “Scanners”: the film opens in what seems to be an off-world location but turns out to be just a big, crass shopping mall. (The shopping mall in “The Fury,” by the way, is a thing of beauty: full of live trees and natural light) so Cronenberg begins by showing us the commercial realm as a place of artificiality, peopled by consumers who are equal parts smug satisfaction and final impotence. The story then moves to inhabit faceless, concrete, corporate strongholds–so power, in this movie, is definitely ugly; and, in contrast, the commune scene (think “Easy Rider” with ESP instead of LSD) is genuinely touching and terribly hopeful. In another key scene, the humanist school bus (yes, literally) crashes into a record store (and yes, there did used to be record stores on Planet Earth)–and what could be more appropriate? Granted, the war between Art and Technology is nearly imperceptible to us these days, since “cold blooded Technology” is winning it hands-down: we take for granted the green-screen scene and the tweaked, re-tuned audio–but let’s for a moment recall that an Art-versus-Techno war was in fact fought across most of our lifetimes, and was fought, in particular, within the music industry and in moviemaking. So, there’s something surpassingly poignant in the way that a crashed bus lies ajar amongst all those scattered vinyl disks–and video did, in fact, kill the radio star, which is also surely relevant: take, for instance, Jennifer O’Neill’s role in “Scanners”: why do we root for her? Just because she’s pretty! And that, my friend, is a smart director proving in a snap just how easily he takes control of your mind.And then there’s this: ESP and psychokinesis are not in fact high-tech devices, are they? Nor are they in some way “modern.” In fact, ESP and such are (would be) the lowest-tech possible form of what we now call “energy” because, if humans could perform incredible feats using only our collective minds, then we wouldn’t need any wheels and levers, wouldn’t need to buy apps and upgrades–heck, we wouldn’t even need math. So, the common struggle of the ESP-freaks in “Scanners” and “The Fury” must be seen and understood as an anti-technology Declaration of Human Independence, represented on the silver screen, in both films, by compassion and a sense of community; and in “Scanners” also as a consciously Art-for-Art’s-sake sensibility–e.g., “My art keeps me sane.” The ESP freaks in both these films aren’t ghosts in the machine: they’re ghosts outside the machine; and their fundamental struggle is to remain outside–that is, to evade soul-crushing aspects of modern culture–and yet to remain, somehow, still alive. And that gestalt is fundamental to Cronenberg’s oeuvre. Right? Of course.None of this is meant to suggest that “Scanners” succeeds as a slick, mesmerizing, complacently satisfying, modern entertainment. The point is that mesmerization’s dime-a-dozen, and how much more of it do you need? Why not watch something more quirky? Something that might make you wonder, worry, feel discomfort, maybe even doubt a few of your consumption assumptions–maybe even doubt “human progress”–and all in the name of good, clean, vicariously dangerous fun.

Es una excelente edicion en DIGIPACK de CC.Estaba indeciso entre pedir esta pelicula o VIDEODROME que es un semi digipack pero que a fin de cuenta es una caja normal con slipcover, y pues incluso en material bonus, esta pelicula es superior ya que trae una de las primeras peliculas de Cronenberg entre sus materiales bonus y una enorme serie de entrevistas.

Eine Untergrundbewegung von Scannern (Menschen mit telepathischen und telekinetischen Fähigkeiten) strebt die Weltherrschaft an. Eine dubiose und machthungrige Firma nimmt im Auftrag der Regierung den Kampf auf und setzt ihrerseits einen Scanner auf den Anführer des Untergrunds (Michael Ironside) an. Cronenbergs Film offenbahrt dem Zuschauer eine paranoide Welt, indem jeder aus einer gesellschaftlichen Randgruppe überwacht und abgehört (in diesem Falle gescannt) werden kann. Die unsichtbare Bedrohung ist jederzeit spürbar und überträgt sich auch auf den Zuschauer. Paralellen zu Orwells “1984” sind erkennbar. Der Film baut seine Spannung eher schleichend auf und ist nicht im Bereich Action oder Horror angesiedelt, obwohl er durchaus auch Elemente aus diesen Genres enthält. Cronenberg zeigt erneut das Bild von machthungrigen Wissenschaftlern deren Arbeit aus dem Ruder läuft und dessen Schaden kaum eingedämmt werden kann (wie auch in “Rabid” oder “Die Fliege”). Auch die Kritik an Politik und Gesellschaft ist typisch für die Filme des Kanadiers. Der Inhalt des Films kann überzeugen, die technische Seite der Blu-Ray nur bedingt. Während die Bildqualität akzeptabel ist (zumindest für einen Film aus den frühen 80ern), kann der Ton weitaus weniger überzeugen. Der DTS-Ton enthält fast durchgehend ein deutlich hörbares Hintergrundrauschen.Fazit: Starker Cronenberg-Klassiker mit Schwächen im Soundbereich, mit dem man letztlich leben kann (oder muß). Die 5-Sterne-Wertung bezieht sich daher ausschließlich auf den Film und nicht auf die technische Seite dieser Blu-Ray.

Despite it’s low budget, David Cronenberg’s Scanners is a great horror film and remains a personal favorite. Tracking down this Canadian cult classic has been difficult, so I’m happy to finally own a good copy for my collection at a reasonable cost. I first saw Scanners just after it was released on Pay TV in the 80’s when I taped it onto VHS. 35 years later, it’s now a part of my movie library on DVD! A difficult movie to find – many fans will no doubt be thankful to Criterion for finally releasing it with a slew of extras. That being said, Criterion DVD’s are very expensive, so I looked into some cost saving alternatives…Tracking down a movie can be an adventure, rather than purchasing the pricey Criterion version, I opted to save myself some money. I took a chance and imported my copy of Scanners from the U.K. in PAL format. The version I own is a 2013 DVD release in 16×9 Anamorphic widescreen, running 99 minutes, and is released by Second Sight Films. The print quality is excellent, and the disc also includes 5 special bonus features – which differ from the Criterion release. The disc is region 2, so you need a multi-region player to play it. I am sure the Criterion release of this film is fantastic, but in this particular case, I didn’t want to spend $45 or more! I still occasionally will splurge on a film, but these days, it’s becoming rarer. I was able to buy my copy of Scanners for about $12, including shipping. Scanners is a movie I really wanted, call it a guilty pleasure if you will, and at this price I couldn’t be happier. These days I’m looking to the U.K. more and more to find rare titles at reasonable prices. I’m 100% satisfied.