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THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO PHILIP K. DICK

Philip K. Dick produced a great deal of work from the late fifties throughout the early eighties when he died, churning out some fifty novels, five volumes of short stories, tons of personal correspondence, and an 8,000-page opus he called The Exegesis. His most famous works are the books on which Hollywood films have been based (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? became Blade Runner while We Can Remember It for You Wholesale became Total Recall), though Dick's ideas were usually far too complicated (and sometimes subversive) for any mainstream film to truly tackle.

Dick, who according to Gospel never found true success either critically or financially while he was alive, lived on the liberal fringe of society for years. As he experimented with drugs and steam barreled through almost as many marriages as Liz Taylor, the author's sanity grew increasingly precarious. The themes of his work the nature of reality and identity came to permeate his very existence in 1974 when, the author claimed, a "pink light" invaded his mind and connected him to either God or some higher plane. This experience was the basis of Dick's Exegesis, a massive work that more or less consumed the man for the last eight years of his life as he attempted to record or channel what he learned from his epiphany.

It all sounds like pretty wacky, hippie-type stuff, and the details, as related by Dick's friends and colleagues in Gospel, are never fully explored. Instead, what the film offers is a short overview of the odder episodes of the author's story, a titillating look at the life and times of a brilliant, possibly insane man. The result is a documentary that will fascinate some, causing them to leave the film with a hunger for more detail on Philip K. Dick's ideas and experiences. But others will undoubtedly be left unaffected by Gospel, possibly feeling cheated by the picture's low production values. Produced for $10,000 and shot entirely on video, the film consists almost solely of talking-head interviews and a slightly irritating electronic score. The result doesn't feel like a feature film as much as it does a weird hybrid of The X-Files and Headliners and Legends.

The late author himself also appears from time to time, personified as a computer animated cartoon character that mouths Dick's words (words culled from barely audible tape-recorded interviews conducted when the man was still alive). The chance to hear from the actual subject of Gospel is welcome indeed, but the framing device director Mark Steensland employs just doesn't work. The animation is so simplistic that it reeks of amateur hour, and Dick's musings which should tie the entire film together are so difficult to hear that they are rendered ineffective.

The film truly loses itself in its final reel, when the filmmakers suddenly decide to allot far too much time to the fan base that is devoted to Dick and his work. Here Steensland could have attempted to flesh out some more detail about Dick's life, but instead we get footage that comes across as ad space for the Philip K. Dick online community.

Like the film itself, the extra features found on this DVD will appeal mainly to sci-fi fans in general, and Philip K. Dick hounds specifically. The full frame transfer is adequate, as the film was shot entirely on video, though the sound throughout Gospel is somewhat muffled. I believe this is a result of the original source material, however, and not the transfer itself.

A Philip K. "DICKtionary" is the first of the extras, composed of a bunch of phrases and terms that will assist the viewer in his or her understanding of the author's terminology. Expressions such as "anamnesis" (the Greek work for "recollection") and "2-3-74" (Dick's term for the period in 1974 when he had most of his mystical visions) are succinctly defined here, with each term linking to a piece of video from the film or disc that explains the phrase more precisely.

The behind-the-scenes photo gallery is not of much use, consisting of about ten images of the filmmakers posing with their interview subjects. Better to give us a look at Dick himself here, since his true visage is not seen once throughout the entirety of the film.

Of more interest is the "director's interview" and "bonus footage" that round out these extras. The segment with the director, while a poor substitute for an audio commentary, is still worthwhile as it offers insight into Steensland's reasons for making the film and why he chose to present Dick as an animated character, as well as some of the creepy happenings that occurred while shooting the project. Unfortunately, the five-minute running time of this interview is far too short and only serves to emphasis the lack of a commentary track. Ditto the bonus footage, which while interesting, amounts to nothing more than a few deleted interview clips from the picture.

The Gospel According to Philip K. Dick ultimately comes across as a labor of love made by fans of the author for fans of the author. Any newbie hoping to cross over to this strange land should stand warned you will find no Hollywood sci-fi fest here. But if the viewer is willing to overlook a miniscule budget and the occasional directorial misstep, they might just find themselves rewarded with a compellingly oddball true story.