Bladerunner

Blade runner - directors cut

Blade Runner is an influential 1982 science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott from a screenplay written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples, adapted from the novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” by Philip K. Dick.

The plot outline: In a cyberpunk vision of the future, man has developed the technology to create replicants, human clones used to serve in the colonies outside Earth but with fixed 4 year long life spans. In Los Angeles, 2019, Deckard is a Blade Runner, a cop who specializes in terminating replicants. Originally in retirement, he is forced to re-enter the force when five replicants (Roy, Zhora, Pris, Leon and a fifth nameless one) escape from an off-world colony to Earth.

There is the obvious enjoyment one can have of simply watching a fantastic film with interesting characters in a stunningly created environment set to terrific music.

The movie has been hailed for its production design, one said to depict a "retrofitted future", linking back to the genera neo-noir from the 1960s.

Blade Runner owes much to Fritz Lang's Metropolis.

Ridley Scott credits Edward Hopper's painting Nighthawks and the proto-cyberpunk short story comic The Long Tomorrow (by Dan O'Bannon, art by Moebius) as stylistic mood sources. In addition, he drew on the industrial night time landscape of his one-time home of Teesside. Scott hired as his conceptual artist Syd Mead, who, like Scott, was influenced by the French science fiction comic magazine MÐ"©tal Hurlant (Heavy Metal),to which Moebius contributed.

Solid materials are used; such as glass and metal, in many sci-fi movies one only see plastic, maybe because a future ideal society would stop the polluting melting business , but a capitalistic society would never stop as long as the resources are available.

Fur and animals though genetically engineered and in that way artificial are present, and this makes the society in the movie even more real and brutal, humans have always kept animals and will do as long as they are around.

The city seems dominated by people from none western cultures (maybe climate refugees), and the Tyrell Tower is clearly influenced by Mayan architecture, all this together accomplish to generate an alien and odd but still familiar city.

This super structure architecture made me wonder about what is happening in the middle where no view is possible, these colossal structures might house factories or some kind of big scale production in its center, or maybe big indoor parks or some kind of recreational facilities, maybe a combination.

Growing up in the rainiest city of Norway the rainy, damp and polluted city felt very familiar. It seems the quality of the production and the flirt with 30s esthetics might give it realism it need being a sci-fi movie.

The link to the depression in the 30s might also give a face to a future where globalization, global warming and genetic engineering have gone wrong.

Also the classic detective narrative that follows Decker is linked to the 30’s and this gives this future story a familiar and comprehensible form that serves the philosophical theme well.

People are leaving for the colonies, and the sick and the poor is left on earth, this makes me somehow think of the famine in Ireland and lack of farmland in my own home county Norway that made people leave for America.

The music is by Vangelis, classical compositions but with futuristic synthesizers, this music is legendary in the electronic scene and many have used elements and have done remakes of the legendary “Blade Runner theme”, I would say the Hypnosis version from 84 is the best reedit of this theme.

Both the ethnic and the retro elements are also present in the score.

The thematic philosophical questions asked intrigue me;

"What does it mean to be human?"

"What is the difference between real memories and artificial memories?"

"How does our environment affect us?"

"What are the moral issues we face in the creation of artificial people?"

Roy Batty (the main replicant) and Deckard (the blade runner who kills replicants) are both able to show us what it means to be human.

Through this movie, we see this epic quest filled with meaning and symbolism that apply to the human condition. Replicants are basically human beings, except for the fact that they lack a history. As a consequence of this, perhaps, they also lack proper emotional faculties especially empathy. Empathy is the ability to place oneself in the position of another living being and understand that person’s feelings.

Blade runner promotes that empathy is the defining characteristics for humanity. The replicants, designed not to show any emotion, develop spiritually and emotionally throughout the film.

The characters in the movie, even the ones that are not human, have many humanistic and believable qualities. Many of them are able to feel love as well as hate.

Although Deckard is supposedly human he at times shows less emotion than Roy. He seems heartless and uncompassionate making himself look very inhumane. We see that Deckard is possibly not "human" as well, but a replicant.

He shows no compassion when he tells Rachel that she is a replicant with implanted memories.

In tears, Rachel sneaks out of Deckard’s apartment and into the streets. The only time in which Deckard really shows emotion is accomplished when Roy, fighting Deckard through one hell of a battle, looks terrified knowing that he is going to die. Through this, Roy tries to communicate his life experiences and the importance of life before his own comes to an end explaining of the horrors of their enslavement.

Again, all of these human characteristics that the non-human characters showed make them more believable for the viewers. The whole definition of humanity is changed by its interaction with the Replicants.

For the replicant Roy Batty it was obvious that that he felt strong emotions, perhaps even love for his fellow replicants. After Deckard killed Pris, Roy leaned over her and kissed her showing that he had loved her. This kiss is touching but have