Retro Review - Blade Runner
Photo by Iswanto Arif on Unsplash
As I mentioned in my twitter feed about this, I thought it might be fun to post a review I wrote a film a looong time ago...it feels like anyway. How time flies. In fact we're nearly in the year "Blade Runner" was set, which is an interesting thought and has me thinking about plans for that year...hmm.
At any rate, the review formed part of a series that I was doing at the time, but was discontinued, and now that I have this blog going, it seemed like the right time to post it.
For anyone following what I'm doing overall at the minute, this also ties in nicely with a review of the same film on my other site, fanorbit.com, which you can find here: https://fanorbit.com/2017/10/07/bladerunnerreview/, and I encourage you to visit if you have any interest in films, fan fiction, and the world of the media in general.
It's interesting to see the differences between the two reviews, and I think in some ways they form nice companions to each other, each from different times and places. At any rate, on with the show (as they say) and I hope you enjoy reading the review below...
Blade Runner Review
"I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe… attack ships on fire of the shoulder of Orion… I’ve seen sea beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate… All of these moments will be lost like tears in the rain"
The character that spoke these famous quotable words may be gone, but the quote certainly remains, engrained in moviegoers’ consciousness ever since the movie Blade Runner, directed by that most visual of directors, Sir Ridley Scott released the infamous film in 1982.
I am in no doubt that the film is very much a masterpiece, a film which even now continues to challenge the viewer on universally appealing subjects, and which strikes at a deep chord within the collective human psyche. The film asks, what it is to be human, and just how far will corporations go, - although I’m sure our early ancestors did not ponder that particular question.
Joking aside, the film is as any Scott film, a masterpiece of visual style, sweeping you into a futuristic dystopic world where the poor and less well-off live in dreary, dirty and quite miserable conditions in vast buildings which look as if the caretakers and landlords have buggered off to the upper levels of the vast city of Los Angeles.
As you go further up into the city, it takes on an altogether Alien look, as vast monolithic buildings rise up out of the gloom, choked by abundant levels of smog and teeming with various flying vehicles, of which many must surely generate pollution of their own.
It is into this atmosphere of doom and gloom that Scott thrusts the protagonist of the film, Rick Deckard, played to depressing perfection by Harrison Ford. Ford famously didn’t get on well with the director, who, not surprisingly, was obsessed with getting the look of the film just right, to the detriment of crew and cast alike.
It is this friction which undoubtedly helped Ford in his portrayal of Deckard, the weary detective; Morosely wandering with little bit of purpose around this futuristic version of Los Angeles, Deckard tries to discover where the 4 android replicants led by the aptly named Roy Batty – played to manic perfection by Rutger Hauer – have gotton to. The Androids in their own way, of finding out how they can extend their own life spans, deliberately cut short by the villainous Tyrell Corporation who have created the replicants but somewhere along the line forgot to include that most fundamental of things, a long life span.
Turns out, much like some computer manufacturers of today, that Tyrell would rather have their product expire after a short period of years rather than have it take on emotions which could pose a danger to its makers - although I’m quite sure Microsoft or Apple are in no danger of that for quite a while yet.
This obviously causes annoyance for these artificial beings that have spent most of their lives on off-world colonies, where they are put to as security, or in the case of Priss, played by Daryl Hannah as objects of artificial pleasure.
This is the basic set-up for the entire film; an ingeniously simple idea of cat and mouse that allows for interesting examination of the core themes of the film.
The fact that the android protagonists often exhibit more personality and quirkiness of character than their human counterparts in the film, points to some intriguing twists in the film, and which pave the way to the question: What does it mean to be human? These same androids, exhibit all of the characters of a human being, are completely artificial, and yet are they indeed just as human as the rest of us? Scott’s film asks this question, but never answers it, rather pertaining to add it as a discussion point for audiences to ponder over and rattle about in their heads long after the film ended.
It also clearly poses other questions such as: Is this the state we are all heading towards in a future world? As corporations grow even more powerful in this day and age, this prophecy could prove truer than many people would care to admit.
It is these type of questions, combined with a visual look of stunning bleakness and with searing visceral texture that marks Blade Runner as a solid film in the sci-fi cannon, a film featuring fleshed-out performances giving weight to characters that act out a doomed endgame in this bleak landscape of the future.
Joanna Cassidy’s female dancer/Android assassin, who wears a snake for a good portion of her limited screen time (a real snake imitating an android snake, good use of budget but ironic all the same), makes a strong impression in the role, and is given a rather beautiful and elongated death scene by Scott.
By having her shot in the back, Scott brings home the brutal nature of Deckard’, and just how much the lines between the artificial and the real collide in this movie.
The love story between Ford and Rachael, the replicant played by Sean Young does not in any way reflect the on set relationship the two had, which could be described as tempestuous, as the two of them could hardly stand each other.
Despite this difference of character, so to speak, both bring a kind of muted affection towards each other, which works to the drab tone of the film.
Not a relationship driven by warm passion as such, but rather subtle love and at first violent dominance, driven by looks and physical action.
This is not surprising, given Scott’s leanings towards the visual, which was a strong domineering factor at this point in his career.
In fact, the love story is not overall given a huge amount of room in the story, but thanks to Scott’s use of peppered and strong visual framing to showcase the actors action-driven performances, he somehow manages to squeeze it in there.
Also of note is the infamous unicorn dream that, whilst not in the theatrical cut of the film features in the director’s cut and introduces the fact that Deckard is a replicant.
Vangelis’s music for the film is absolutely stunning, and does not fall into the category of typical orchestral or electronic music that one might expect from any film, in particular the sci-fi genre. It stands on its own as a piece of beautiful melodic and unique sounding music that produces an eerie quality that is far removed from work such as James Horner’s Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan (1982) score for or Brad Fiedels brutal and poundingly raw The Terminator (1984) score, and provides the perfect ambient and morose accompaniment to Scott’s bleak vision of the future world of 2019 A.D. L.A.
Overall the film is an absolute triumph, one that cements in my opinion Sir Ridley Scott as one of the best directors of cinema.
Blade Runner (1982) also paved the way for a surge in popularity of design forms such as punk and influenced sci-fi design in many other films since, whilst also offering a far different version of the future than we have all been used to seeing in sci-fi - probably a more realistic one.
And on the subject of realism, this brings us to another stop on our "Apocalypse" tour, this time an apocalypse in waiting, if not for the heroic efforts of two very different people.
The truth is out there...