Blade Runner

Released June 25, 1982

Directed by Ridley Scott

Starring: Harrison Ford, Sean Young, Rutger Hauer, William Sanderson, Daryl Hannah

First Viewing: June 16, 2010

Roger – 4.5/5

    Los Angeles in 2019 is a grim place. It’s smoggy, dark, and overpopulated. Decrepit high-rises tower above the cluttered streets, and the polluted skies are congested with air traffic. Asia is a big influence, in the dining, advertising, and shops. This is the world both humans and replicants inhabit in Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, and Mr. Scott has created a future both strange and eerily prophetic.

           In this future, many things are genetically engineered using biomechanics – including a cloned type of human, called a replicant. The trouble is, replicants, (whose lives span four years before they start to experience human feelings and rebel) are illegal on Earth. They must be stopped. This is done by an exclusive team of police known as Blade Runners, who specialize in the “retirement” of replicants.

            This is where Richard Deckard (Ford) comes in. A burnt out, alcoholic version of a heroic cop, he’s retired from blade running, and alone – just how he likes things, we presume. But he is given one final order – to track down and eliminate four illegal replicants residing somewhere in L.A. To start his search, he meets with Mr. Tyrell (of Tyrell Corporation), who is the man behind the replicant industry. He also meets with Tyrell’s secretary, Rachael, who is a brand new, experimental replicant – she has implanted memories, and therefore can experience emotions of her own. She believes, but doubts, that she is human. Deckard knows she’s not, but the two form an unlikely alliance, and he finds himself in love, while struggling to complete his mission.

            Blade Runner is not a comfortable movie to watch, but it’s an excellent one. This movie explores timeless, important (and ironically, very human) themes. It blurs the line between human and robotic. What does it mean to be human? What does it mean to love? To kill? To die? After watching, countless scenes are burned into my memory. There is one where Deckard kisses Rachael, and she resists, unsure of the new emotion she is experiencing in regards to him. But Deckard forcefully guides her, creating a powerful moment. There is another, where Deckard and Roy (the leader of the escaped replicants) are on a roof together, and Roy’s words of his experiences as a replicant are absolutely beautiful.

            The dialogue in this movie is very succinct – there isn’t one scene where the actors are talking for a long time. But this is a movie told with atmosphere and expressions as much as it is told with words.  The looks exchanged between characters constantly tell us what we need to know – and it’s often haunting. There is no need for cheap dialogue in this movie. There is such poetry to the way Blade Runner tells its story. Almost everything is a metaphor, or a comparison. At one point, Deckard is dealing with his human pain, taping up broken fingers. At the same time, the dying replicant Roy is forced to push a nail through the palm of his hand to regain a semblance of human sensation.

The film is beautifully shot, with every image and scene a work of art. It comes across as film noir – complete with a gruff detective, a beautiful woman and cigarette smoke wreathing its way around dark rooms – but it takes place in Ridley Scott’s fantastic imagining of the future. This movie is worth watching for the visual experience alone. Another note – this movie was released before CGI came about, and there was so much attention to detail that the world he created still holds up today. Since the movie’s original release, it has made the AFI list of top 250 films (#110), gained an enormous cult following, and defined the genre of science fiction.

At the end, we are not sure what will happen to the remaining characters – or what will happen to the future of humanity. But that’s the point. There is no black and white, and our human emotions are what cause the grey to appear. Blade Runner, at its black and white core, is just another story. Just another guy, doing his job, falling in love. And yet. In all its wonderful and complicated grey shades, it is so much more than just another story. And it is so much more than just another movie.

Note: Blade Runner is, after all, science fiction. While I believe the movie’s themes transcend the genre, and that the “science fiction” part is almost disturbingly acceptable (no sparkly aliens to be seen here!), you may have read this review and thought the premise sounded silly. If that’s the case, you probably won’t like the movie. Mind you, I think romantic comedies can border on fairy-tale implausibility, so there you go. To each his own :D