Blade Runner
Have been having Blogger issues, but here's a chance to comment on Blade Runner.
Be sure to read the essays on Blade Runner available on electronic reserve.
Tuesday, July 06, 2004
Be sure to read the essays on Blade Runner available on electronic reserve.
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9 Comments:
Modern but dated. I liked the way that Los Angeles was portrayed, the artwork was similar to the way it was portrayed in AI. This movie feels like one of those old anime movies made in the 80's, especially Akira. The future looks bleak and filled with people. This is probably the best and most original movie with postmodern themes. The final fight at the end between Deckard and Batty (Rutger Hauer) was pretty intense. The fact that Batty let Deckard live was proof that Batty had empathy for another being and had, in fact developed a conscience. I recommend seeing the director's cut of this movie so that you see the alternate ending that implies that Deckard is in fact a replicant.
I thought it was somewhat interesting how little Deckard works toward the end of the film to distinguish replicants from humans. Early in the film, he comments that he's never killed the wrong person before, and does so in a very ho-hum manner. I think he's gotten somewhat lazy and lost sight of the fact that he's taking a life, often based on a passing glance. Sure, he has the background info on the replicants he's sent to take care of, but there's very little substantiating evidence at the time of his killings. The director makes it clear, initially, that the first replicant killed has no memory or emotional ties to its mother, but from that point on, people are killed because they look like a picture.
Definitely remnant of the old detective movies. Al lthe shots are dark. There is alot of shadows and backlighting on the characters. Alos alot of steam or smoke to blur your view. I felt like I was squinting sometimes to see if I could make out the characters outline to see who it was.
Also a comment on the implanted memories. If you saw the directors cut the movie ends with a shot of a unicorn paper animal I assume that the guy who makes all of them left it there. This might tie into the dream that Deckard had about the unicorn suggesting that he himself might be a robot.
Although I found the settings in the film to be quite captivating, I think it would have been hard to believe in 1982 that Los Angeles in the year 2019 would resemble that of Los Angeles in the movie, with urban decay at the levels portrayed in the film. From a present day perspective, advances in technology such as flying cars and manufactured animals and humans probably appear more feasible than they would have in the early 80's. As Carlo noted, it is interesting that Roy saved Deckard from falling to his death, even after Deckard killed his friends and tried to kill him. This highlights the fact that some of the traits and emotions that we associate closely with humans, such as the capacity for mercy, can at times be seen more readily in non-human entities.
I never have liked Bladerunner, but I do like certain ideas in the film. How it ties sight and the eyes to being human and having emotion is interesting, and never knowing for sure if Deckard is a replicant allows for a lot of room for interpretation, which is great. I think the setting has a lot to do with my disliking the film. I don't see why the plot has to be set in a weird Chinatown in a bleak future. Anyway, the film has some good points, but I really don't like it overall.
~Karen
I think it is intersting how all science fictions movies that project the future, focus on the pervasion of capitalism into our daily lives. In blade runner we repeatedly see the coca cola sign and other advertisements including the japanese woman encouraging people to immigrate to the other planets. In Minority Report we see something similar when Tom Cruise is at the GAP and the image of a woman on an advertising screen starts to talk to him about buying clothes.
Kind of a continuation of the comment from above concerning the advertisements......
I thought it pretty interesting that while there were many mentions of the alternate places to live (can't remember off the top of my head what they were called), there was never any real concrete evidence that we see in the movie that they even really existed. I think it goes a long way toward really accentuating the bleak outlook of 2019 L.A. There aren't even any pictures in the advertisements if I remember correctly, so there's no way to cut through how bad the city is.
Jacob
I agre with MRCoursey on the Detective aspect. Ford's costumes def. remind me of old detective movies. Are all versions of the film so bland? By bland I mean the constrast didn't look great. Sometimes I had a hard time distinguishing everything in the scene. Also, it may have been a limitation of my TV.
I am with Dashaun, with things the way they were in 1982 how is it possible that the world could turn into that much shit in about 40 yrs. It is a reasonable assumption for the far future as we destroy Mother Nature and the atmosphere surrounding our planet. It is interesting how all science fiction brings in this idea of decay as Dashaun pointed out. Look at The Matrix, an artificial world has to be created to hide the cold dark nothingness of the real world. It brings up a lot of issues about preservation and what our world will look like if we continue to misuse the natural world. It almost seems like the earth is recycling itself to get ready for a new world and Bladerunner is closing towards the end of man.
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