Humanity in Ridley Scott's Blade Runner
The issue of humanity is one of the central themes in "Blade Runner." Countless arguments have taken place over whether or not Deckard is a replicant. The replicants are supposed to be "better humans than humans." Director Ridley Scott has many ways to communicate this theme, but one of the most prevalent is eyes. Human eyes are featured both in the beginning of the film and near the end.
After a brief introductory text crawl which explains the world in which the movie takes place, "Blade Runner" cuts to a dark, futuristic Los Angeles. There are some flying cars, but mostly we see dark, smog-filled skies and smokestacks belching fire. As the camera moves across this landscape, blue eyes are superimposed on the screen. These eyes first establish traditional humanity as a force in the film.
The eyes belong to Holden, a blade runner. Blade runners are police officers who hunt down and kill, or "retire", replicants. Holden is administering the Voight-Kampff test, which determines whether its subject is a traditional human or a replicant, to "Leon." Leon is a replicant, and when Holden asks him a question that he can't answer, Leon shoots him.
Eyes are often thought of as the windows to the soul. It is this nebulous concept of the soul which is often used as the line in the sand dividing humanity from everything else. The Voight-Kampff test is designed to measure emotional responses. If the subject doesn't have any, it's a replicant. Leon was going to fail the test and be killed, so he killed Holden. Isn't that a display of the particular emotion known as rage? Well, maybe it's a rational decision or an instinctual survival reaction.
However, a later scene lends weight to the...
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...l are in love and want to run off together. As they are leaving his apartment, Deckard sees an origami unicorn on the floor. One can interpret this as Gaff showing Deckard that his memories are implants.
Regardless of whether one accepts the unicorn interpretation given here, the question of what it means to be human is a core theme in "Blade Runner." After-the-fact directorial revelations aside, by leaving an element of ambiguity in Deckard's identity, Scott mirrors ambiguity in the question. He doesn't have a definite answer, he's not pushing some agenda. Even now, with little help from technology, we face a species-wide identity crisis. The whole issue of the legality of abortions stems from a disagreement over what constitutes a human. This is an important question that we're going to have to do a better job of answering, and Scott makes an excellent start.
Another aspect of the movie “Bladerunner” is of those that broke away from the system. The “Nexus 6” were androids that developed emotions and escaped from slavery, because they wanted to live longer. Roy and Priss are good examples of androids showing that they have emotions. They were manipulative, passionate for what they wanted, and even had loving sides. Roy was the leader of the “Nexus 6” and Priss was his girlfriend
The first part of the text involves the analysis of race theory. Taylor opens the book by taking time to clarify human forms in such a way that simplifies the too-often rudimentary things which distinguish race from other notions. Taylor makes a point to thoroughly explain how philosophy, concerning race, “involves studying the consequences of race-talk, the practices of racial identification for which race-talk provides the resources” (p. 11). In other words, Taylor takes up the task of evaluating the meaning assigned to physical bodies by people. He does so by first answering the c...
Imagery of the eye appears throughout Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner. From the opening scene depicting an eye glaring upon the dystopian future of Los Angeles, to Dr. Chew’s genetic laboratory with hundreds of replicant eyes, to finally the graphic scene with Roy gouging out Tyrell’s eyes, eye imagery evidently plays a certain significance. What are we to make of Scott’s tremendous fascination with eyes? Traditionally, eyes have been used in literature and film as a motif representing identity, surveillance, vulnerability, and the window to one’s soul. Scott builds upon these existing definitions and uses the eye motif to help us better understand the film’s main characters and themes, as well as to help answer the fundamental question that Blade Runner offers us: What does it mean to be human?
Another form of deception in the plot is Roy’s behavior at the final of the movie. Roy who killed Tyrell, Sebastian, and the man in the eye laboratory with unusual enjoyment, shows weakness and helps Deckard to survive.
Youth crime is a growing epidemic that affects most teenagers at one point in their life. There is no question in society to whether or not youths are committing crimes. It has been shown that since 1986 to 1998 violent crime committed by youth jumped approximately 120% (CITE). The most controversial debate in Canadian history would have to be about the Young Offenders Act (YOA). In 1982, Parliament passed the Young Offenders Act (YOA). Effective since 1984, the Young Offenders Act replaced the most recent version of the Juvenile Delinquents Act (JDA). The Young Offenders Act’s purpose was to shift from a social welfare approach to making youth take responsibility for their actions. It also addressed concerns that the paternalistic treatment of children under the JDA did not conform to Canadian human rights legislation (Mapleleaf). It remained a heated debate until the new legislation passed the Youth Criminal Justice Act. Some thought a complete overhaul was needed, others thought minor changes would suffice, and still others felt that the Young Offenders Act was best left alone.
During Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, it is apparent to be an absurd time for the wealthy. The shallowness of money, riches, and a place in a higher social class were probably the most important components in most lives at that period of time. This is expressed clearly by Fitzgerald, especially through his characters, which include Myrtle Wilson, Tom and Daisy Buchanan, and of course, Jay Gatsby. This novel was obviously written to criticize and condemn the ethics of the rich.
Most young offenders get into trouble with the law only once. But the younger children are when they first break the law, the more likely they are to break the law again (Statistics Canada study, 2005). The Youth Criminal Justice Act (YCJA) attempts to acknowledge that different youth need different sentences within the justice system, while ensuring that it is fair and equitable for them. Many people, both in Canada, and around the world, believe that youth are not reprimanded harshly enough for the crimes they commit and that they are, in general, are able to squeeze through the justice system without punishment. Others, believe that the justice system does not treat youth fairly and punishes them without acknowledging that rehabilitation
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
Over the years Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner has become a cult classic in the science fiction and film noir genre. The film covers a wide variety of reoccurring themes and motifs throughout the entire film, such as the most noticeable ones like the reoccurring eyes representing the window to the soul and the origami figures symbolizing artificial representation. While those motifs are on the surface and are relatively noticeable to the first time viewer, other themes are not so obvious and won’t appear until reviewing the movie over several times. As one begins to break down Blade Runner from scene to scene, they will discover these larger underlining themes seamlessly woven into the mise en scene
“Our youths now love luxury, they have bad manners, they have disrespect for authority, disrespect for older people…” Ancient Greek philosopher Socrates acknowledges the escalation of delinquency among youth in the early age’s .The rise of young offenders furthers the Canadian government to record juvenile offenders, in addition, devise an act to better control the epidemic of young delinquents. The topic of proposal is the effectiveness of the youth justice system in its response to crime. Firstly, in order to determine the effectiveness of the youth justice system, one must grasp the premise that is a delinquency, in particular a young delinquents. Under the Juvenile Delinquents Act, the first act imposed in regards to young offenders,
For years, authors and philosophers have satirized the “perfect” society to incite change. In Brave New World, Aldous Huxley describes a so-called utopian society in which everyone is happy. This society is a “controlled environment where technology has essentially [expunged] suffering” (“Brave New World”). A member of this society never needs to be inconvenienced by emotion, “And if anything should go wrong, there's soma” (Huxley 220). Citizens spend their lives sleeping with as many people as they please, taking soma to dull any unpleasant thoughts that arise, and happily working in the jobs they were conditioned to want. They are genetically altered and conditioned to be averse to socially destructive things, like nature and families. They are trained to enjoy things that are socially beneficial: “'That is the secret of happiness and virtue – liking what you've got to do. All conditioning aims at that: making people like their inescapable social destiny'” (Huxley 16). Citizens operate more like machinery, and less like humans. Humanity is defined as “the quality of being human” (“Humanity”). To some, humanity refers to the aspects that define a human: love, compassion and emotions. Huxley satirizes humanity by dehumanizing the citizens in the Brave New World society.
In Shakespeare's classic tragedy, King Lear, the issue of sight and its relevance to clear vision is a recurring theme. Shakespeare's principal means of portraying this theme is through the characters of Lear and Gloucester. Although Lear can physically see, he is blind in the sense that he lacks insight, understanding, and direction. In contrast, Gloucester becomes physically blind but gains the type of vision that Lear lacks. It is evident from these two characters that clear vision is not derived solely from physical sight. Lear's failure to understand this is the principal cause of his demise, while Gloucester learns to achieve clear vision, and consequently avoids a fate similar to Lear's.
...decisive. Opposed to the manager the hollow men have no clear vision, “there are not eyes here, and there are no eyes here,” this quote is used to describe the two sets of eyes, one being from the hollow men and the other from the heavens. The hollow men are “sightless, unless the eyes reappear as the perpetual star,” to guide them and give them meaning and purpose, of which neither the hollow men nor the station manager possess.
The forgotten few: the juvenile offender population. Seldom thought about, but yet are the foundation and underpinning of the origin of the crime in the United States. This is an inquiry as to what has been done to the adolescents and children with regards to sanctions that have not yet been really brought to light. The problematic history of juvenile offenders is one of the United States dirty little secret. The literature shows the nations children who deviate from the norm are presumed to be deviant and treated like its adult criminal population. Teenagers, kids, adolescents are presumed to be treated as if they are of age. What is lost is the cognitive development and nourishment when such negative actions occur. The basic and fundamental formative academics that have shown effectiveness are not being implemented into the sanctions for these juvenile offenders. There is a linear correlation between low education obtainment levels, mental illness and juvenile offending and recidivism. This is a significant dynamic risk factor that has the potential to eliminate the deviance of the youth in the nation. The development of our youth mentally can indeed have lasting positive effects for sustaining positive results during their rehabilitation stints and most importantly decreasing recidivism.
The Eye is the organ of sight. Eyes enable people to perform daily tasks and to learn about the world that surrounds them. Sight, or vision, is a rapidly occurring process that involves continuous interaction between the eye, the nervous system, and the brain. When someone looks at an object, what he/she is really seeing is the light that the object reflects, or gives off.