BLADE RUNNER
CHARACTERS:
Casting, Dialogue, Character’s actions/reactions/camera work/lighting/soundtrack
RICK DECKARD:
- Hero, male protagonist.
1982 VERSION
- Film mirrors 40’s -50’s classic Hollywood male figures like Bogart & Wayne. (Detective film noir)
- Aging, lone, Byronic tough guy-type
- Detective style, V O narrative in original
- Violence/experience/sexuality/hardness.
V O: “They didn’t advertise for killers in a newspaper. That was my job; ex-cop, ex-blade runner, ex-killer…sushi – that’s what my wife called me”
- - This reflects Deckard’s exposed, even in Director’s Cut, he is alone.
- - Old, hardened, ‘ex’, lonely, out of work, perhaps reluctant killer, emotionally cold (sushi), complex past, not taken ‘test’.
- - End –questions his own humanity and mortality.
- - Action revolves around him
- - He knows he is an ‘ex’
- - Doesn’t like his role a killer
- - Empathises with those he’s supposed to kill/hunt/fall in love.
- - Questions his own ideology that replicants are not human/should thus be destroyed.
- - REPLICANT? Photos/memory of unicorn/dream sequence/not taken test.
ROY:
- - ALLUSION between Christ and him. Mankind’s son instead of God’s. Stabs own hand
- - When he meets Tyrell (Maker/God-like) he kills Tyrell and Sebastian
- - Experiences pain/grief, howls like an animal.
- - Seeks revenge –“This is for Zhora, This is for Pris…”
- - Menace comes to full fruition
- - Seeks pain to keep him alive
- - Goes from being hunted to being the hunter.
- - Then he becomes sympathetic/poignant/poetic/laments “all those memories will be lost in time; like tears in rain. Time to die”
- - “I’ve done questionable things”
- - Pris’ blood – ritual/warrior
- - Roy to Sebastian “I like a man that stays put” (hasn’t emigrated to Off-world)
TYRELL:
- - “maker”, “God of Biomechanics”
- - “you were made us well as we could make you. The light that burns twice as bright, burns half as lng”
- - “more human than human” (motto)
RACHAEL:
- - “Have you ever retired a human by mistake?” (Deckard hesitates-showing the possibility worries him.
- - wears fur coat
- - “Have you taken the test yourself?”
REPLICANTS:
- - (robots/androids) -no human rights/ discriminated against. Strong/dangerous. (ALLEGORY – slaves/racial conflict American History; slave role = inhumane)
- - NEXUS = Latin word, to bind, tie, connection b/n individuals/groups
- - emotions/they bleed/have memory implants to fool them into believing they are human
- - IRONICALLY they are asked ethical questions using a machine which tests emotional responses shown in the dilation of the retina (empathy towards other life forms)
- - Super-intelligent/strong
- - Human emotion of hate/fear/passion/love
- - They want to live (Deckard doesn’t)
BLADE RUNNERS:
- - Special police units assigned to exterminate renegades ‘retirement’ (IRONY)
GAFF
- - “It’s too bad she won’t live! But then again who does?”
- - man of the future, multilingual, bureaucat, intellectual
- - manipulator (origami maker), real/true Blade Runner?
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SETTING:
LA, 2019
- Extension of current Western, capitalist, colonial ideology.
- corporate dominated world – large scale colonisation.
- overloaded city/ punks/Neon signs/narrow street grime/ growling garbage trucks/urban muck.
- UNIVERSAL elements though of future AMERICA
- - Corporate technology created own robot slave workforce
- - Totalitarian society –Cold War- Asian influence
TYRELL CORPORATION:
- - Robot evolution ‘Nexus’ phase
- - Limited lifespan/identical
- - Forbidden on earth, were designed for ‘Off-World’ colonies.
- - ALLEGORY -growing power of corporations. ‘God-like’ –creating life/dictating limits of that life.
OFF-WORLD
- - only the privileged live on these planets.
- - Never shown Off-World, only talked about by characters and advertising.
- - Adverts: “Off-World, Best Future, Breathe Easy, more space, all new, live clean.
(flashing repetitively)
- Loud speaker beckons: “A new life awaits you in the Off-qworld Colonies. The chance to begin in a golden land of opportunity”
MOTIFS/SYMBOLS:
- RAIN/DARKNESS – film noir, sadness, gloomy
- BONSAI – miniature of real thing/ nature and Tyrell’s control.
- GUN = male phallocentric power. Shows the powerlessness of men without technology. How mankind can advance technology.
eg; Leon uses it to assert his power over non-replicants.
Deckard’s power derived from his gun, without it he is powerless/impotent.
Assertive power transferred to Roy when Deckard loses gun –hunter becomes prey.
- RELIGIOUS motifs, Tyrell as Maker/ God of biomechanics. Replicants search for their maker and ask questions ‘where do I come from/where am I going?/How long have I got?
- EYE identifies replicants. Significance of inhumanity imposed by humans through their limited life span.
eg; CU of eye (opening)
Replicants eyes glow
Tyrell’s glasses make eyes much larger.
Chew’s ‘Eye World’
Dialogue on ‘seeing’ (Roy “if you could see what I have seen”)
Leon tries to kill Deckard by prying out his eyes
Roy kills Tyrell by sticking his thumbs into his eyes
Eyes of the owl
- - CHESSBOARD human versus human/blueprint/ miniature. Pieces are bird figures.
- - ORIGAMI –paper making/creating/showing who’s in control/unicorn
- - DOVE releases when he dies –spirit departing
- - Bird (owl/eagle motif/statues/stuffed eagle/herons)
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THEMES:
1. ARTIFICIAL (Biblical/Frankenstein –playing with nature)
- JF’s mechanical dolls/Gaff’s origami figures/birds/snakes/replicants
- - Questions meaning of humanity and all its ethical consequences, artificial humanity in film. Self-doubt.
eg: Roy saves Deckard/Gaff lets Rachael (& Deckard?) escape/Leon & Roy’s behaviour over the deaths of Zhora and Pris.
2. 2. GENDER ROLES –sexist ideology reinforced. Stereotyped roles still prevail.
MALES:
- - important social positions of power.
- - Deckard: not afraid to assert –Rachael encounter, dictates what she should say. Feels remorseful for Zhora.
- - Roy: anti-hero. Male dominant power/ suppressed violence/his whimsical dialogue.
- - Tyrell: typical patriarchal corporate boss, represents eccentric professor (bow tie/tails), like DR. Frankenstein.
- - Leon: pure male violence.
FEMALES:
- - Rachael: secretary to Tyrell
- - Zhora topless snake dancer/male gaze
- - Pris: “your basic pleasure model” – sexual overtones (JF’s apartment) energy, life, violently kicks & thrashes as she dies.
3. POWER - satirises power of corporation in that the power of God is eventually placed into their hands and they mess it up.
“Mankind has made his mistake. Now he must correct it”
- - This correction is placed into Deckard’s hands.
4. WARNING: male dominated, capitalist society gone mad. Corps mythical proportions, world totally overcrowded/rich only can escape to ‘Off-World Colonies’, cultures merged into a messy hole.
5. ETHICAL DILEMMA, ie; is it ‘right’ to kill beings who’re “more human than human”.
6.EXISTENCE/BEING –Pris says ‘I think therefore I am’ and Leon (vengeful/violent) says ‘Painful to live in fear isn’t it? That’s what it is to be a slave’
7. TECHNOLOGY - ‘futuiristic’
eg: viewing phone/image enhancer/replicants/flying police cars/eye test.
- What point of view does film adopt towards such technology? Does it improve the lives of the characters?
8. DUALITY = opposites
a) Population –‘Off World’ – the fortunate ones.
- the rest compelled to remain/hybrid population/ rejects/leftovers including Deckard/Sebastian.
b) Human/non-human level
- REPLICANTS: slaves/purely functional robots. They turn on their creator/Maker (Frankenstein)
- Non-humans tend towards humanity, humans towards non-humans.
Deckard/Roy ‘wholeness’ – Deckard’s revitalisation at Roy’s hands. Symbolically seen through the dove being freed (Holy Spirit/light, Deckard is shown the light/way ahead.
c) Roy’s own duality/reconciliation.
BEGINNING –presented as wreakers of vengeful destruction, but then emerges as a champion of life: “more human than human”. Exploited/sub-human class/slaves or oppressed group.
9. REDEMPTION
a) Replicants have specific purpose to find a way of extending their lives beyond 4 years.
b) Rise against their Maker (who can’t grant their wish)
? “fallen angels”: Roy = Satan Lucifer/prodigal son, Tyrell= God,
Off World = heaven
c) Unexpected scene at end when Roy rescues Deckard on rooftop.
- transcendence, brought on by the proximity of death. White dove; incongruity (real animals extinct)
- Roy becomes a Christ-like figure, a redeemer/ humankind’s redeemer?
- he can’t save himself so he saves Deckard.
? is he the real hero?
10 CLIMAX -main themes - humanity and mortality “3, 4, 5 try to stay alive! 6, 7, go to hell or heaven”.
11.REVENGE and time
12. FUTILITY of Deckard’s role as bounty hunter of innocent people.
13. ANIMAL IMAGERY –fake animals (snake/owl), artificial
- Bryant –photos of his game hunting
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MISE EN SCENE:
- - Look at Lighting/Set Design/Composition.
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