Blade Runner (Group 3: Juliette & Steven)

Film Blog on Blade Runner (1982)

          -- By Group 3: Juliette Gennaro and Qingze Gao

Hello! Welcome to our Film Blog on Blade Runner (1982)!

What is the Blade Runner about?

-- "Is it an old movie?"

-- "Science-Fiction?"

-- "Robots?"

-- "Love?"

…

Surely, there are so many things you may not understand...

But!

Before all, feel free to watch the trailer (1min 32sec)!

(Blade Runner: The Final Cut (Trailer))

Info about Blade Runner

Title: Blade Runner

Year it was made: 1982

Director: Ridley Scott

Screenwriters: Hampton Fancher and David Webb Peoples

Lead actors: Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, and Edward James Olmos

Running time: 117 minutes

(Blade Runner)

General "Review" of the Film

Plot Summary

Blade Runner takes place in a dystopian and futuristic Los Angeles 2019. Robots, looking just like humans, were created by Tyrell Corporation to work as slaves in colonizing other planets. However, four of these “replicants” have found a way to escape space and come back down to earth attempt to meet their creator to learn more about themselves and to extend their lifespan (Blade Runner).

Deckard, the protagonist, and detective of this film, is hired to track down the four infiltrating replicants, Roy, Pris, Zhora and Leon, and “retire” them. In other words, he is hired to eliminate them. In this process, Deckard finds himself recognizing the sentience of these beings, partly because he falls deeply in love with Rachael, the most advanced model of replicants created by the Tyrell Corporation. With great difficulty and intensity, Deckard fulfills his mission and finally escapes with Rachael to live in peace and happiness thanks to some help from Gaff; another detective who was overseeing Deckard's assignment (Blade Runner).

Throughout Blade Runner,

We Found There were 5 Spectacular Film Techniques used!

Sets

1. The first film technique we found interesting was the set used to portray the street life of the city of Los Angeles. The street set gives us a feeling of a dystopian future filled with poverty and over-crowdedness. The elements that contributed to us feeling this way are the constant rain pouring over the city and the hundreds of people walking and also living on the streets. Multiple Asian vendors have food stations, which suggests that the Asian influence is in its prime. The director chose a very cold and dark color palette for this set, which permeates an uninviting eerie feeling. The over crowdedness feeling also comes from the huge amount of enormous billboards present all over the city and the numerous number of flying cars hovering over the streets.

2. Secondly, another important and striking set is Tyrell’s home and room. We know, due to watching the film, that Tyrell is the owner of the company producing the replicants, thus making him extremely wealthy. Without surprise, the set very well reflects his social status. The gold lighting and detailing, including the golden lights of the candles on his bedside and the gold statue of the owl in the background, demonstrates a lot of elegance, which pictures his wealth, abundance and superiority.

Props

1. The origami made by detective Gaff throughout the film are really symbolic and meaningful. Gaff, at the beginning, makes an origami chicken, and then he makes an origami man with an erection. The most insightful one is this last one, which is an origami unicorn. Rick dreams about a unicorn, and he finds Gaff’s origami unicorn in the last scene. The props of Gaff’s origami are small and delicate (Blade Runner).

2. The sort of computer used by Deckard when he tries to find clues in the picture he has of one of the replicants gives a futuristic feeling to the film. It gives this kind of impression because Deckard talks directly to the computer and it automatically zooms in and out exactly where he says to. It shows advances in the world of technology.

Sound 

Vangelis, the music composer of Blade Runner

1. Non-diegetic sound, “sound that cannot logically be a part of the movie environment, ” is frequently used throughout the film (Golden 14). Electronic music composed by Vangelis adds a more intense impact on the audience in order to enable them to be immersed in the fictional future world (Blade Runner). At the beginning of the film, epic music is used as the camera films the city skyline and the pyramid-like building, emphasizing the huge scale of the buildings and the vastness of the city.


2. Diegetic sound is used by Scott to add more reality. Scott uses sound which “emanates from a source in the movie environment,” like the sound of crashing glass. When Rick “retires” Zhora, he shoots at her and she falls into the display windows smashing them into pieces. The diegetic sound of crushing glass suggests the inevitable fate of replicants and the control humans have over them.

Lighting

1. At the beginning, low-key lighting is used to create “a lot of shadows with sharp contrasts between light and dark” (Golden 14). The bright electrical lights and flaming fire are extremely distinctive in the night full of darkness (Blade Runner). Low-key lighting creates a depressing feeling, and it implies there is a problem coming up. The low-key lighting would imply the use of symbolism: the darkness may symbolize the future of humans, city lights may symbolize the uprising force of Replicants, and the fire may symbolize the conflict between Replicants and humans.

2. As Roy is standing on the roof furiously staring at Rick, high-key lighting is applied by Scott which is disturbed by the shadows of huge turning fans (Blade Runner). Roy’s “motives are not hidden, nor are there likely to be many scares or sudden surprises” (Golden 14). At this moment,  the high-key lighting, especially the cold bright color, increases the audience’s fear of Roy, especially given that we know he is violent and is trying to kill Deckard.

Costumes

1. The costume/coat worn by Hannibal Chew (the “eye designer”) gives us a futuristic feel, by having tubes in his coat and antennas on this hat. Another interesting point is the thick winter jacket that he wears in his laboratory. This definitely implies that it is extremely cold in the lab where humans create replicants (Blade Runner). This remark could be trying to tie artificial intelligence with the coldness of metal used to create robots in our current world.







2. A lot of characters, including Leon, Roy, Gaff, and Deckard, wear long and black coats when they are outside in the rain, which gives out this mysterious and enigmatic impression. The choice of wearing such dark coats definitely adds, in our opinion, to the darkness and sadness of the rain. Also, for example, Pris has a very unique style; blonde hair, black eye makeup, and plain (white) face, black stockings, etc. (Blade Runner). That costume, in particular, emits a punk style. It could, without a doubt, provoke the audience to think about the living and social environment of those replicants, and also how their outfits reflect their inner feelings and personality.

Big Themes and Questions Raised by the Film

1. We believe that love is one of the big themes in this film. Even Though it might seem like it doesn’t take an immense part because it only materializes itself towards the end of the film, we do believe that the couple of minutes in which love takes over Deckard and Racheal’s heart and makes them fall in love definitely turns the movie in an absolute new direction. Their love itself raises so many questions about AI and if they have “capability of love” if they are able to love the same way a human does? How can Deckard love a replicant like if she was a human? This theme opens a realm of new possibilities of questions. On the other hand, we observe Pris and Roy also having an intimate relationship, but their love gives out a different feel than Deckard and Racheal's love. Pris and Roy's relationship makes us uncomfortable, they give out this sense of impurity. And on the contrary, towards the end of the film, Racheal and Deckard's love seems so light, full of happiness and so pure. All in all, the presence of love has a humongous impact on the film and definitely wouldn't be the same without it.

2. A question that came into our minds after watching this film was “Where is artificial intelligence heading to? What will robots look like in 50 years and what will they be able to do? This thought could be something really amazing to think about, but on the other hand, it could also be really nerve-wracking. Let’s think about it… Artificial intelligence could be cleaning our houses, cooking food, passing the vacuum, but it could also extend to AI teaching kids, doing operations at the hospital, serving us at the restaurant and cutting our hair! We think that artificial intelligence is great, but what if it takes over our lives too much?

3. In addition, Blade Runner raises another theme on the self-destruction of human beings. Humans in the film gift robots with the characteristics of humans, like the thinking power and the capability of performing physical functions to achieve certain tasks. Humans give power to replicants, but still, treat them as slaves and give them no autonomy to govern themselves (for example, replicants cannot gain longer life). Consequently, the oppression of replicants leads to a riot against humans. Therefore, the theme of the self-destructive trait (nature) of humans is implied. In the film, Deckard knows it is unacceptable for a "Blade Runner" to save a wanted replicant, but he still falls in love with Rachael. Even though Deckard knows the Replicants want to take over the human world, then why does he risk the future of humanity to save Rachael? Blade Runner brings up a series of questions along with the theme of self-destruction. Are humans digging a tomb for themselves by anthropomorphizing replicants? Are humans giving these “slaves” the tools to liberate themselves from being used, maltreated, exploited, and abused?

Word Count: 1528

Star Rating & Comment on the Quality of the Film

We give Blade Runner a staring rating at 4.5 out of 5.

In our opinion, this was not our favorite movie because it is not usually the genre that we look for when we want to watch something. However, we were still able to really enjoy some parts of the film, including the amazing talent of the actors and the sets in particular. And Blade Runner deserves such a high rating because it really prompts the audience to think about the future of artificial intelligence.

What is first noticeable in this film is how dark every scene was. We barely saw the sun or daylight. The scenes were mostly shot in a very dark area or in the pouring rain. Although it was very hard to always stay focused due to the same lighting, the darkness helped us really get into the world Scott created, and give us significant clues to what the main emotions of the film would be. However, throughout the film, lighting creates a great effect on the emotions of characters and the background environment. On the other hand, we absolutely adored the amazing effort put in the sets and props. The attention to detail put in every one of those scenes was really impressive and very well done. All these details caught our eye and made us appreciate all the time put in that aspect of the film. 

The plot creates a sophisticated but thought-provoking storyline where the audience would have a chance to relate themselves to the characters (especially those replicants). The relation between Rick Deckard and Rachael is fascinating; a human being falls in love with an artificial creature. The monologue of Roy Batty at the last scene is extremely well-done, that the audience would have compassion for the robots who are maltreated and abused by humans.

Following with a subject that is parallel to the last one: props. It was really interesting to see what people in the 1980’s thought 2019 would look like and bring it to life. As two of us, writing this blog, and living in 2019, seeing what they came up with made us chuckle, but then we realized how amazing it is that they brought their ideas about the future to life in this film. The props and settings were truly the part we most appreciated. Finally, we would like to discuss acting. The acting was absolutely spectacular, all the facial expressions were so precise in order to give us a great understanding of every scene. 

All in all, when we were watching Blade Runner, we were a bit confused in the middle part and felt the pace of the film was so slow and the runtime was quite long (almost 2 hours). However, we would like to recommend Blade Runner to you! Also, we would like to recommend this film to our friends, colleagues, and families. Moreover, we would like to recommend this film to those who are fans of science-fiction films, and to those who are curious about artificial intelligence and its future!

Connections to Knowing the Inner Self Course Material

We have three connections between the film Blade Runner and the Knowing the Inner Self Course Material.

First Connection 

The first course concept we would like to connect to the film is the concept of “personhood”. “We will define (personhood) as the status of being a person—a legal or social category that will vary across cultures and across history. Not all humans are persons and not all persons are human. Example, fetuses, slaves, incremental granting of personhood” (McKinney). As said in class and referring to this definition, often slaves are not considered human. Interestingly, in the film Roy says: “Quite an experience to live in fear, isn’t it? That’s what it is to be a slave” (Fancher et Peoples). Roy referring himself as a slave suggest that he doesn’t think society takes him seriously nor think he’s important. He believes that society doesn’t consider him as a person, and more as an object designed to execute a task. He is furious about this and expresses it through that sentence. To conclude, personhood is a crucial part of this film and is definitely showing up when Roy reveals his feelings about being a slave.

Second Connection

The second course connection to the film that we found is the concept of epistemology. Epistemology is the study of knowledge. It raises questions like: What is knowledge? What is truth? Is knowledge possible?..." (McKinney).  In fact, there is a perfect quotation from the movie’s script that demonstrates some epistemological thinking. In the last scene where Gaff tells Deckard twice: “It's too bad she won't live. But then again, who does?” (Fancher et Peoples), definitely demonstrates epistemological thinking because of the words and question; “who does?”. This choice of words reveals a lot of deep thinking happening in Gaff’s mind. He is asking himself and now Deckard: what is life? Do we live? What does living really mean? Are humans only the ones living or does AI “live” too? Are we all artificial intelligence? All these questions come from the world of epistemology. Who really does “live” if the world we live in is so poor, depressing and dark? In the way we interpreted this passage, Gaff infers that no one really gets the chance to live, because in the end death awaits us. We also felt that Gaff was scared of death and that is how he was showing it. All in all, we do believe that this passage shows some epistemological concepts because it questions our knowledge about life and what we really know about it.

Third Connection

The third class concept we would like to connect to the film is the concept of the self-aware self. Are replicants self-aware? Our answer would be yes, they are self-aware. Firstly, the definition of the “self-aware self” is that “This self can represent itself. It is the subject of experience but can also be an object of its experience. It can reflect. It can introspect. It knows it exists. It is an “I” with symbols if an “I”.” (McKinney). As this being the definition when Leon says: “How old am I? … My birthday is April 10th2017. How long do I live?” (Fancher et Peoples), it demonstrates that he is self-aware because of the use of words like “I” and “me”. This means that he is the subject of his experience and he knows it. He is aware that he is alive and that he is a replicant. The same analysis can be done when Roy tells Tyrell: “I want more life…” (Fancher et Peoples), he is definitely aware that he has a short life span and that what comes after life is death, which in our society is portrayed as dark and petrifying, and Roy is aware that he is coming close to death. Thus, it means that, yes, replicants have self-aware selves.

Questions for You

-- the reader of our Blog & the audience of Blade Runner

1. Was Rick Deckard a Replicant? Why? Did the film give sufficient hints for your conclusion? What are your examples and proofs?

2. We are living in a world filled with advertising and integrated marketing approaches. Ads are used by marketers to grab your attention, in order to grab your money. Ads are everywhere: from your social media accounts to the restaurant you eat in. People like marketers use AI (Artificial Intelligence) to learn more about consumers. How will the AI technology have an impact on the field of business or any other fields?

3. Nowadays, our world is highly globalized and we are interconnected through the Internet and massive amount of communications. The prosperity of the robot industry is fundamentally changing our daily life. Robots are used by us in a variety of fields; for example, there are robots being used to take care of the elderly, to be as sexual companions, to play with children, and so many other purposes. Will they gain an ability to think philosophically and cognitively?

Interested in Blade Runner?

Here are some sites that you may find interesting!

1. 10 Hidden Details Everyone Missed In The Original Blade Runner

https://screenrant.com/blade-runner-original-hidden-detail

This is a super interesting and fun website that provides some insights on themes and hidden meanings that all of us might not grasp the first time we watch Blade Runner. It is really interesting to see what other people have grasped during the movie, so that the next time you watch it, you see it with a whole new and improved perspective.

2. Heading toward Artificial Intelligence 2.0

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2095809917300772

On the other hand, this scientific article discusses so many interesting topics related to AI and talks about where technology is heading. One of the few things discussed in this article are the history of artificial intelligence in the past 60 years, the new forms of technology and the goals envisioned for AI. Extremely interesting article for people who love the science behind artificial intelligence!

Works Cited

Blade Runner. Directed by Ridley Scott, performances by Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, and Sean Young, Warner Bros, 1982. 123Movies, https://www.123moviesa.net/film/blade-runner-YUmqW/watching.html.

Blade Runner: The Final Cut (Trailer) | BFI. Directed by Ridley Scott, performances by Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, and Sean Young, Warner Bros, 1982. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_9rhPDLHWk.

“Blade Runner.” IMDb, IMDb.com, 25 June 1982, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083658/.

Carroll, Christ. “Us. And them.” Knowing the Inner Self course packet, edited by Kelly McKinney, John Abbott College, 2019, pp. 45-48. Course Pack.

Fancher, Hampton and David Peoples. https://www.trussel.com/bladerun.htm. n.d. 27 October 2019.

Golden, John. “Introducing Cinematic and Theatrical Elements in Film.” Knowing the Inner Self course packet, edited by Kelly McKinney, John Abbott College, 2019, pp. 9-17. Course Pack.

McKinney, Kelly. “Test Study Guide for Robots and AI.” Material for Test 2, John Abbott College, 2019, Course Pack.

McKinney, Kelly. “Non-human animals (nha) and Selfhood Study Guide.” Material for Test 2, John Abbott College, 2019, Course Pack.

McKinney, Kelly. "Philosophy of Mind as a form of Knowledge." McKinney, Kelly. Knowing the Inner Self. St-Anne-de-Bellevue: John Abbott College, 2019. 3-7.

Thank you!