Blade Runner by Ridley Scott
Paradis | October 17, 2009
Rick Deckard prowls the streets of 21st-century Los Angeles. He’s a ‘Blade Runner’ stalking genetically made criminal replicants. His assignment is to retire them. Their crime is, wanting to be human…
Los Angeles in the year 2020, huge neon advertisements illuminate the night sky above the city’s towering skyscrapers. The interiors, however, are murky and dark, the oppressive gloom occasionally relieved by beams of light from a roving spotlight. The majority of Earth’s population has left for Mars with only the misfits left behind to populate the planet. Earth is a very difficult place for humans. It is very under populated, and many homes and apartment buildings are empty or with only a few inhabitants left.
Infiltrating this strange, derelict society are four replicants, laboratory-created creatures who are practically indistinguishable from humans, whose job it is to perform menial tasks in outer space, and who are forbidden, on pain of destruction, to set foot on Earth. These replicants have hi-jacked a space-shuttle by killing its crew and are now in Los Angeles passing themselves off as humans. It is up to supercop Deckard to seek them out and eliminate them before they can eliminate him. The replicant’s want to confront Dr. Tyrell and force him to extend their life span. Since Nexus-6 are considerably stronger, faster and smarter than the average human, the success of this mission might endanger all of mankind.
The leading maker of replicants is Tyrell Co., led by Dr. Tyrell. Its latest model, the Nexus-6, can be distinguished from humans only by a small group of experts. Their brains are so advanced that Nexus-6 replicants think for themselves, and he idea of a rebellion is starting to worry the people. To limit damage from replicants running amok or rebelling, it is now illegal for the Nexus-6 replicants to come to Earth, and their built in life span is only four years.
This is a dark film in two ways, in 2019 AD Los Angeles huge clouds of dust prevent any sunlight getting through. It rains all the time. The entire film is shot in darkness and rain. This takes some getting used to. Deckard who at the start of the film cares for no one, and has a “they are just machines” attitude toward the replicants, falls in love with the replicant Rachel, under the most unlikely of circumstances. Rutger Hauer, a Dutch actor, has appeared in many films, often playing villains. His role as Roy Batty, the Nexus-6 leader of the band of four rebels, is wonderful. Batty is very philosophical, and shows great emotions. The romance between Deckard and Rachel, Dr. Tyrell’s personal assistant, is well done, and by the end the viewer really cares about Rachel and Deckard and their future together.
The story of Blade Runner is familiar to countless fans, it is a cultist film. One that is watched over and over, and each time you learn a little more insight. it is a philosophical film, making you think on many levels. This is director Ridley Scott’s own vision of his sci-fi classic. The ‘director’s cut’ version omits Deckard’s voice over narration, develops in slightly greater detail the romance between Deckard and Rachael and removes the uplifting finale. The result is a heightened emotional impact, a great film made greater. Most intriguing of all is a newly included unicorn vision that suggests Deckard may be a replicant.
Blade Runner, a classic movie, that I think almost everyone has seen. I like most cult films, and Blade Runner is one of the best, and is based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick. It is such an ambiguous film, and open to much debate and speculation.
I love the atmosphere of this cyberpunk film, with the beautiful cityscapes, neon lights, flying cars and the rain! You can almost feel the pollution crawl up your nostrils and pick at your brain. And of course, the lovely Vangelis music. But the bits I really like, are things like the unicorn sequence, the origami figures and Batty, played by Dutch actor, Rutger Hauer.
Oh yes, Batty and his need for humanity, who in the end was more human than any of us. Batty’s speech just before his death, are the most chilling and amazing words;
“I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I saw sea beams glitter in the dark beneath tanhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time… like tears in rain”
And of course, the underlying question that raged for 20 years, was Deckard a replicant? Which Ridley Scott answered in the affirmative after all that time, and finally laid to rest the enigma.
Paradis
