blade runner: identity, memory, influences

Blade RunnerIdentity, Memory

Blade Runner• Released 1982

• Directed by Ridley Scott

• Based on the Philip K. Dick novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

• Stars Harrison Ford, Rutger Haur, and Daryl Hannah

• Soundtrack by Vangelis, evocative both classic noir and science fiction

• Poor initial release, but has become a cult classic and gone through several changes (narrative and endings)

Setting

• Urban landscapes that are dark, rainy, and crowded

• Claustrophobic; lack of privacy- leads to postmodern anxiety/ paranoia

• Portrays (white) influx of “aliens” to southern california

Noir Influences• Suggestion of

panopticon or the feeling of always being watched

• Conception of a society that is always watching in effort to socialize and normalize applies to the film

• Ex. of American Consumerism

Narration• Use of voice over in theatrical

release (taken out in director cut)

• Faithful to noir but does not work in this film

• Put in film to help audience understand

• Indicative of how neo-noir can create its own niche.

Noir Influences• Deckard is both a detective and

hitman

• Tough guy and impotent male

• World weary and ambivalent to stress

• Rachel is the femme fatale (mysterious)- leads to conflicts

• Smoke- interior mood setter and environmental pollutants.

• Corruption pervades society (another comment on late capitalism being crushed under it’s own weight.

Noir Influences Cont.

• Theatrical release: Happy Ending

• Subsequently changed; added voice over.

• Ending not necessarily bad, but ambivalent

• Various cuts of the film provide a metatext understand the terms of postmodernity (texts aren’t closed)

Genre Hybrid • Indebted to film noir and science

fiction

• Could be part of the problem of initial reception

• Takes elements from both

• The setting makes the cultural commentary more palatable because it is in the future rather than the present

• LA as despotic (society in an repressive and controlled state)

• Predates William Gibson’s term “cyberpunk” in Necromancer (1984)

Memory

• City of L.A represents a vastly different from the LA we know; more like NY or Tokyo

• Plays with our memory or concept of what L.A. represents

Memory

• What is memory

• Memories of replicants are implanted/artificial

• Real to the replicants who have those memories

• Photos are reoccurring

• Photographs are mechanically reproduced

• Recycling and waste are important factors

• Waste used for initial purpose

Humanity

• What does it mean to be human

• Existentialism, indebted to classic noir

• Fatalism also present in the built-in obsolescence of the replicants

• How are humans and replicants contrasted-

• How much influence does noir have on the film?

Blade RunnerPeople, Landscapes, Influences

Influences• Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks (1942)-Conveys mood of

the film

• Fritz Lanes “Metropolis”- set design, class structure, lighting

• Jean Giraud “Moebius” (1938) Heavy Metal

• Phillip K. Dick- Do Androids Dream of Electric sheep= Loose adaptation

• Use of Drugs and Mood Enhancers

• Visual Futurist- Syd mead tried to implement “retrofitting”

• Heavy Asian influence

Location• Release in Japan two weeks later July 1o, 1982

• Multiple Magazine Articles and Reviews

• Poor critical reception

• Japan’s Bubble Era (1980-1989) Late capitalist consumerism

• Ranked 27th in Kineman Junpo’s Best films (E.T #1)

PeopleVertical Class Structure

Cops v. Little People

People

• Tyrell (Tyrell Corporation)

• Tyrell Employees- Fully immersed in job

• Mismatched of languages

Class

• Upper Class

• Wealthy Sector

• City People (dressed someone what dirty)

• Animoid Row

Replicants

• Interact with everyone

• Trying to figure out themselves

Vision of the Eye

• Appears through out the film as symbol of being watched constantly