Blade Runner Viewing Log DVD Cover: The illustration of Harrison Ford and Sean Young over the futuristic city shows that this is sci-fi film but also highlights the artifice within and around the filmmaking process. The lettering of the title is retro futuristic. The blurb introduces the main character – Rick Deckard – and gives a brief outline of the scenario before going on to explain the key differences between the Director’s Cut and the original film. This section assumes that the audience is familiar with the film in it’s original (1982) form. Casting: In 1982 Harrison Ford was already known for the Star Wars trilogy and the first Indiana Jones film. He brings an everyman quality to his roles. Rick Deckard and Han Solo are similar characters in their cynicism and the isolation from which it arises. Sean Young, on the other hand, was relatively unknown when she was cast in the role of Rachel in Blade Runner. For what effect? Edward James Olmos was an interesting choice. Sci fi often tries to show a future world that is more multicultural than its present context. Prior to Blade Runner he’d been in a bunch of 70s cop shows. Maybe typecast as a cop? Rutger Hauer acted mostly in German prior to Blade Runner. His precise but foreign way of speaking English works well in this role and his Aryan looks do seem artificial, linking the goal of Tyrell corp in creating a perfect being with the Nazi ideal of the master race. Daryl Hannah is tall and leggy as Pris and this role seems to have set the standard for her career as a bombshell or femme fatale. Opening credits: Sound is a beat almost like an explosion or a heavy footstep echoing in an empty room. Haunting music over a black screen where the words appear in white capitals. Only HF’s name is before the film title. Words scroll on the screen giving some background on the world similar to Star Wars. The language is important: Retirement not Execution. Execution is something done to people. Then we are given the date of the action, it is 2019. Extreme wide angle shot of the city of LA from above. Flames shooting into the air, lightning strikes and a flying car zooms past, setting the scene definitively in the future. The reflection in the extreme close up of the eye lets us know that this is a pov shot. The design of the building is like an Aztec pyramid, brings to mind ideas of human sacrifice. Inside it is a regular, impersonal office building with a fan, low lighting and cubicles which makes me think of Hannah Arendt’s ideas about the banality of evil. The machine on the desk looks like some kind of torture device, like at the dentist. Leon is being interviewed, given a hypothetical where he is in the WILD (a desert with a tortoise), he becomes agitated but it is still a shock when he shoots the doctor. Is Leon a replicant? The propaganda coming over the speakers reminds me of Brave New World and 1984 and Starship Troopers. The design of the city obviously inspired Luc Besson in The Fifth Element.
There’s a weird incongruity between the hi tech futuristic elements and the squalor of the lower city. Everyone smokes too which was pretty common in movies until recently. Apart from the weather (rain and lightning), the setting is so far entirely artificial. There are no trees or parkland, no animals. The darkness adds to the disquieting atmosphere. In spite of the flying cars, something’s not right in this city. Once again we are shown a futuristic building that is a regular office inside, this time it’s the police station. Police characters seem stereotypical in being messy, drinking and smoking. The plot of the cop who has quit out of frustration and cynicism with the system, who is then called back in because he’s the best, is an old one but the setting and the philosophical questions stop Blade Runner from being a cliché. Deckard’s part of town seems to be an urban jungle. What’s the significance of the origami chicken? Animals are important in this world because of their rarity and because of the emotion they inspire in people (and replicants?) Why is it Gaff who makes it? Repetition of the interview with Leon with explanation from the boss. The test is explained as a Voigt-Kampff test. It measure emotional response to stimuli. There is further discussion of the Tyrell corp. “They were designed to copy human beings in every way except their emotions”. Is a human without emotions not a human? The sun rises over the Tyrell corp pyramid, giving it an other worldly appearance. The owl is the first WILD element to appear in the film and it seems incongruous within the setting. The natural lighting highlights the sense of wonder felt by Deckard before he realises it’s artificial. Rachael is made up like a doll, highlighting her status as a replicant but also alluding to the femme fatales of the forties and fifties. “Have you ever retired a human by mistake?” Rachael asks Deckard. He answers in the negative and seems not to have thought about it. The test given to Rachael is different from the test given to Leon. She is asked for her responses rather than being provoked. She answers calmly, smoking. Rachael doesn’t know that she’s a replicant. Does that make her more or less human? Her memories are faked. Maybe Deckard’s are too? The interview with Leon seems to be a repeated motif. Why is it important? Is Leon’s response to the Voigt-Kampff test a human one? Film noir techniques such as smoke and silhouette are repeatedly employed. Even Deckard’s trench coat is reminiscent of Dick Tracy. The crime scene is searched and a piece of evidence is found, what is the significance? Gaff makes another origami figure: a man with an erection – a fertility idol. Ref to the fact that replicants don’t have kids? Roy’s first words on screen are “time enough”. He is nearing the end of his short life span. Time enough for what? Why is Roy the only replicant with a last name? Because he’s the only combat model? Highest functioning? Most human? It parallels him with Rick.
The photos at the apartment were Leon’s. Roy seems contemptuous of them and of Leon’s attachment to them. Replicants collect and treasure mementos and souvenirs of the past because they don’t have a past of their own. Deckard’s apartment is covered in photos and mementos and heirlooms. The icy lab once again contrasts the hi tech low status of those in the lower city. This combination has been used effectively in Star Wars and Firefly. Roy says, “Fiery the angels fell; deep thunder rolled around their shores; burning with the fires of Orc”. This is a paraphrase of William Blake's America: A Prophecy "Fiery the angels rose, and as they rose deep thunder roll'd. Around their shores: indignant burning with the fires of Orc." Roy is concerned with his own mortality. He is looking for a way to put off his inevitable used by date. Perhaps he is drawn to his creator(s)/parents/god. Chew is very clearly afraid of Roy. Why is the creator frightened of his own creation? Deckard begins to develop feelings for Rachael even though he knows that she is a replicant. She tries to offer proof – a photograph of her with her mother – that she’s human. Deckard shows her that her memories aren’t her own. Are his, his own? Flippantly, he tries to get out of it. Is he afraid of her? Or just doesn’t want the responsibility? When she leaves he goes through his own photographs. Pris is introduced walking the street in a short skirt, reinforcing her role as a pleasure model. She seems to be homeless and helpless when found by JF Sebastian but the audience knows that the meeting is setup which heightens the tension. Pris shows amusement at the toys. She describes herself as an orphan. The unicorn scene is only in the director’s cut. It is Deckard’s dream. Later the origami unicorn shows that Deckard’s most private dream is known. He is a replicant. The trade in artificial animals is odd. The emotional link that humans have with animals is significant because of the absence of real animals. It seems that the artificial ones are not perfect replacements because people still long for the real. The replicants seem to have real fear and a need to protect not only their lives but their identities. Zhora reacts, as Leon did, with violence when threatened. Is this reaction a NATURAL one? When Zhora dies it is snowing, an invasion of the natural, and the there is a sound like a heartbeat. Is it Deckard’s heart or Zhora’s? He near nakedness and the reaction of onlookers make her look human. The saxophone music is mournful/regretful. Has Deckard done the right thing? Leon seems more than afraid. Does he grieve? Rachael stands out in the crowd. She is wearing fur. Is this a sign of her non-empathy with animals? When she admits that she’s a replicant – “I am the business” – she is in tears, she shows more emotion than Deckard or Gaff. Leon has an important question, “how old am I?” What he really wants to know is not how long he has been alive but how much longer he has. Are we supposed to see parallels between Leon and Deckard? Why does Rachael shoot Leon? Because of her feelings for Deckard? He talks to her as an equal – “I owe you one”.
“You know that Voigt-Kampff test of yours? You ever take that test yourself?” Rachael raises what the audience and perhaps Deckard have been thinking, that Deckard might be a replicant. This idea is reinforced by the showing again the replicant’s affinity for photographs as Rachael looks at Deckard’s and by Rachael playing the piano (she remembers lessons but wasn’t sure she could play). By taking down her hair Rachael symbolically demonstrates the replicant’s ability to change who they are and develop as people. Deckard owns a piano but can’t play it. The barely restrained violence of the love scene demonstrates Deckard’s mixed feelings. He loves Rachael but knows that she isn’t human. Does that make him not human either? How he should feel about her vs how he does feel about her. Rachael is contrasted with Pris who is active and vital in her movements and has remade herself into one of JF’s toys. Is she just one of JF’s toys? JF is ill and his time is running out just as surely as Roy’s and Pris’s. How does the relationship between Pris and Roy affect our reading of them? They share affection and become childlike in the presence of JF’s toys. Perhaps Pris was always like that. JF lets them know that he knows who they are but, unlike the others, he doesn’t he seem afraid of them, at least, not at first. Roy draws a parallel between him and them more explicitly but continues to play the role of JF’s toy. “I think, Sebastian, therefore I am”, Pris quotes Descartes. Am what? Is the question. The owl is a symbol of wisdom. Is the artificial owl making a statement about Tyrell and his type of genius? The red reflection in the owl’s eyes highlight its artifice. Unlike the other dwellings, Tyrell’s is sumptuous and candlelit. “It is not an easy thing to meet your maker,” says Roy alluding to his and Pris’s rapidly approaching deaths as well as to Tyrell’s role in their lives. “The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long - and you have burned so very, very brightly, Roy.” Is Tyrell trying to excuse his actions or those of his creation? Is he praising himself, surveying his creation and saying, like the God of the Old Testament, IT IS GOOD? Roy seems to want to confess. He and Tyrell both use religious language, giving rise to the question, do the replicants have souls? The owl, a replicant itself, looks on calmly as Roy kills Tyrell. The moves that Roy plays to checkmate Tyrell are from a famous game played in 1851 by the German chess master Adolf Anderssen. It is known to chess enthusiasts as "The Immortal Game" where Anderssen does actually sacrifice his Queen in order to force checkmate the very next move as in the movie. The ventilation fans which cut the light reinforce the artificiality of the setting (JF’s apartment building). When Pris attacks Deckard there’s a mechanical grinding/clicking sound as she flips, adding to the idea that she is a machine. When shot she reacts more like a broken toy than like a person. Roy’s reaction to the death of his lover is to kiss her – a way of saying goodbye? A
demonstration of belief in some kind of afterlife? He talks later about heaven and hell when he’s taunting Deckard. Roy says to Deckard, “show me what you’re made of.” What is Deckard made of? The upper floors of the apartment building, like Roy, are decaying. What does the howling wolf sound mean? Wolves are symbols of the WILD, untamed, dangerous. Like Roy? He is stalking Deckard like prey. Roy framed on top of the building with the light playing across his physique appears powerful, reminded me of Da Vinci’s Universal Man. His moment with the pigeon raises the question, how would Roy perform in the Voigt-Kampff test? “Kinship” is what Roy says when he saves Deckard from falling to his death. Are they kin? What does that mean? Is the kinship of all feeling souls? Roy’s speech about what will be when he dies was improvised by Rutger Hauer. It raises the question: what is lost when one person dies? And is a person simply the sum of their experiences? Gaff draws a parallel between replicants and humans, “it’s too bad she won’t live, but then again who does?” Or is he letting Deckard know that he doesn’t have much longer either? A lot of the background sound in the movie is a low hum like a tv left on standby or a ventilation system. It adds to the artificial atmosphere. When Deckard finds the origami unicorn, the effect is enhanced by a vo from Gaff repeating his earlier statement. Deckard and Rachael leave to share what’s left of their lives, but do they escape or is another Blade Runner sent after them? It’s an open ending.