City as a Character in Film

¶ … imagery in the movies Chinatown and Blade Runner and compare the film-noir type of imagery against the actual statistics available in the latest Census results from Los Angeles that characterize the complexion of Los Angeles in 2010. In all three arenas, we see a Los Angeles area that is multi-ethnic, grime and dirt included. In many ways, while the movie imagery is different, in many ways all three characterizations have more in common than have differences. In all three portraits, the dirty, gritty and repressive city scape has the potential to swallow up the inhabitants in the Los Angeles darkness that is almost as thick as palpable as the ninth Egyptian plague of darkness. The films accurately and effectively discuss the "feel" of the city and the city's neighborhoods. The author will provide examples from the films to illustrate this, as well as the similarities and differences.

Analysis

In all three portrayals, despite the technological differences in the times represented, the "feel" of the city and its neighborhoods portrayed in each of the films and the present reality is amazingly similar. The movies portray a multi-ethnic underclass that is ruled over by a wealthy elite that have gained an incredible amount of power and there is a great gulf between the rich and the poor.

with the U.S. census data.

Technology and Poverty

In both Blade Runner and in Chinatown, the impact of rampant, out of control technology that is wielded by the rich to dominate the poor is a fact of life for the multi-ethnic people of Los Angeles County and outside of the megalopolis as well. In Chinatown, the city of Los Angeles water district has chained the panorama of desert into an artificial place where cynicism and sexual attitudes prevail. The people at the top of the heap are white, while those at the bottom who are poor. In both movies, water is a primary force of nature that is being unleashed from or into the environment. For instance, in Chinatown, Cross admits that he intends to incorporate the Northwest Valley into Los Angeles, afterwards irrigating and developing it. Those who have the power are using it to overrun and take over the land of the poor. In Blade Runner, the poor replicants make the world run, but can not enjoy it. Rather, they are "retired" (executed) on the streets of a Los Angeles that is being washed away in the acid rain brought about by human pollution and exploitation of the city and the earth's environment. The only place that people can seek refuge is to get out of the city to the off-world to start their lives over again. Poverty also reigns at present in Los Angeles as we can see from 2010 Census figures where out of 1,314,198 households, 101,535 had a household income of less than $10,000 per year and 91,002 made less that $15,000 per year ("Los Angeles city, California QuickLinks"). The city has, is and will probably continue to be controlled by the rich and exploit the poor.

Multi-Ethnic Nature of the City

Another issue that has not changed is the multi-ethnic nature of the city. In Bladerunner, the elevator speaks in the language of the streets which is a mixture of Spanish, English, German and many other languages. In Chinatown, much of the action happens in Chinatown and police officer Escobar is involved in much of the action. This reflects the city's population complexion of today where whites now only make up just under half of the city's population at 46.9% (ibid.). The non-minorities have to be kept down forcibly. This ethnic diversity gives the city an ambiguity and uncertainty, as well a textual richness of culture and language. A good portion of the city's population is from elsewhere and was not born in the city itself. In the city in 2010, 59.4% of the city was born than the city of Los Angeles and 39/6% we foreign born (ibid.).

May of these people do the jobs that the ruling classes do not want to do and keep the city humming checking from the poverty and ethnic statistics, at least on the surface. Certainly, no more that a surface scratch can be gotten from an essay of this short length.