Blade Runners

Blade Runner

Title of Film: Blade Runner

Year of Publication: 1982

Director: Ridley Scott

Screen-Writer: Hampton Fancher & David Webb Peoples

Lead Actors: Harrison Ford (Rick Deckard); Rutger Hauer (Roy Batty); Sean Young

(Rachael); Daryl Hannah (Pris); Brian James (Lean Kowalski); Joanna

Cassidy (Zhora); Joe Turkel (Dr. Eldon Tyrell); William Sanderson (J. F.

Sebastian); James Hong  (Hannibal Chew); Michael Emmet Walsh (Bryant)

Running Time: 1h57min.

Film Review

In the year 2019, in Los Angeles, California, a group of replicants - beings virtually identical to humans - are utilized as slaves in off-colonies, thanks to the Tyrell Corporation, who developed these creatures in the first place. With such a short lifespan, a specific squad of replicants by the name of "Nexus 6" rebels onto Earth to seek for their creators in hopes to reprogram their "expiration" dates - their day of death. Due to their illegal presence on this planet, Rick Deckard, a blade runner - special police officer ordered to kill any trespassing replicant upon detection - is pulled out of his retirement because he is, as a matter of fact, the only one capable of eliminating these creatures. He, therefore, conducts a series of investigations and tests in order to detect and "retire" - kill - all remaining replicants. In the meanwhile, Dr. Eldon Tyrell creates another experiment by the name of Rachael, who thinks she's a human being, when in reality, she's an improved replicant implanted with memories, which gives her the perspective of being real. Rick Deckard eventually falls in love with Rachael, making his job slightly more complex than it needs to be.

First off, although the first scene, which was when a replicant kills an interrogator, happened to be incomprehensible and quite confusing at first, the plot itself was clear for us due to the added information scrolling through the film to visually read before it started. In other words, it helped put us in context of the current situation and also aided in the clarification of what a "replicant" and what a "blade runner" is. It also left us, and certainly other viewers, with room for questions and assumptions about this movie. 

When it comes to the global setting of the film, it is represented through a gloomy and futuristic environment, specifically in the year 2019, in Los Angeles. We weren't able to physically perceive Los Angeles in this movie, although it clearly stated it in the beginning. As a matter of fact, most of the scenes were displayed in an overpopulated city, where it could easily be mistaken for New York City because of all those electronic billboards. It also displayed an area greatly influenced by the Asian culture, which may symbolize knowledge and advanced technology (e.g. the use of flying cars) in order to represent the future. The use of low-key lighting and electronic music throughout most of the film also helped set a futuristic mood, and a dark one as well, which portrayed the world in 2019 appropriately. 

While on the topic of non-diegetic sounds, the use of other types of music playing during the movie benefitted in creating a dramatic effect through certain scenes. For instance, in the scene were J. F. Sebastian invited Pris to enter his home, a short mischievous background music began to foreshadow a feeling that something harmful was about to happen later on in the film. There is also the scene where Rachael played smooth classical music on the piano to indirectly represent the innocence of her existence, where she couldn't distinguish the truth between being a replicant or a human being. This type of music provided us with a moment of nostalgia, contrasting the futuristic environment of the entire movie. When it comes to diegetic sounds, we disliked how some of the sound effects appeared fake (e.g. punches during fights, gun shots, etc.) because it downgraded the realism of the actions being committed.

The sets constructed for this film compensated for the lack of realism. As a matter of fact, we greatly appreciated the look of all the creators' homes, where it grew in size to represent each creators' involvement in the creation of replicants. For example, Cannibal's Chew's laboratory appeared bright-white, cold, and small, which represents his participation of creating the eyes of the replicants. J. F. Sebastian's home was a grand abandoned building, representing his unexplainable creativeness in designing these replicants. In addition, his house reflected a creepy wonderland of fabricated toys, which portrays his lonesome and childish personality. Lastly, Dr. Eldon Tyrell's heavenly mansion symbolized a replicant's mind, which seems so complex and demanded for great knowledge and effort. His home also displayed high-key lighting, which potentially gives us the perspective of him being the "hero" of the film, in which Dr. Eldon Tyrell was the only one capable of finding a solution to control these replicants.

Cannibal Chew's Laboratory

Dr. Eldon Tyrell's Home

J. F. Sebastian's Home

Although Dr. Eldon Tyrell played an important role in this movie, only a few characters remained engraved on our minds such as:

Rick Deckard

Rick Deckard, known as Harrison Ford, played this straightforward blade runner, with only one goal: to retire the remaining replicants. He has been dragged out of his own retirement by his former boss who convinced him that he was the only man for the job. In this film, this character doesn't show much emotions, even when expressing his feelings to Rachael, which could potentially explain why this interacting appears more awkward than romantic. This also made us question the truth of his existence because a lack of emotions is what differences human beings from replicants. 

When it comes to his acting skills, we believe that he played a decent role for a main character. Although he seemed quite neutral throughout the entire film, his physical features were appropriate for a policeman.

Rachael

Rachael, also known as Sean Young, played this innocent replicant, who strongly wished to be human, in our opinion. She seemed afraid of feeling and accepting her emotions because she's inexperienced with this aspect of life. In other words, we interpreted that her implanted memories don't have any data of how to act in certain ways (e.g. how to kiss, how to love, etc.). This actor therefore portrayed very well Rachael's torn decision about the truth of own existence.

J. F. Sebastian

J. F. Sebastian symbolized, in our opinion, the "odd" creator in this movie, which is shown through his lonesome and advanced decrepitude lifestyle, surrounded by a dark atmosphere. He appeared vulnerable when it comes to having company, which might explain why he decided to help out his fellow creations, Roy and Pris.

Roy Batty

Roy Batty, also known as Rutger Hauer, represented the superior replicant in this film, where he is the perfect one. He showed great knowledge, strength, and perseverance to maintain the lives of the replicants a part of Nexus 6. He also demonstrated loyalty towards all replicants by fighting for his life in order to find a solution to their main problem: to prolong their lives.

He is, in our opinion, the actor who played his role with such passion to a point where we could connect with him, specifically by sensing his fear of dying. As he mentioned in the movie, "to be a slave is the experience to live in fear", and Rutger greatly reflected this through the way he delivered his lines, especially the ones before his death.

Pris

Pris played a devious role by befriending J. F. Sebastian. She also has a romantic involvement with Roy, which explains why we perceived them as a power duo throughout the movie. They played J. F. quite well to have the ability to convince him to help them out, despite the fact that we all had a gut feeling of them stabbing him in the back afterwards.

When it comes to techniques used throughout this film, the director's use of dreams created a mysterious illusion for the viewers, which might have impact us in a good or bad manner (e.g. Rick Deckard's dream about a unicorn). As a matter of fact, this technique left us room for self-interpretation.

The director's use of special effects (e.g. explosions, camera angles, etc.) also left us questioning the meaning of multiple scenes. For instance, the camera angles and side-lighting displayed in the scene where Deckard is trying to find a way to escape from Roy demonstrated, in our opinion, a "danger" zone and a "safe" zone, where Deckard is torn between a life and death situation.

Lastly, despite this film's initial vagueness, the theme of "Blade Runner" was always very clear to us. In other words, we believe that the main theme displayed throughout this movie is based on the evolution of robots.

1371 words

Quality of the Film

Blade Runner is considered as one of the best fiction movies of all time. The movie contains many interesting themes like personhood and what makes a person human and addresses them very well, meaning that they were very well presented by having replicants. The actors were well chosen, Harrison Ford who played Deckard acted as a emotionless human which kind of made us doubt whether he was a replicant or not. And Sean Young who played Rachael showed multiple emotions very well throughout the movie. However, this movie had many weaknesses. The story was over detailed, meaning that there was too much to pay attention too. We had to pay careful attention to every detail because we could lose the understanding of a scene that would explain to us another and it would confuse us very easily. Secondly, there was a lot of background information missing, for example Deckard. It would have been great if they would’ve put more deepness into his past to see why he was the way he was and what made him be a blade runner to make us understand a bit more his character and personality in the present. 

Course Connections

Blade Runner emphasizes the idea that replicants are not considered as real humans. We had a feeling that by exterminating all the replicants from the Earth, they had no rights. In other words, they are not granted personhood. At the beginning of the movie, Rick Deckard, said that no matter what, replicants had to be killed. It didn't even matter if they had done nothing bad. Replicants were a threat to humanity and Rick Deckard had the job to kill them all. Bryant, Rick Deckard's boss, didn't show a lot of respect for these AI, he was even calling them "skin-jobs", which shows how much he hated them. They had no value and they were basically nothing for him. We believe that replicants were not granted personhood and because of that, they were portrayed as slaves. Humans could do whatever they wanted with replicants. There is also another important thing: they don't have "real" memories. Their memories are implants. As a matter of fact, Rachael's memories were not hers, they were Dr. Eldon Tyrol's niece's memories. Our memories are extremely important because it makes us remember our past. when things are granted personhood, it is because they are seen as sentient beings with a conscious. Our memories allow us to be sentient and remember things that we experienced. Replicants had memories to make them think that they were human beings, when in reality, it wasn't their own memories. It was simply another way to control them.

Memory is a concept that is present throughout the movie. A philosopher Locke, had this idea about our memories and that in a way, it makes us who we are since we can recall many events of our life. It’s the narrative part of ourselves and without memories; we wouldn’t be who we are today. In Blade Runner, like we said before, Racheal has implants memories. It’s not her memories but someone else so it makes her believe that she is human because she can recall many memories that happened to her throughout her life. After she learned that it wasn’t her memories, it made her doubt herself because she doesn’t know who she is anymore, is she a replicant or a human?  Our memories are necessary for our personal identity, according to Locke. Who are we without our memories? If we would learn that our memories would be implanted, it would change our perceptions. We wouldn’t be the same person anymore. It would make us question everything that we know or that we had experienced.

Another important concept is one of Descartes' quote, which is: "I am thinking so therefore I am". The audience started to discover that J. F. Sebastian thought that his replicants were his own toys, his possessions. He didn't value much about replicants, despite the fact that he helped create them. Pris is the one who stated: "I am thinking so therefore I am". In "Blade Runner", replicants are viewed as slaves to their creators. In other words, they belong to their masters, which explains why replicants felt obliged to obey them. If they are thinking, they are having some intellectual thoughts. They are more than just replicants. Thinking is an individual essential "self". We certainly know ourselves that we are always thinking.

Questions

-       Is Deckard a replicant?

-       Should a replicant be qualified to obtain personhood? Why?

-       How would you react if you found out that your memories of childhood were fake? Why?

Elaboration of Themes and Contents

Blade Runner Insight. Chapman, Murray. What is the signification of the unicorn? WEB. 1998. http://www.br-insight.com/significance-of-the-unicorn. Accessed on November 5, 2016.

We thought that one of the important concepts of the film was the unicorn. It was a hard concept to get but it was also super interesting and an important part of the movie. It talks about how Rachael is the representation of the unicorn, how unicorns are fascinating creatures and how Racheal is a rare replicant. The fact that Rachael was the only replicant that was able to show emotions made her very special and unique like a unicorn. 

Den of Geek!. Lambie, Ryan. How Ridley Scott’s Recent Films Link to Blade Runner. WEB. December 16th, 2014. http://www.denofgeek.com/us/movies/ridley-scott/242170/how-ridley-scotts-recent-films-link-to-blade-runner (Consulted on November 19th, 2016)

This article links many of Ridley Scott’s to Blade Runner. He has produced many many movies in which futuristic and existential themes were expressed in his movies. And helps us understand the themes showed in Blade Runner. 

Works Cited

"Blade Runner 30th Anniversary Trailer." YouTube, uploaded by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, 6 September 2012, https;//www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYhJ7Mf2Oxs

"Blade Runner." IMDb. 1990, http;//www.imdb.com/title/tt0083658?ref_=rvi_tt. Accessed on October 22 2016.

Images:

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Unknown Author. "Blade Runner Three Decades Later: How a Masterpiece of Production Design Left Its Mark on Los Angeles (and Vice Versa)." Under the Hollywood Sign, 2010, https://underthehollywoodsign.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/blade_runner1.jpg. Accessed on November 19 2016.

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Peter Kenny. Under Another Sun, 2015, http://anothersun.blogspot.ca/2015/04/a-perfect-day-in-brighton.html. Accessed on November 19 2016

Unknown Author. "Mid-Week Match-Up: A Blade Runner-Inspired Room." Mirror 80, 2011, http://www.mirror80.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/BR-4.jpg. Accessed on November 19 2016

Warner Bros. ET, 2013, http://www.etonline.com/media/photo/2013/08/24032005/640_Sean_Young_Harrison_For.jpg. Accessed on November 20 2016

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Unknown Author. Giphy, Publication Date Unknown, http://gph.is/29hguBk. Accessed on November 19, 2016. 

Unknown Author. Giphy, Publication Date Unknown, http://giphy.com/gifs/blade-runner-iUws0NJxrUwko. Accessed on November 19, 2016