Zachary FenellSunday Classics: Blade Runner
January 25th 2009 20:06
Bladerunner, 1982
In the world of literature, science fiction is not a genre so much as a setting. The story itself should be able to stand up in any setting, be it 19th century Victorian era or modern 21st century fashion. Science fiction, as a genre, offers us the chance of viewing the universal conflicts of the human condition in a setting that amplifies particular topics that wouldn't otherwise be obvious.
When Blade Runner came out in 1982, it showed us a different world from the science fiction that movie-goers were used to. It was gritty, dirty, polluted, and nothing like the utopian perfection that films like Logan's Run or Star Wars showed us. In the latter, even, the "wretched hive of scum and villainy" seems pretty pleasant, no worse than your average neighborhood pub. Sure it was kinda smokey, but everything was really clean. Never mind the treachery of the people in the story, we had the shiny.
And then along came Ridley Scott, retelling a story by Phillip K. Dick, "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep", illustrating a world where things were not perfect and didn't even try to pretend to be. The earth's overpopulation is obvious, and the environmental impact is everywhere - but, hey, we've got flying cars!
The plot is simple, but it breaks through the other side of the science fiction setting vs. genre conflict by presenting an issue that really can't be expressed well in other terms: four Replicants (cloned humans, designed for specific jobs and built with deliberately short life-spans) return to earth to meet their "maker" - the head of Tyrell Corporation, the manufacturer of the Replicants. Why would they do this, even though they are illegal on earth? Short lives don't leave a lot of room for emotional maturity, and they want to live longer.
But, remember, they're illegal. Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) is dragged back into the police force to be a Blade Runner again, a cop specifically licensed and trained for tracking down and "retiring" Replicants. He's not a super-human, he's just a guy... or is he?
One of the greatest debates about Blade Runner from the very first theatrical release (there have been three versions released now, if I count correctly) is whether or not Deckard is a Replicant himself. Rachael, played by Sean Young, is revealed to be a Replicant, but she has no idea until she is confronted with the proof of it. How many other people are Replicants? The final version released in 2007 goes into this a little more deeply, although still with a blissfully subtle hand.
Exploration of the human condition... that is what all movies are, in one way or another, and this one brings up some gut-wrenching questions and offers no answers. The answer is different for each person, and the story knows that. What defines a human? What defines a life? What experiences are valuable? Which ones aren't? Is there such a thing as an expendable person? What truly defines our right to live and our right to die?
I leave you with this, from Roy Batty's (Rutger Hauer) finest moment:
"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain... Time to die."
5 Stars
| 53 |
| Vote |
Add To: 
subscribe to this blog
