I saw RFA at the Revelation Film Festival here in Perth two nights ago. I haven't read the book, but Dick fans in the audience seemed well pleased. One said he was surprised at how much of the book had made it into the film. Translating any book to the screen is difficult, but a book by Philip K Dick would be doubly so. After seeing Blade Runner I read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and found the detachment and lack of emotion very off-putting. For example, Roy Baty doesn't deliver a stirring monologue in his final moments. His death is reduced to one cold sentence - something like, "Deckard went into the room where Roy was standing, and retired him." On the basis of the Dick novels I have read, I would say that John Simon, the scriptwriter and director, added just the right degree of emotional tension. Ambiguity is another common feature in Dick's writing. In the book Do Androids etc, Deckard is left wondering whether one of his co-workers is a replicant. This is the question that Ridley Scott transferred to Deckard himself in the movie. Radio Free Albemuth left me wondering again and again, were these people really hearing divine voices? Or were they just a bunch of free-ranging nutters? 9 out of 10 for a well made and thought provoking film.
Review of Radio Free Albemuth
