// February 9th, 2011 // 5 Comments » // Articles, Indie Films, John Alan Simon, Philip K. Dick
Excerpts from David Gill’s TOTAL DICK-HEAD article on the relevance of Philip K. Dick’s novel, RADIO FREE ALBEMUTH, and praising the excellence of John Alan Simon’s film adaptation of RFA.
“Awesome adaptation.”
“When the Egyptian government started rounding up journalists last week, in my mind I kept going back to the movie, which does an amazing job of capturing the maddening injustice of a government working against its people.”
“Simon is able to forefront the human drama in RFA by building the narrative around Nick and Phil’s friendship. As a result, the plot develops out of the characters rather than a science-fictional idea. This is one of the most interesting things that separates RFA from other adaptations of PKD’s work: while Hollywood most often simply lifts one of PKD’s SF concepts and grafts it into Keanu-Cruise computer-generated green-screen action flick with car chases, RFA eschews all of that in favor of the rich interpersonal drama of this friendship.”
“Amid all the high-stakes drama of the Egyptian protests and their foreign policy ramifications, it’s easy to forget that what you are seeing on TV is a human drama, that the protests are made up not of demands but of people who want justice. Those aren’t actors on your screen, and it isn’t fake blood. It’s an important thing to remember and Simon’s adaptation of RFA in both form and content reminds us that this overarching concern with the human element in any situation is often at the core of Dick’s fiction. I’m excited that one way or another, Dick-heads are going to get a chance to see this movie.”
