This essay will discuss the representation of the body in Blade Runner because in discussing the effects of something yet to happen which is the dystopia presented by Blade Runner, in the present tense i.e. in assuming that it has already happened, we gain a greater insight and understanding of the consequences of our actions as a society now. Dystopic films and novels such as Blade Runner, Nineteen Eighty Four and Brave New World are invaluable as texts which have tied together philosophical, political, sociological and economic lines of enquiry and have presented ideas of our future and perhaps sometimes warnings about where a certain path might lead. I have chosen Blade Runner as my study text because it presents a future that is dangerously close to the now but clearly stems from the mistakes and lessons of the past.
Key to understanding the representation of the body in Blade Runner is the replicants and their relation to the film's protagonist Deckard (played by Harrison Ford). The replicants are genetically engineered machines that simulate a human in every physical way, blade runners are a special police force that locate and `retire' replicants who have escaped their slave labour on the off-world colonies, and have returned to Earth seeking more life (replicants are designed with a four year life-span).
Blade runners detect replicants by administering a Voigt-Kampff test, using a Voigt-Kampff machine. The Voigt-Kampff machine identifies replicants by looking for emotional response in the "capillary dilation of the so called blush response" the "fluctuation of the pupil" and "involuntary dilation of the iris." The close-up of the eye that the Voigt-Kampff apparatus displays enables the blade runner to see emotional ...
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... thin line between good and evil, human and inhuman? But this is the power of the film's message, because the text refuses to endorse one side over the other, it refuses to say who is truly evil and who is truly good. In doing this it states, and this is the central message of the film, that what it means to be human is indefinable.
Bibliography
1984 George Orwell
Blade Runner Ridley Scott
Brave New World Aldous Huxley
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Philip K. Dick
Future Noir Paul Sammon
Our Posthuman Future: Consequences of the Biotechnology Revolution Francis Fukuyama
Phillip K. Dick - A Day in the Afterlife
Phillip K. Dick: The Dream Connection
Projecting the shadow: The Cyborg Hero in American Film Janice Hocker Rushing and Thomas S. Frentz
Retrofitting Blade Runner Judith Kerman
York Film Notes; Blade Runner Nick Lacey
The central theme of Bladerunner is the relationship between humanity and nature. More specifically it has a purpose in showing how science can negatively influence this fragile relationship. Set in Los Angeles of 2019 we see the decadence of western society into an inhumane harsh impersonal, technology-dominated realm. The inhabitants who fight for their daily survival are in desperate want for nature, contact with which is denied to them by the unrestricted scientific progress and the consequent exploitation of the natural world conducted for the sole purpose of profit. Humanity is also losing touch with it’s own nature. The compassion, the empathy, the love and the emotion are all rare or absent. This ailing relationship between humanity and nature is conveyed through the means of scene setting, dialogue, plot, camera techniques and other film features. All these elements of cinematography synthesise to create an effective portrayal of the unifying theme.
Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” is an early 19th century cautionary tale examining the dark, self-destructive side of human reality and human soul. It is written in the Romantic era where society greatly valued scientific and technological advancement. Throughout the novel, Shelley expresses her concerns of extreme danger when man transgresses science and all ethical values are disregarded. The implications of debatable experimentation and thriving ambition could evoke on humanity are explored in the novel. Likewise, “Blade Runner”, a sci-fi film directed by Ridley Scott in 1982 is a futuristic representation of Los Angeles in 2019. The film reflects its key widespread fears of its time, particularly the augmentation of globalization, commercialism and consumerism. The film depicts a post-apocalyptic hell where bureaucracy and scientific endeavoring predominate in an industrial world of artifice and endless urban squalor.
Many similarities can be found between Mary Shelley's 1816 novel, Frankenstein and the 1982 movie Bladerunner . The number of similarities between these two works, created more than two hundred years apart, is staggering. A cursory look at both works reveals these similarities:
Despite the changes in time and therefore, societal values, both Frankenstein and Blade Runner suggests that humanity’s pursuit for power and progress results in moral and ethical trepidations. Consequently, the comparison of these two texts expose the imperfections of human nature that will always remain perpetual regardless of context.
The plot of the movie “Blade Runner” becomes unrevealed till the end of the movie. Many assumptions about the plot and the final of the movie appear in the spectator’s mind, but not one of these assumptions lasts long. Numerous deceptions in the plot grip the interest of the audience and contribute for the continuing interest to the movie eighteen years after its creation. The main character in the movie is Deckard- the Blade Runner. He is called for a special mission after his retirement, to “air up” four replicants who have shown flaws and have killed people. There are many arguments and deceptions in the plot that reveal the possibility Deckard to be a replicant. Roy is the other leading character of the movie. He appears to be the leader of the replicants- the strongest and the smartest. Roy kills his creator Tyrell. The effect of his actions fulfils the expectation of the spectator for a ruthless machine.
Like Sisyphus and his rock, humans carry their flaws in an infinite limbo, searching for what it means to be human. In both Ishiguro’s novel Never Let Me Go, and Ridley Scott’s film Blade Runner, humans have become desensitized to their own identity. They are blunt, cruel, and selfish. While these are basic human traits but when these humans create clones to benefit themselves and their own survival they are taught what it truly means to be human. Through the human's interactions with the clones, the clones awareness of death, and their ultimate fear of it, humans eventually find their identity.
Despite different contexts, both Shelley’s Frankenstein and Scott’s Blade Runner enthrall the audience in a journey to explore the inner psyche through the various perspectives that are drawn.
Blade Runner became a cult classic. “The film may have survived long enough to benefit from a renewed taste for darker, more violent sci-fi. It’s appeal has less to do with a fascination for outer space (which does not feature beyond reference in a few lines of dialogue) than with a vision of earth and humankind in the near future” (Roberts and Wallis Pg 157-8). Both films have a timeless quality to it, as they are representative of the future of our planet earth. I find it so interesting that even though these films were made in different times their ideas about the futuristic city and society are almost identical.
In the film “Blade Runner”, replicants are made perfectly like human beings through a well-done ‘skin jobs’ and genetic engineered. They can demonstrate the abilities to perform and work like human: they can talk and they can also have feelings and emotions. These replicants are stronger, faster, and smarter than humans; however, they are only genetically programmed for a designated life span of four years. Replicants are created to use as a slave labor, which is used in “off-world colonization”. Somehow, they return to Earth and confront their creator for a longer living life, but unfortunately the creator can’t make their life longer.
In Blade Runner, directed by Ridley Scott, robots known as replicants are built very similar to humans, in fact they are almost identical to humans. They have a conscious and the ability to reason. During some instances in the film the replicants are morally superior to humans. This contrast is used by the film to highlight the German Expressionist belief of the madness of humanity. The film represents the darkness of humanity by portraying the replicants as moral beings while humans are ruthless killers, which is done by different shot selections throughout the film.
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
Blade Runner and New Brave World's Perspective's on Humanity Ridley Scott’s film “Blade Runner: Director’s Cut” and Aldous Huxley’s
of whether or not mankind is good or evil, illustrating the characters’ understandings of human
Duckworth, A.R. (2008). Blade Runner and the Postmodern use of Mise-en-scene. Available: http://ardfilmjournal.wordpress.com/2008/08/26/blade-runner-and-the-postmodern-use-of-mise-en-scene/ Last accessed 21st Dec 2013.
The idea of death in Blade Runner seems to be different for humans and for replicants, but it is indeed the same. When a replicant is killed, the characters in Blade Runner refer to it as, “retirement,” while killing a human is called murder. These two terms are actually synonymous. The term murder, in one of its definitions, means to put to an end, destroy (AHD). The definition of retirement is to stop working (AHD). If these terms ar...