Blade Runner

FILM 3160 Topics: Film Noir Colin Taylor Tyrell (Pronunciation Tie-rell) “A name describing the dominant male. Violent with the mind of a serial killer with fast reflexes and incredible techniques. Very dangerous to be around if you're a male. Irresistible to females and very protective of those he chooses not to kill. Hardly ever merciful and enjoys the sight of pain and gushing body fluids.” – The Urban dictionary Blade Runner “And it's also a mess, at least as far as its narrative is concerned. Almost nothing is explained coherently, and the plot has great lapses, from the changeable nature of one key character to the frequent disappearances of another. The story lurches along awkwardly, helped not at all by some ponderous stabs at developing Deckard's character. As an old-fashioned detective cruising his way through the space age, Deckard is both tedious and outré…The end of the film is both gruesome and sentimental. Mr. Scott can't have it both ways, any more than he can expect over decoration to carry a film that has neither strong characters nor a strong story. That hasn't stopped him from trying, even if it perhaps should have.” – Janet Maslin, New York times review, June 25, 1982 “The film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry in 1993 and is frequently used in university courses. In 2007 it was named the second most visually influential film of all time by the Visual Effects Society” – Wikipedia “The flame that burns Twice as bright burns half as long.” ― Lao Tzu, “Te Tao Ching” Blade runner is a 1982 Neo Noir Sci-Fi movie based on Phillip K Dicks novella “Do Androids dream of electric sheep”, from 1968. I will not dwell on the source material since it is used by the director Ridley Scott as both a plot inspiration and a stepping off point. The movie broadly follows the themes of the book but then it takes the plot into areas of humanity that the novel touches on while dropping the books emphasis on what is reality and sisyphusian tasks. In the book Rachel is a much more manipulative character and is much more aware of her state as a nexus 6. A whole sub plot about the need for fake animals in this dystopian future is abandoned completely. Nothing looks like Blade Runner, even today, and it continues to influence the grammar of film and television making. I can never see a fan in a film, and not think that the director has watched Blade Runner or watched a film that was influenced by it and It remains the most fully realized expression of a dystopian future committed to film. Watching again for the first time in a few years I was astonished how well it stands up, it doesn’t look dated or false. Obviously this falls to the brilliance of its director Ridley Scott, for whom this was his third feature film having directed The Duelist’s and Alien previously, both films introducing and refining the stylistic themes and look that we see in this film. Scott was no novice having cut his teeth in the London advertising scene in the mid 70’s, most famously with this 1973 Hovis bread ad which already shows his gift for mixing music and atmosphere, which is so important in Blade Runner https://youtu.be/6Mq59ykPnAE I have to admit that I had never thought of Blade runner as Noir having tended to view it as sci-fi but having now run the noir test, it clearly is As early as the first scene we have smoking, and where we don’t have smoke we have the next best thing, steam. At one point Rachel says “Do you mind if I smoke?” It is set in a permanent night time world where it is always raining. When we see the sun it is only to prove that the omnipotent Tyrell can control it The antihero is a world weary detective who has no past (Unless it relates to the plot) or future AND he wears a trench coat and never smiles People are manipulative and have a grim world view Rachel’s clothes are a nod to 1940’s design Light plays a huge part in scene setting Femme fatales The only interesting people are the protagonists. Minor characters are boring or grotesques Music is dramatic and is another character. The one break from Noir tradition is the eschewing of the voice over, which was present in the original theatrical release of Blade Runner but was rightly dropped from the final cut, which was Scotts real vision. Harrison Ford is a fine action star and cinematic presence but a voice over artist he is not. I never cease to cringe when watching the original theatre release, as after Roy Batty’s “Tears in the rain” epitaph, one of the great speeches in cinema, the whole mood is destroyed by Fords monotone “I don't know why he saved my life. Maybe in those last moments he loved life more than he ever had before” Ugh!!! Fortunately, we are reviewing the Final Cut Before I dive in to the movies many themes I would like to mention Vangelis outstanding score. I will eschew the superlatives lavished on this work which was so groundbreaking that it of course never received an academy award nomination, the Oscar voters preferring the more traditional stylings of John Williams derivative music for E.T. Vangelis is very much the renaissance man, and unlike most noted film composers has done very few scores, most notably Chariots of Fire and Columbus, and he now works on documentaries, opening ceremonies and opera. He has been extensively plagiarized over the years, consciously or not, both comically and seriously, but most notably in Ridley Scotts own Gladiator soundtrack by Hans Zimmer. The films first image is an eye which could represent many things. It could be us as an observer or it could be another one of the masonic images that litter the film, which brings us to our first theme Masonic imagery As Jay Dyer noted in 2012, “Keeping with the Masonic theme, the death of Roy Batty includes a shot with an interesting “X” pose. It is the pose of the dead Pharoah, the philosopher king. The famous Lodge of the new world, America, was St. Andrew’s, which issued “Knight’s Templar” degrees in 1769. The 17th degree ritual utilizes the “X” cross symbolism, which is also the cross of Scotland, home of the Scottish Rite, and which is symbolized by the double-headed eagle above” Tyrell lives in a pyramid, the classic masonic symbol and his almost grotesquely over emphasized eyes suggest his all-seeing nature. Certainly Tyrell Corporation seems to be above the law and has the law, such as it is, very much in its pocket. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. It has a very interesting logo which may be ironic, but I doubt it The replicants are tested with a Voight Kampf machine (In the novella it has a different name) which I take to be a reference to Hitler’s Mein Kampf and its obsession with controlling human will. To further the masonic theme, the first of Gaffs pieces of origami is a rooster and according to the British Grand Masonic Lodge, the rooster is associated with alchemy, “Mercury appears as the rooster drawn on the wall of the Chamber of Reflection. This animal is connected to the deity Hermes, that is, Mercury. It is a feminine principle, referring to Vigilance and it also corresponds to Faith. As the rooster sings at dawn announcing the light of day, so it announces to our future initiate, the Light he may receive.” In case you think this is a stretch let’s look at it another way. Gaffs origami litter the narrative, like breadcrumbs leading Deckard along. What this says about Gaff and what he knows (Why doesn’t Gaff just find the replicants?) I will deal with later but there is clearly a theme in the various figures. Let’s look at the second figure, a very strange one, a man with an erect penis, which can be viewed literally, he will be aroused by Zhora and her Salome like snake dance, or it could be seen as a hint from Gaff that the Replicant Deckard is not capable of such an erection, or that he is becoming aware of this fact. Masonic scholars would argue that this is part of his transformation, he is achieving another level in the masonic process. Eyes “CHEW(nervously): I don't know ... I don't know such stuff! I just do eyes ... genetic design ...just eyes. (Squints) ...you Nexus, huh? I design your eyes. BATTY(smiling): Chew - if only you could see what I have seen, with your eyes...” Eyes are a blatant theme in the film and apart from the obvious masonic theme of the all seeing eye they represent many other things. Eyes are the portal to the soul and yet most of the people we see in the film clearly do not have souls and yet they seek to get a soul, and of course the Voight Kampf machine looks into eyes to see if people are replicants Eyes also show who the replicants are, most obviously the owl in Tyrells apartment whose eyes glow red when he is murdered. We also see Rachel and Deckard’s eyes glow in the scene in his apartment showing they are both replicants. Eyes are an unreliable reporter of memory and thus replicants are obsessed with photographs as an accurate reporter of memory. The Blade Runner dedicated aggregate website, Themes in Blade Runner, has a contemporary article which notes, “The relationship between sight and memories is referenced several times in Blade Runner. Rachael's visual recollection of her memories, Leon's "precious photos", Roy's discussion with Chew and soliloquy at the end, "I've seen things you people wouldn't believe". However, just as prevalent is the concept that what the eyes see and the resulting memories are not to be trusted. This is a notion emphasized by Rachael's fabricated memories, Deckard's need to confirm a Replicant based on more than appearance, and even the printout of Leon's photograph not matching the reality of the Esper visual” Finally, Tyrells eyes get pushed out by Roy Batty, an unusual method of death but made relevant if you consider that Batty sees the eyes as the most powerful of the senses The Unicorn Unicorns appear in another Ridley Scott film, Legend, a film about another battle with good and evil. Clearly Scott likes unicorns. What do the unicorns mean? There are dozens (I am not exaggerating) of web sites occupied with this. Some take the superficial approach; it merely represents the hope of a better future. Others see it as an alchemical transformative creature tied up with the masonic and gnostic concepts of a man elevating to a higher plane. The Blogger Joakim Timon articulated this in 2012, “The image of a unicorn is shown three times in the film. I will come back to why it is shown later, but the unicorn itself symbolizes fantasy and great beauty. It also symbolizes the better life, the dream of escaping the hellish reality…A step up is that the unicorn represents Rachael and her beauty but it also represents the dream of a better life, and Gaff is telling Deckard to grab this opportunity” Others link the unicorn to its role in mythical writing and alchemy. As Jay Dyers emphasizes, “This is crucial, since the unicorn in alchemy signifies the Philosopher’s Stone itself. Deckard is dreaming of archetypal symbols related directly to alchemy, and this will become evident when Gaff leaves the final origami figurine: a unicorn” William Blake The parallels with William Blake’s” America, a Prophecy” are well documented, and Batty misquotes Blake when he says “Fiery the angels fell; deep thunder rolled around their shores; burning with the fires of Orc” Blakes book sees the Orc as the antichrist and many have seen the character of Roy Batty as a representation of the antichrist. As the scholar Bryan Thao Worra noted in 2009, “Shortly after his birth, Orc transformed from a worm into a powerful serpent. There's all sorts of relationship drama that results in one character using the Chains of Jealousy to confine Orc to a mountain, until the power of Orc's imagination awakens a diety who frees him to then go on a rebellious rampage. Orc is a force of revolution and revival with most interpretations regarding him as a largely positive figure of creativity, passionate energy” Some have suggested that Blade Runner is a nod to the Frankenstein story by Mary Shelley but as Alexis Harley noted in 2008 “While Blade Runner undoubtedly does share Miltonic themes with Frankenstein, the extent to which it shares them self-consciously is less obvious than filmnik essays would suggest. Blade Runner is far more calculating in its debt, and far more indebted, to William Blake's America, A Prophecy (1793) than it is to Frankenstein. Even leaving aside Blake's and Blade Runner's significant political and metaphysical allegiances, the film references America both in its deliberate misquotation (there is no quotation, mis- or otherwise, from Frankenstein) and in its depiction of Roy Batty, muscle-bound, blood-streaked and drenched in light, who is the Orc of Blake's visionary illustrations well before he is another film incarnation of Frankenstein's creature” She completes the comparison with this stanza, “Like Orc, who is both Christ and Lucifer, and Milton's Satan, who makes 'a heaven in hell, a hell in heaven', Replicant Roy Batty is Christ and Satan-an embodiment of the principles of rebellion and redemption-whose name, 'Roy' (king) and 'batty' (mad), suggests an anarchic authority. When Roy finally confronts Tyrell, he calls him his 'maker' (aptly, since Roy's built-in self-destruct mechanism, courtesy of Tyrell, is what causes him prematurely to 'meet his maker) and 'the god of biomechanics', the technocratic demiurge who has embraced 'a science/ That men get rich by'. Tyrell is Blake's ungenerous God, who has built into his creatures a four-year life span, rejects his pet Replicant, Rachael, as soon as she loses the charm of believing herself to be human, smirks in bespectacled glee at outwitting Deckard, and explains, with scientific dispassion, that if 'we gift [Replicants] with a past, we create a cushion or a pillow for their emotions, and consequently, we can control them better” Is Deckard a replicant? Even the makers of the film cannot agree if Deckard is a Replicant, and as the Wikia website has noted, “Relevant opinions from those involved in the production: Ridley Scott stated in an interview in 2002 that Deckard is a Replicant. Harrison Ford continues to insist that Deckard is human. Hampton Fancher (original screenwriter) has said that he did not write the Deckard character as a Replicant” They list the well documented for and against arguments “Human Known replicants are all stronger than humans, but Deckard is of merely human strength. He is beaten physically and, like any human, tires. Replicants are illegal on Earth, so why would one be free, as Deckard is at the start of the film? No connection is shown between the police and Tyrell to account for a replicant Deckard. All humans are referred to by their surname ("Bryant"); all replicants are referred to by their given name ("Roy"). In the book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? upon which the movie was based, Deckard was clearly shown as being human. Director's Cut only: Deckard's reaction at finding the unicorn seems very low key for discovering that he is a replicant. Replicant Rachael's question: "Have you taken the test yourself?" remains unanswered. Replicant's eyes are seen to glow a yellow-orange color; this is not "real" within the film and is meant for the audience to "see" Replicant artificiality. Deckard's eyes are seen to glow slightly when he tells Rachael he wouldn't go after her, "but someone would". Replicants are strong and dangerous; Deckard battles them alone and holds his own; it would make sense to send a replicant to catch one. Gaff saying: "You've done a man's job, sir!" – could hint Deckard is not human. Director's Cut only: Deckard dreams of a unicorn. At the end of the film, he finds an origami unicorn left by Gaff. This suggests that Gaff knows Deckard's memories” What they don’t mention is the scene where Deckard is beaten by Leon where he sustains injuries that would kill a human. In the final fight with Batty he has his fingers broken but can still fight. This for me confirms the fact that he is a Replicant and if he is the film becomes far more intriguing and cohesive. It does beg another question which is if Deckard is a Replicant and fulfills all the necessary noir hero characteristics then are noir heroes Replicants? Is Scott telling us Deckard is a replicant with this shot? Irony J.F Sebastian says “Not really. I MAKE friends. They're toys. My friends are toys. I make them. It's a hobby. I'm a genetic designer.” The sheer number of mannequins in the film, Zhora and Pris hide by pretending to be a mannequin which is visual irony Curse of Blade Runner On a lighter note the curse of Blade Runner has been noted which is the sheer number of product placements for brands of 1982 which will not make it to the future predicted for them in Blade Runner. As the BBC website notes, “So how true is "The Commercial Curse of Blade Runner"? Gone forever Pan Am - Pan American World Airways, more commonly known as Pan Am, was one of the world's biggest airlines in 1982 when Blade Runner was released. Fast forward nine years to December 1991 and Pan Am goes bust. Following the first Gulf War in 1990, high oil prices pushed it over the edge. Atari - The video game company had 70% of the US market when Blade Runner was released but went into decline in the late 1980s as other big firms entered the market. By the 1990s it had all but disappeared and the Atari that exists today is a completely different firm. With us - but in a different form RCA - Electronics company RCA had been going since the late 1920s, but was bought by General Electric in 1986 and dismantled. However, the trademark is now used by Sony Music Entertainment and has gone on to become a big player in the record industry signing artists such as Kelly Clarkson, Christina Aguilera and the Foo Fighters. Bell Phones - The Bell System monopoly was broken up in the same year as Blade Runner was released.” The reality is of course that firms come and go and is more symptomatic of the fact that Blade Runner was one of the first films to feature extensive product placement. Pacific Gas & Electric Co, Chrysler, Enron, General Motors, WorldCom, American Airlines and Blockbuster do not appear in the film and it didn’t help them much. RCA, Pan am and Howard Johnson’s appeared in 2001 A Space Odyssey and no one goes on about that. Conclusion The iconography and themes of Blade Runner are so numerous and complex that it is easy to become so immersed in them that you forget to appreciate the film itself. It remains one of the finest sci-fi movies of all time, and an iconic touchstone for the look of movies beyond the narrow confines of it genre. I now understand its relationship to Noir. When looking at the themes you have to ask “Why would Scott put in so many symbols that even well versed film critics would miss them?” which is similar to asking why Hitchcock did it. He did because he is a master film maker who know that a film gets better with repeated viewings. As to their meaning there is a clear link between Scotts own obsessions with duality, humanity and myth (Themes he would later explore in Prometheus, Kingdom of Heaven) and the themes explored in Phillip K Dicks source novella of corporatism, reality and the sense of self. This is a truly great film. References Bryan Thao Worra ,“On the other side of the eye” website, Tuesday, November 24, 2009 Alexis Harley, “America, a Prophecy: when Blake meets Blade Runner”, University of Sydney, 19 Nov 2008 Jay Dyer, Jays Analysis website “Blade Runner: In-depth Esoteric Analysis”, May 15, 2012 Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon A.F. & A.M. Updated: August 2, 2001 freemasonry.bcy.ca/texts/gmd1999/pondering.html Various, Off World, the Blade Runner website, “Themes in Blade Runner”, 10.45am, 09/12/2013 Joak Timon, “Themes, Symbols and Motifs in Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner”, Web blog, December 3, 2012