Blade Runner

Blade Runner is a 1982 science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott, depicting a dystopic Los Angeles in November 2019.

Themes

Despite the initial appearance of an action film, Blade Runner operates on an unusually rich number of dramatic levels. As with much of the cyberpunk genre, it owes a large debt to film noir, containing and exploring such conventions as the femme fatale, a Chandleresque first-person narration (removed in later versions), and the questionable moral outlook of the Hero ? extended here to include even the humanity of the hero, as well as the usual dark and shadowy cinematography.

Related Topics:
Cyberpunk - Film noir - Femme fatale - Chandleresque - Hero - Cinematography

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It is one of the most literate science fiction films, both thematically ? enfolding the philosophy of religion and moral implications of the increasing human mastery of genetic engineering, within the context of classical Greek drama and its notions of hubris{{ref|ecofeminist}} ? and linguistically, drawing on the poetry of William Blake and the Bible. Blade Runner also features a chess game based on the famous Immortal Game of 1851. (The king and queen are interposed on Tyrell's side, a position which a grandmaster would never attempt).

Related Topics:
Philosophy of religion - Moral - Genetic engineering - Classical Greek drama - Hubris - William Blake - Bible - Chess - Immortal Game - 1851 - Grandmaster

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The world of Blade Runner depicts a future whose fictional distance from present reality has grown sharply smaller as 2019 approaches. The film delves into the future implications of technology on the environment and society by reaching into the past using literature, religious symbolism, classical dramatic themes and film noir. This tension between past, present and future is apparent in the retrofitted future of Blade Runner, which is high-tech and gleaming in places but elsewhere decayed and old.

Related Topics:
2019 - Technology - Environment - Religious symbolism - Film noir - High-tech

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A high level of paranoia is present throughout the film with the visual manifestation of corporate power, omnipresent police, probing lights; and in the power over the individual represented particularly by genetic programming of the replicants. Control over the environment is seen on a large scale but also with how animals are created as mere commodities. This oppressive backdrop clarifies why many people are going to the off-world colonies, which clearly parallels the migration to the Americas. The popular 1980s prediction of America being economically surpassed by Japan is reflected in the domination of Japanese culture and advertising in LA 2019. The film also makes extensive use of eyes and manipulated images to call into question reality and our ability to perceive it.

Related Topics:
Paranoia - Corporate - Americas - 1980s - Japan

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This provides an atmosphere of uncertainty for Blade Runner's central theme of examining humanity. In order to discover replicants an empathy test is used with a number of questions focused on the treatment of animals; making it the essential indicator of someone's "humanity". The replicants are juxtaposed with human characters who are unempathetic, and while the replicants show passion and concern for one another the mass of humanity on the streets is cold and impersonal. The film goes so far as to put in doubt the nature of and forces the audience to reevaluate what it means to be human.{{ref|retro}}

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