i’m basically “pro-do whatever you want as long as you’re enjoying yourself and not hurting other people”
Blade Runner is a film that needs to be watched more than once to truly appreciate it it for what it is.
The general, watered down plot of Blade Runner (although it is important to mention there are several different edited versions) concerns Rick Deckard; a dissatisfied bounty hunter whose job is to retire fugitive replicants who are illegal on Earth after a mutiny commited by nexus 6 models in the off world colony, realising that androids develop emotions and life experience after a few years, the Tyrell Corporation built the Nexus 6 models (the replicants seen in the film) with a life-span of four years. Deckard is called upon by the Police Department to retire 5 replicants who have escaped to Earth in order to find their maker for the purpose of extending their life-span, or revenge for the fact they can not extend their life span and must die when their time is up. Deckard retires them all one by one, and along the way he meets Rachel, a beautiful film noir type female character whom he learns is a replicant herself, the only thing that separates her from the other nexus 6’s is the fact she was given false memories and in the beginning - does not even know she is an android.
On the first viewing of this film, one might be inclined to treat it as an art-house science fiction film, for the role fact it is beautiful to look at and indeed I have read many reviews of people saying exactly that. ”It’s nice to look at, but too long and too tiresome” and this is where I must vehemently disagree. Blade Runner poses the philosophical questions of what makes us Human? and indeed, the novel from which Blade Runner is loosely based is ”Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” by Philip K. Dick, one of the most genius titles I have ever come across; in essence posing the question what distinguishes the androids from humans? They look human, they are as intelligent, if not superior in intelligence and strength to human beings and it is made clearly stated that androids develop all the emotions of human beings within the first few years of their ‘life-time’ and in order to stop this, they are built to only last for four years and then to die. This in itself is a morally complex issue; to kill someone that is essentially human, or what is human? What makes us human beings?
There are many things I could talk about within Blade Runner and first I will start with the aesthetics; one of the last major films to be made with no CGI, using painted backgrounds amongst other things.
Ridley Scott creates beautiful shot after beautiful shot in this film, and it is evident to see how much effort and thought was put into just this. From a closeup of an eye watching the dystopian city, to a shot of a dove flying up and away into a blue sky.
The 5 replicants in the film are Leon, Zora, Roy Batty and Pris (the escaped androids) and Rachel, although there are many theories toying with the possibility of Deckard himself being a Replicant.
It is very difficult to simply label Deckard a hero and to label the fugitive androids as villains because Deckard is not a hero and Zhora, Leon, Roy and Pris however strange and violent they act, are not villains. A poignant part of Blade Runner is the very earnest desire to live and the angst and sorrow over the fact they can not and must die soon.Leon, possibly the least intelligent of the androids is the first we are shown on screen - taking the Voight-Kampff test, a test designed to differentiate human beings and androids measuring factors such as blush responses, eye movement and heart rate in relation to emotionally provocative questions.
Zhora, a model built for super endurance with moderate intelligence is the first android to be retired by Deckard, he finds her in an exotic bar as a snake dancer, almost immediately Zhora perceives Deckard as a threat and after attacking him, attempts to escape, however Deckard chases her and shoots her in the back.
After this, Leon attacks Deckard and is then killed himself, by Rachel.
Pris ”a basic pleasure model’ with moderate intelligence is the third replicant to be retired and after all this, it is easy to think of the replicants as wholly ”other” and violent, in this way it is quite easy to think of them as villains when first watching, however it is the last replicant Roy Batty, the leader of the renegade nexus 6’s a model with extreme skill in combat coupled with extreme intelligence who really questions our own morality.
Roy is so existential in his words that it is extremely easy to forget he is a machine and not a highly intelligent, thoughtful human man. After Deckard has retired the 3 fugitives he is hunted by Roy, however when Deckard finds himself dangling from a building, he is pulled to safety by Roy, who in his soliloquy (his dying words) tells Roy all the wonderful things he has seen in his life; ”I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe; attack ships on fire…off the shoulder of Orion. I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like…tears in the rain…time to die” the speech highlights all the wonderful moments in Roy Batty’s short life whilst subtly demonstrating his human like qualities, his gentleness and appreciation of life itself and his sorrow over the fact his memories, these amazing things he has seen will die when he dies. The fact that his fate is beyond his own control coupled with the fact he is a passionate, intelligent person is what, after second and third viewings changes the whole perception we have of the androids.
However, it would be wrong to then turn it the other way around and label Deckard a villain, as he is not, he is just a man doing his job because before he meets Rachel, it is a job he doesn’t think of as morally ambiguous or even morally wrong. Deckard’s transformation throughout the film is also a beautiful and sad rendition of human morality. To begin with, Deckard views the replicants as ‘skin-jobs’ (a derogatory term for replicant) but by the end of the film, as he sits in the rain with the dying Roy, listening to his dying words, he can see the human in the androids and there is a popular theory that Deckard is in fact an android himself.
The lonely blade runner (replicant bounty hunter) finds an unlikely love interest in Rachel, a beautiful, intelligent replicant who has already developed sophisticated emotions similar to a humans.
Blade Runner is definitely a film that you need to watch more than once to see past the obvious beauty of the film and the City and the world in which it is set, to truly appreciate the characters themselves and the philosophy and poetry of Roy Batty and the subtle transformations of Rick Deckard and the bitter-sweet doomed love interest he finds in Rachel and then the bigger questions of human morality.
I adore the film, I could never tire of watching it and I would recommend it to anyone and everyone.
((this isn’t really a review, it’s more of me rambling about my love of it))
tumblr’s really weird in regard to people trying to make themselves feel like ”nice” social warriors
/a picture of a gay couple/
OMG SO CUTEEEEEE WOWW SOOO ADORABLE OMG ^_^ THEYREEE SOOOOO CUTEEEEEEE
like wow guys can you get anymore weird and patronizing
oh of course it’s always lovely to see a couple in love, but some of the tumblr shit kinda sets my teeth on edge but maybe im just cynical lol i hate whenever anyone cute talks
