Comparing Perception in Blade Runner, Memento, Three Kings and American Beauty

1321 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Perception vs reality essay

Comparing Perception in Blade Runner, Memento, Three Kings and American Beauty Throughout this course, we have seen a number of films that are quite different. These films are diverse in their subject matter ranging from the drama of American Beauty, the political and action based nature of Three Kings, the science fictional social statements on technology presented by Blade Runner, to the fragmented and contemporary techniques of experimental Memento. However, I would argue that all of the above mentioned have been linked by an unsuspecting thread, and I am going to demonstrate what that thread is here. These films have been tied together by a theme, of which I have written in past analyses of some of these films, and I choose to bring that theme forward again. I do so because I believe that this particular notion is at the bottom and the most imperative in all of these stories. The notion, which I am referring to, is that the world is what we make of it; that bad things, and good things alike, happen to us, but our ultimate view of the world as a good or bad place is determined by our choice to perceive it as one or the other. Blade Runner portrays this ideology in the main representation of the replicants. When Deckard first meets Rachel, he says to Tyrell "She's a replicant, isn't she?" Tyrell responds by pointing out that "Rachel is an experiment. Nothing more." This makes us aware that Rachel is a replicant with memories and emotional response and is not aware of her true identity as a replicant but believes herself to be human. Her memories are implanted memories of Tyrell's niece. So Rachel believes her reality to be different from that of what Tyrell and Deckard know to be reality. Whether their reality is truer than Rachel's reality is a point of debate. This relative reality changes for Deckard as he becomes emotionally attached to Rachel and then romantically involved with her. Towards the end, Deckard does not see Rachel as a replicant any longer, even after she learns the truth. More generally, however, Blade Runner presents a world of deterioration. It is a time when most of humanity has left the earth in order to colonize other planets, and all natural life is virtually extinct. It is a world plagued by acid rain, genetically engineered plants, animals, and replicants of course.

Show More
Related

  • The films Bladerunner and Fahrenheit 451

    1072 Words  | 3 Pages

    The movie “Bladerunner” was about androids that were made to not have feelings and not to live longer than 4 years. Rachel is a good example of they tried to control emotions. As one of the new model replicants, Rachel was implanted with memories and could recall emotions. What she did not realize was that her memories were really the memories of her maker’s niece. She did not even know she was an android until Decker did the test on her. She was very upset when she realized that he was right, because she did not know what feelings were real and what feelings belonged to someone else. She worked with the man that created androids, the owner of the Tyrell Corporation, which makes her more upset that she did not know. This is when she exclaims to Decker, “I am not in the business, I AM the business.” Although she though she was living a normal human life, Rachel was going through the motions of everything humans do, but she did not have real feelings or even her own memories. Therefore, she was not even being her own self.

    Read More

  • Blade Runner’s Eye Motif

    1623 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...be, as the Tyrell Corporation advertises, “more human than human.” Ridley Scott uses eye imagery to juxtapose the tremendous emotion of the replicants with the soullessness of the future’s humans. By doing so, Scott demonstrates that our emotions and yearning for life are the characteristics that fundamentally make us human, and that in his vision of our dystopian future, we will lose these distinctly human characteristics. We are ultimately losing the emotion and will to live that makes us human, consequently making us the mechanistic, soulless creatures of Scott’s dystopia. Blade Runner’s eye motif helps us understand the loss of humanness that our society is heading towards. In addition, the motif represents Ridley Scott’s call to action for us to hold onto our fundamental human characteristics in order to prevent the emergence of the film’s dystopian future.

    Read More

  • Ridley Scott's Blade Runner: What Does it Mean to be Human?

    670 Words  | 2 Pages

    Blade Runner written by Ridley Scott is a movie based in the future. It is Scott's depiction of what is to become of Earth. But technological advances shown in Blade Runner have come to a point where humanity can be questioned. Reality is blurred and the nature of what is human is changing. Replicants appear identical to humans and even have emotions, while the real humans appear cold and unemotional. So who is really human and what does it mean to be humane?

    Read More

  • Blade Runner: What Does It Means To Be Human

    406 Words  | 1 Pages

    Being a person, thinking and acting as a Human Being, showing qualities that make us, Human. But what does it mean to be Human? Symbolic cognition, the ability for one entity to show empathetic emotion towards another. ‘Blade Runner’ explores the philosophical themes of what it means to be human, emphasising the difficulties humans have appreciating what makes them human along with the emotional and social complexity necessary to identify a person. The question regarding our humanity, or ‘what it is to be human’ is one of the most important questions to be addressed in Blade Runner, and in today’s society. In this essay I will argue that researching into what it means to ‘be human’ is a quite complex task, because of the various philosophical and biblical concepts - where an individual is a spirt simply experiencing the world in a material form. In order to support my statement, I will give examples of how ‘Blade Runner’ relates to different theoretical frameworks I will discuss in this essay.

    Read More

  • Humanity In Blade Runner And Ridley Scott's Blade Runner

    914 Words  | 2 Pages

    The first time I watched Blade Runner (1982) I only viewed it as a poorly filmed, weird 80’s movie. However, with my new understanding of postmodernity I’ve come to view Ridley Scott’s movie, along with its sequel Blade Runner 2049, as some of the most fascinating movies I have ever seen. Upon watching both I have been captivated with thoughts on how to fix the problem that both movies show. The problem being that the internet has altered the nature of information and how it is processed by society. Elton Tyrell in Blade Runner touches on this by saying the Nexus-6 replicants are “more human than human.” Tyrell is conveying that these human-like robots has been able to overcome revolutionary change of information in society. This quotation

    Read More

  • Jazz: The Uniquely American Musical Genre

    1808 Words  | 4 Pages

    The roots of jazz music are quite complex and intertwined. New Orleans is considered by most to be the birthplace

    Read More

  • The 19th Amendment

    442 Words  | 1 Pages

    Jazz originated in new orleans. Jazz is so important because it inspires our music today. This was also called the jazz age. The harlem renaissance gave us new music such as jazz, white jazz and blues. White jazz is a different version of the original african american style of jazz. “Race records” were for african americans and recorded by african americans. White jazz was “appropriated” jazz music. Jazz in the 1920’s was “over sexualized.” companies however mostly recorded white jazz artists. Jazz in the 1920’s was called loud and syncopated. Jazz was mostly only played in black neighborhoods. Louis armstrong is most likely the most famous and influential figure to come out of this era. In the 1920’s clubs were segregated so jazz would only be played where african americans were allowed. Jazz was often played at speakeasies. Speakeasies were places where people got together and illegally drank. Toward the end of the decade radio went from being an expensive novelty to a major purveyor of inexpensive entertainment where jazz and white jazz

    Read More

  • Comparison Between Blade Runner And Blade Runner

    847 Words  | 2 Pages

    Both Blade Runner and Brave new world present a dystopian future with a bleak vision of the world. Frankenstein really is a failed attempt at a love story in my level-headed opinion. I didn’t really care for it all that much so it will hardly be discussed in this essay. (sorry)

    Read More

  • Replicants In Blade Runner

    1648 Words  | 4 Pages

    The 1982 Harrison Ford film Blade Runner was an advanced science fiction film in its time. Blade Runner features artificially generated humans and animals. These artificial beings which are referred to as replicants in the film, and because of a fear in their ability to overthrow the human populations they are pre-programed to only function for four years. The replicants are programed with memories, backstories, and personalities making them seemingly human. These replicants a kept in check by Blade Runners like Rick Deckard, who are essential the mafia mixed with the German Gestapo. They search out replicants who are disturbing the piece or nearing the end of their time and kill them. This film has challenged viewers for years and there are

    Read More

  • Essay: Maintaing Stability In The Absence Of Individuality

    875 Words  | 2 Pages

    There are many ways to interpret this novel, as just another science fiction story or as a scientific futuristic reality. I would consider this novel to be a scientific technological futuristic reality of our values that have been turned upside down. "Affection and loyalty are unnecessary, beauty is a synthetic product, truth is arranged in test tubes, hope is supplied in a pill, which by its action annihilates identity" (Aldous Huxley a Critical Study Page 1).

    Read More

  • What Is The Future Of Humanity In The Blade Runner

    1510 Words  | 4 Pages

    Accordingly, there seem to be a set of primary values that float around the plot of Blade Runner, cultural appropriation and a lack of minority identity and representation. On the surface, Blade Runner seamlessly fits into the category of timeless Sci-Fi classics with its star-studded cast of Harrison Ford, Sean Young, and Emmet Walsh. The films basic premise follows the protagonist Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), an ex-cop and self-described killer in retirement, who hunts down replicants – bioengineered beings with superior strength, little to no human agency, and primarily used for labor—in a dystopian Los Angeles during the year 2019. From the beginning, it is clear that Scott intended for this film to fit the ultra-narrative and common perception that we have of the future, kick-ass robots, guns, and flying cars. While those may be the conceptual aspects of the future, the future that Blade Runner paints is an all-white

    Read More

  • Origins of Jazz

    1614 Words  | 4 Pages

    a unique sincerity and magnetism that has withstood the test of time. From its humble beginnings in New Orleans, jazz quickly spread throughout the United States and soon became an illustrious component of American culture. This art form not only offered a distinct and musically euphonic prospect, but also gave voice to the African American community. The development of jazz tore down barriers and confines forever shaping music and culture around the world.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Movie Divergent

    950 Words  | 2 Pages

    Movies in the science-fiction genre are normally based on future scientific and technological advances. Some science-fiction movies frequently portray space or time travel in a nonexistent world with extraterrestrial lifeforms. Although a majority of science fiction movies are adventurous, mysterious, and exciting to watch, they usually have no meanings or connections to the real world, and also to the audiences. On the other hand, Divergent, a teen-oriented science-fiction film portrayed in a dystopian remnant setting takes a turn on this idea. The intensity, independence, and corporatism derived in this film creates a charismatic and legendary feeling. Divergent presents a meaningful matter that relates to the real world and connects with

    Read More

  • Theme Of Postmodernism In The Blade Runner

    1351 Words  | 3 Pages

    A key theme in Blade Runner is that it portrays postmodernism throughout the movie by blurring the differences of the real and the artificial, in the film there is a scene where Rick is questioning Leon to see if he can provoke emotions to determine if he is a replicant or a human which showed that no one really has a clear understanding of what is real. Blade Runner also touches on the theme of time-space compression not only by the presence of flying cars which diminishes the time that it takes to get anywhere making information and travel so much faster but also by making the lifespan of the replicants only four years makes time less relevant because of the amount of living they have to do in a fifth of the life of a human. The theme of creative destruction is also shown in a scene where they are explaining what the blade runner is and how his job is to catch and “retire” the replicants because they have started to rebel and they need to make sure they don’t become too

    Read More

  • Robots In Science Fiction

    1787 Words  | 4 Pages

    They feel alienated by their strong differences but linked to the human population by their similarities. For example, in Ridley Scott’s 1982 film, Blade Runner, the humanoid replicants were not human, but a bioengineered lifeform with superior strength, intelligence, and agility. They look, sound, and act human, and many people would be unable to recognize the difference between a replicant and a human. Roy, the leader of the replicants, seeks out their creator, Tyrell, to demand that they have an extended life rather than four years. If they are so alike to humans, why should they have any less rights? They are seen as more than a machine, but not quite human. This relationship is often used throughout science fiction to relate to slavery or the outcaste system that is seen throughout our own society and its history. In the times where slavery was abundant throughout the United States and the world, slaves were seen as more than animals, but not quite people. It also fits the background of the name “robot” which was derived from the word “robota” which is Czech for “forced labor” (Science”). The parallelism serves as the perfect method to open up readers or viewers to the idea of the loss of humanity. Hank Peliissier, writer for the Institute for Ethics & Emerging Technologies, writes about the ways science fiction stories, as well as today’s society, treat robots as a type of slave, programmed only to perform some sort of labor. Pellissier states that robots will, “do all the tedious demeaning dangerous chores that make actual humans with imaginations go crazy and jump off buildings. Robot slaves will toil in sweatshops, factories, laboratories, mines and farms 24/7; they’ll clean toilets, assemble toys, and gut chickens without complaint” (Pellissier). Robots are used for the jobs we do not want, and are unappreciated for the

    Read More

More about Comparing Perception in Blade Runner, Memento, Three Kings and American Beauty

Open Document