When Blade Runner was released in 1982, it was greeted with a lukewarm reception by general movie-goers and critics alike. Director Ridley Scott's film -- a futuristic tale about a group of renegade "replicants" (android slave labor banned on Earth, used in the colonization of space) and the police officer (Rick Deckard, played by Harrison Ford) hired to kill them - was criticized for being too gloomy and too dense. However, since its dismal box office run, Blade Runner has emerged as one of the most thematically and stylistically influential science fiction films in recent history.
There are two key literary devices of the film that play a key role in relaying themes. The first is setting--the time, place, and context of the story. In some literature, the setting is rich and complex, a culture of its own, a set of rules alien to the reader that the characters in the story live by. The second is symbolism, when a writer uses a tangible object to represent a higher, more complex notion or idea. In Blade Runner, Scott uses key traits of the setting and symbols as a means to propose the moral dilemmas that will one day face humanity due to its fascination with technology.
The setting of the film is possibly the most important device in terms of theme. Blade Runner takes place in Los Angeles during the year 2017. In the opening shot, Scott immediately exposes us to the side-effects of a full century of industrialization: Factories fill the cityscape, pouring a never-ending stream of smoke into the sky. What was once sunny Southern California is now covered by a constant layer of pollution that blurs night and day. Wrecked and abandoned skyscrapers trash the city. Acid rain pours continuously. The overall sensation of the opening scene has a sobering effect on the viewer. After decades of technological advances for the betterment of society, what remains is a trashed, almost uninhabitable planet that has been virtually abandoned. In essence, Scott warns us that technology has damaging effect on both the environment and culture.
The dreary setting of the film possibly me most powerful device Scott uses in order to relay his warning, but an equally important message is symbolically demonstrated by the powerful Tyrell
Ridley Scott and George Orwell both continually depict control in their texts through the utilisation of various techniques, in order to portray the effect this has on the characters of Blade Runner and 1984 respectively. This is done by both Scott and Orwell expertly and provides the audience with further insight and depth of the characters. Orwell and Scott respectively utilise the surrounding setting of their protagonists to depict the control that they are under, each author does this by likening their protagonist to the setting and displays evidently that the setting has impacted the characters. Motifs and symbols are utilised heavily by Scott and Orwell to further emphasis the control that is currently
The result is that the dystopian future becomes a realistic possibility to the audience. This has two effects, in the first it makes the events of the film more plausible. Technological development and the creation of robotic life could eventually occur in our own reality. In this regard, the film is using image as presence by setting up this believable world. However, in the second arena it makes the audience reflect on the questions of urbanity and development that exist in our current paradigm, thus inviting discussion about the way human and planning elements are being merged together in our own technology driven world. These concepts are as relevant now as they were when the film was first released two decades ago. The camera continually roves over this world creating spatial continuity that implies that there is virtually no escape from this smoky, polluted, society. The landscape provides a site for making metaphor about the socioeconomic divide that characterizes the Blade Runner universe. The skyscrapers of the wealthy are clear symbols of how the poor are at the bottom of the socio economic
In contrast, the context at the time ‘Blade Runner’ was made was more concerned with the fragility of nature and the devastating effects the greed of the multinational corporations which were focused on the economical gain will have on the environment. The polluted world is shown through the
Contrastingly, the modern, technologically driven world of Blade Runner conveys man’s usurption of nature caused through his arrogance and desire for dominance. In this contrastingly industrialized, scientifically grounded world, nature has been relentlessly exploited and commodified, as man has attempted to ‘penetrate into the recesses’. The allusion to the Promethean myth through the symbolic use of fire is seen in the opening scenes of shooting fire, intercut with close up shots of an eye, symbolically representing fire as having the potential to both nurture and destroy life. The ignorance and metaphorical blindness of man, is highlighted through the self-imposed destruction of humanity, as nature is obliterated in favour of ‘commerce (being our) goal”, symbolically representing the destruction of our natural
Ridley Scott’s film Blade Runner reflects some of the key themes seen in Mary Shelley’s classic novel Frankenstein. For one, both the sources touch on the necessity of creators taking responsibility for their creations. Another key theme established in both works is the idea that emotional complexity and knowledge, over memory and appearance, allow people to be defined as human beings.
Like many great films, Blade Runner is based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? written by sci-fi legend Philip K. Dick. The story follows a
“War is peace, Freedom is Slavery, Ignorance is Strength”, These are the moral codes and social conventions citizens of George Orwell's 1984 live by. With high level surveillance and publicly inflicted ideologies that promote the governing force puppeteering its nation, 1984 shares shocking similarities with increased security, political power and technology seen in today's world. In the same vein, Ridley Scott's dystopian futuristic thriller Blade Runner, set in an overpopulated, corrupt, corporation governed world can be compared to the world of today in terms of the rapid development in technology and the political influence large corporations can have on governments. Both texts create a futuristic world that is able to form connections with its audience to varying degrees. But how do George Orwell's 1984 and Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner depicted futuristic worlds specifically relate to the audience of today?
Bound by different contexts, authors often use a popular medium in order to depict the discontent of the ideas of society. This is evident in the module Texts in Time; as Blade Runner, having been written more than one hundred years after Frankenstein is still able to reflect the ideas proposed in the latter. Blade Runner by Ridley Scott deals with the effects of globalisation and consumerism during 1980’s. Alternatively, the epistolary novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley deals with the kinship to the natural world set in the Romantic Era and enlightenment period. However Blade Runner, although subjected by a different context, also portrays a similar idea to Frankenstein; the fear of science and technology coupled with the value of the definition of a human. Through this commonality, we are able to utilise the values of Blade Runner in order to truly understand Shelley’s purpose.
Blade Runner written by Ridley Scott is a movie based in the future. It is Scott's depiction of what is to become of Earth. But technological advances shown in Blade Runner have come to a point where humanity can be questioned. Reality is blurred and the nature of what is human is changing. Replicants appear identical to humans and even have emotions, while the real humans appear cold and unemotional. So who is really human and what does it mean to be humane?
I think out of the two most basic type of artificial light mentioned; the film Blade Runner used more Focusable spotlights. Focusable spotlights can produce a hard, spotlight beam or a more indirect beam. When equipped with barn doors, it can be used to cut and shape the light in different ways and shape shadows. Floodlights were also used in this movie but because floodlight diffuse, indirect light with hardly any shadows, it was ineffective to use this. But by using focusable spotlights, one thing that can affect on this film is whether a character on the movie a human or a Replicant, and in this movie that kind of technique is
It opposes the values of love, empathy and community with the innovative forms of technology and social life under advanced capitalism. The binary opposition between man and technology is represented by three characters in the plot: Deckard, apparently a human. Roy, an android who fears death and longs to be human and Rachel, who thinks she is human and who enters a relationship with a human. These replicants represent capitalism’s oppressive characteristics and also to a certain extent the rebellion against exploitation. Deckard's realization of how the Tyrell Corporation exploits him, and the rebellion of the replicants against their oppressors, is the ultimate critique of capitalism. Since both sides — killer and killed — reject their status as servants of the corporation and refuse further exploitation. (Kellner, et all) The corporation in the Blade Runner that is used to illustrate capitalism’s destructive characteristics is The Tyrell Coporation. The Tyrell Corporation invents replicants to have a controllable labor force that will perform difficult and dangerous tasks. Similarly applicable to today, where capitalism turns individuals into machines that have only the function of productivity. Ironically, the replicants form a human rebellion; while the actual human characters in the film seem to submit to corporate domination and live a life like the corporations sees them to. It seems as if the humans have become so dehumanized that the replicants form a rebellion against their oppressor instead of human beings. Capitalism has dehumanized the population to such an extent, that technology is actually more
"Blade Runner" made its smashing entrance into the world in 1982 and quickly gained a cult following with its depiction of a bleak future consisting of
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Is a science fiction novel written by American writer Phillip K. Dick. Blade Runner is a dystopian science fiction film. It is an adaption of the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Both the novel and film have much in common however; the tone and the objective of the story are completely different. The film is about machines that become so similar to humans they start exhibiting human traits and the book is about humans loosing their humanity that they can be mistaken for a machine.
Khaled Hosseini writes the novel, The Kite Runner to make readers think of how his use of symbolism and other
most is the presence of Harrison Ford, who still is to this day a huge