Blade Runner reimagines the future and seamlessly marries film noir and science fiction. In the film, humanoid robots have become self-aware and decide that it is unjust for their short, four-year lifespans to be calculated by those that created them and have to find a way to override their self-destructing programming. In Blade Runner, a small group of humanoids, referred to as replicants, escape from their off-world and flee to Los Angeles hoping to find a way to escape their fate. However, since humans have determined that it is illegal for replicants to be on Earth, Rick Deckard, an experience blade runner, is contracted to assist the Los Angeles Police Department to exterminate the replicant threat. In the "Chinatown" scene, the audience is able to see how science fiction and film noir come together in terms of cinematography and mise-en-scene, and are given better insight into Deckard as an individual.
Blade…...
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Works Cited
Blade Runner. Dir. Ridley Scott. United States: Warner Bros. Pictures, 1982. Motion Picture.
"Retrofuturism." 25 March 1997. Web. Accessed 13 October 2013.
Each of the renegades were created to the newest technological level possible, and their creator challenges Deckard to distinguish his new models from a human by using achel (Sean Young) as an example of the level of humanity he has accomplished in his humanoid design.
Deckard finds his self strangely attracted to achel in a very human way, and she responds to his emotions, sensing his feelings, and returning those emotions. Deckard faces a moral dilemma. Of course, in the end, the eplicants (robots) manifest their creator's dark side, and kill to survive.
That they are artificial life forms should erase the doubt of whether or not it is wrongful to enslave them, because they are machines, not people. The impetus of their creation was to serve humans. However, in the film, Deckard is challenged with the idea that he himself might be a eplicant, and finds himself questioning his own…...
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Reference List
Scott, R. (1982). Blade Runner, motion picture, Ladd Company, USA.
Blade Runner: A Marriage of Noir and Sci-Fi
Blade Runner is a 1982 film noir/science fiction film set in 2019 that depicts a world that is threatened by human advancements in technology. In the film, robotic humanoids become self-aware and decide that it is within their right to live past their predetermined expiration dates and set out to find a way to live among humans and defy scientists, whom arbitrarily decided and programmed these humanoids' lifespans, and society, which does not readily accept humanoids despite having created them. In Blade Runner, a group of these humanoids, called replicants in the film, escape their off-world and flee to Los Angeles with the hope of finding a way to defy their preprogrammed self-destruction. However, because it is illegal for replicants to be on Earth, it is up to former blade runner, Rick Deckard, to stop the replicants before they create any disturbances within…...
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Works Cited
Borde, Raymond and Chaumeton, Etienne. A Panorama of American Film Noir: 1941-1953.
Trans. Paul Hammond. San Francisco: City Lights Books, 2002. Print.
Blade Runner. Dir. Ridley Scott. United States: Warner Bros. Pictures, 1982. Motion Picture.
The flaw that has compelled Batty and crew to murder is that a timer was built into the robots, which times them out on a certain year, day, hour. Batty is facing the end of his mortality, and, as is common to the human struggle in the face of its own mortality, he is looking to survive.
What is very interesting in this science fiction film is that technology is not used to detect the technological life of the robots as much as is a test of humanness, which is done through a series of questions to the "person," and answers. The only way to reveal the robotness of the person, if they are indeed a robot, is to ply them with a set of psychological teaser questions they must answer. If the question is so human in nature that the robot's own emotional experience cannot find the answer in…...
Blade Runner and C. Estes
The film Blade Runner applies universal myths and archetypes to a futuristic setting. The characters and plot of Blade Runner can be paralleled with many of the archetypes and tales told in Clarissa Pinkola Estes' book Women Who Run With the Wolves.
The relationship between Rachael and Deckard is very similar to the story of the Skeleton Woman, only with the gender roles reversed. Just as the fisherman inadvertently transformed the dead woman's bones into a living, breathing, loving human being, so too did Rachael awaken Deckard's innate sensitivity and kind nature. Although it is ironic that Rachael is the replicant and Deckard the human, the soul transformation still takes place. Deckard was untangled metaphorically, as the Skeleton Woman's bones were literally untangled by the frightened fisherman. Through his kindness and caring, the Skeleton Woman was able to return to flesh and blood. Much in the same…...
3. Viewers who only saw the version of Blade Runner released in 1982 would deny that Rick Deckhard is human. Blade running involves killing replicants, and if Deckhard had been one himself it is unlikely that he would have fulfilled the job well. Moreover, Deckhard comes across as the only beacon of hope for humanity. The bleak vision of the future that Ridley Scott conveys in Blade Runner becomes bleaker still when the final cut of the movie was released in 2007. The final director's cut, which Scott supported as his ideal version of the story, directly depicts Deckhard as a replicant. A cop leaves the origami unicorn outside of Deckhard's room just as he does to the other hunted replicants. The scene is also chilling in that Deckhard suspects that the authorities have read his mind because he had recently daydreamed about unicorns. The origami unicorn could have been…...
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Enslaving the replicants is completely unethical. Even if the replicants did not completely resemble human beings, like they do in Blade Runner, enslaving them would be wrong. The replicants are like humans not only in appearance but also in their psychological makeup. Their ability to feel emotions and express affection show that they experience pain and suffering as well. Creating a race of creatures like the replicants with the sole purpose of enslaving them is a repulsive act and one that is depicted darkly in Blade Runner.
Deckhard's realization that his memories may have been planted suggests that all memory may be fallible. Even if Deckhard were definitively human, his memories could have been altered. For example, manipulating the brain or using non-invasive techniques like hypnosis makes memory planting or memory manipulation possible. Human beings are taught to trust our memories because they are our only link with the past, our only means of interacting with past events and learning from them. However, a memory can easily be distorted and are seriously unreliable. Two persons can experience the same event and remember it differently.
3. Viewers who only saw the version of Blade Runner released in 1982 would deny that Rick Deckhard is human. Blade running involves killing replicants, and if Deckhard had been one himself it is unlikely that he would have fulfilled the job well. Moreover, Deckhard comes across as the only beacon of hope for humanity. The bleak vision of the future that Ridley Scott conveys in Blade Runner becomes bleaker still when the final cut of the movie was released in 2007. The final director's cut, which Scott supported as his ideal version of the story, directly depicts Deckhard as a replicant. A cop leaves the origami unicorn outside of Deckhard's room just as he does to the other hunted replicants. The scene is also chilling in that Deckhard suspects that the authorities have read his mind because he had recently daydreamed about unicorns. The origami unicorn could have been a coincidence, but Blade Runner is too rich in symbolism and sophistication for Scott not to have purposely crafted the scene.
Frankenstein and lade Runner
Oppressed Creations in Frankenstein and lade Runner
Despite being set more than 200 years apart, Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein and Ridley Scott's film lade Runner share similar themes about the plight of individuals to become recognized as members of society. Frankenstein was first published in 1816 and republished in 1831 and recounts the tale of Dr. Victor Frankenstein and the consequences that he faces after taking the power over life, death, and creation into his own hands. lade Runner, on the other hand, was released in 1982 and follows Rick Deckard as he sets out to stop a group of humanoids from wreaking further havoc on their quest to defy the laws that have been instituted by humans and are meant to oppress their mechanical counterparts. oth Frankenstein and lade Runner depict the conflict that the outsider -- the Creature in Frankenstein and the replicants in lade…...
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Bibliography
Blade Runner, 1982, motion picture, The Ladd Company/Tandem Productions/Sir Run
Shaw, distributed by Warner Brothers Pictures, United States.
Josey, T n.d. A comparison between Frankenstein and Blade Runner, accessed 1 June 2012,
film "blade runner" and will highlight the different tests which were performed in it, it will further distinguish between humans and replicants and will emphasize the tests performed and the variability of the tests on the humans as well as on the replicants. The paper will further analyze the theory of mind and bring forth various other discussions.
Blade runner
The concept of reality has always been a strange one, being the invention of the human mind, but it seems as if our creation is beginning to come apart at the seams in these so called 'postmodern' times. In this notional 'postmodern' world, which we presently inhabit, the notion of 'reality', or rather how our minds perceive it, is a particular cause for concern. If one stops to look about for just a moment it is very easy to find forms of 'simulacra', which we consider to be 'real'. The computer,…...
Blade Runner: Genre, Conflict and Ambiguities
The conflict at the heart of Blade Runner is like that in most noir, neo-noir and detective films -- a fight between good and evil. In Blade Runner, this conflict is particularly compelling because the distinction between these two forces is ambiguous at best. The film uses the man vs. monster motif put forward in Shelley's gothic masterpiece Frankenstein (in Blade Runner it is updated to man vs. machine to fit the futuristic setting), and this motif allows the film to explore the question of what makes us human, intelligent, sentient, and mortal. The film's underlying philosophical tone is not used in a pedantic manner but rather to elicit sympathy for the film's most interesting characters -- the replicants themselves -- as well as the individuals responsible for creating them and destroying them. The hero of the film, Deckard, is one of the latter --…...
Blade Runner directed in 1982 y Ridley Scott, is a film which examines the nature of reality, something that it plays with very heavily using factors like visuals and memory design. The film features Deckard, the protagonist who hunts replicants. However, over time, it ecomes clear that Deckard is not too different from those he hunts (Reagle, 1996). "The replicants rely on photographs and implanted memories to olster their nascent and fragile emotions. After Deckard tells Rachael that her photos and memories are merely copies of those that elong to Tyrell's niece, he falls asleep amidst his own childhood photographs" (Reagle, 1996). This demonstrates oth the sanctity and falliility of memory has a whole and how memory, along with the visual elements of one's collective reality can do a great deal when it comes to shaping one's perspective. Memory can distort, the film gently reminds one, and this distortion can…...
The two well-known science fiction films that are critiqued in this paper -- all-E and Blade Runner -- will be critiqued and contrasted as to the following dichotomies: utopia and dystopia; technophobia and technophilia; and futurity and nostalgia. Thesis: these films both delve into the potentially disastrous environmental future for the planet, and each in its own way provides an alternative future.
all-E and Utopia: This ravaged planet is no utopia in the traditional sense, for sure, but all-E has evolved over the past 700 years; some kind of mutation perhaps is what has allowed him to survive in a highly radioactive environment. To survive alone with the exception of a cockroach (which is one of the few species that can survive horrendous polluting events like radiation) is proof of his survivability. After all, utopia is always…...
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Works Cited
Bennett, Jane. The Enchantment of Modern life: Attachments, Crossings, and Ethics.
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 2001.
Brooker, Will. The Blade Runner Experience: The Legacy of a Science Fiction Classic. New York: Columbia University Press, 2013.
Jenkins, Mary. "The Dystopian World of Blade Runner: An Ecofeminist Perspective. The Trumpeter Journal of Ecosphy. Retrieved May 12, 2014, from http://trumpeter.athabascau.ca .
imagery in the movies Chinatown and Blade unner 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…...
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References
U.S. Census Bureau. U.S. Dept of Commerce. Los Angeles city, California QuickLinks. Washington,
digital age include worlds that are highly imaginative (eg. Harry Potter films). Films are sometimes conceived in a literary form and then turned into a script and a film. Films since the 1920s and into the 21st century have used physical models and stage properties of some kind (eg. Metropolis, Blade Runner, 2001: A Space Odyssey and Harry Potter). In the digital age, visual effects are created by composite images and ongoing production techniques, practices and narratives. Discuss.
What this question primarily conveys is the feasibility associated with the growing trend of using digital techniques in filmmaking. The importance of digitalization, computer generated imagery and visual effects, has grown tremendously and that can be proven with the help of various relevant examples. In the essay, the technological value added by digitalization along with the advantages and disadvantages of digitalization have been discussed. Finally the future of digital filmmaking…...
Matrix, lade Runner, And Metropolis
Science-Fiction films have evolved through the decades as technology as progressed, allowing for greater Special Effects and visual demonstrations of worlds overrun by machines.
Three such films - The Matrix, lade Runner, and Metropolis have manifested their stories not only through their scenery and futuristic landscapes, but also through society and the forces governing them.
In their essays, Stan rakhage and Giuliana runo examine these influences within film and how they demonstrate the relevance of history in a social context; postmodernist influences; and the perceptions of vision as they appear on film.
In runo's essay Ramble City: Postmodernism and lade Runner, runo examines the film lade Runner, as it relates to postmodernism and the ideals surrounding the architecture, and social infrastructure of the world where people lack a 'real' history, and therefore, philosophically, a 'real' existence.
The city of lade Runner is not the ultramodern, but the postmodern city. It…...
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Bibliography
Blade Runner Dir. Ridley Scott.
1982. Based on Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
.....humans interact with technology in increasingly sophisticated and meaningful ways, the ethical and philosophical questions posed by artificial intelligence start to become more pressing than ever before. The science fiction genre has promoted as ambivalent a relationship between humans and technology as scientists and futurists have. Both the potential benefits and drawbacks of artificial intelligence have been explored, asking human beings involved in the development of AI technology to consider the ramifications of their work. For example, Nick Bostrom has indicated the need for developers of artificially intelligent systems to work with cognitive scientists to mitigate risk by programming AI from the beginning to act only in the best interests of humans (Shead 1). However, the assumption that AI will somehow eventually need or want to compete with human beings with the potential to overcome or conquer human beings is just that: an assumption. It is a flawed assumption because…...
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