Ridley Scott's Blade Runner Film Critique Essay

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I. Critique

While Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner is ranked at No. 6 in AFI’s 10 Top 10 in the genre for Science-Fiction, the film itself has so much in common with noir film (the kind of black-and-white films that typically offered murder mysteries or cops vs. robbers as plot vehicles) that it is often considered to be a neo-noir classic (Doll & Faller, 1986). However, Scott’s film blend noir with sci-fi in such a way that Blade Runner’s categorization as a science-fiction film cannot be disputed. Indeed, the film explores complex issues, such as the rise of artificial intelligence and its use in human society, in a way that melds fantasy with reality by bringing the future of technology forward (by some decades) to the audience. The result is almost literary, in fact: Blade Runner’s protagonist Deckard, the replicant hunting ex-cop, and antagonist Roy Blatty, chief rebel replicant, serve as modern day stand-ins for Shelley’s Frankenstein and monster. Who has the actual soul? What does life actually mean? By probing these issues and using aspects of noir and sci-fi, Scott blends genre and displays his genius as a director to create a film that hits audiences on a deep level. This paper will critique Scott’s Blade Runner from the standpoint of genre theory to explore how the film uses genre styles and conventions to tell an old story anew.

Context

Blade Runner is a 1982 film directed by Ridley Scott, starring Harrison Ford as Deckard, Rutger Hauer as Blatty and Sean Young as a female replicant love interest for Deckard. The cinematographer was Jordan Cronenweth. The film’s box office only barely surpassed its $28 million budget, but in subsequent years the film developed a cult following, especially with the release of a director’s cut, which removed the voice over narration supplied by Ford’s Deckard in the theatrical release and added to the mystery of whether Deckard was a human or a replicant himself.

Though film noir has been called not so much a genre as a tone and mood (Schrader, 1972), noir is definitely a type of film that is unique in cinema. In film noir, there is often a moral ambiguity that exists within the narrative and that is embellished by the style of filmmaking so that it takes center stage, behind that obvious action of the plot, but always there nonetheless as though indirectly calling attention to itself through the pulling of the strings of the characters. For instance, in some of the most compelling noir films, characters skirt fine lines between good and evil, and the films typically refrain from indicating that any one character is wholly good or wholly bad. This is expressed by one woman’s line at the end of Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil in reference to the corrupt cop: “He was some kind of man.” Even if the viewer is unsympathetic to the cop in the film, the film insists that he develop a degree of empathy: nothing is black in white in the ironically black-and-white films noir.

Blade Runner could be called a neo-noir (it is in color but uses all the typical shades and shadows of film noir to qualify) because it embraces this moral ambiguity that haunts typical noir films.

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It also uses sci-fi genre conventions, such as the assumption that advanced technology is achievable and practiced within a short time into the future (in the film, the technology is artificial intelligence that is so real and life-like that it is impossible to tell a replicant from a human being: and indeed that is even one of the film’s chief mysteries—is Deckard a replicant?). Deckard is an ex-cop who is hired to hunt fugitive replicants and retire them. This places the film’s plot squarely within the noir tradition of cops vs. robbers. The final soliloquy of Blatty, however, elevates the film even above the noir and sci-fi genres and connects it to its gothic literary ancestor—namely, Mary Shelley, who probes the question of life and the soul, the real and the unreal, meaning and lack of meaning, in her novel Frankenstein.

Story/Plot

The story of the film follows Deckard as he is enlisted to hunt down the fugitive replicants that have fled their work colony to take up an existence in Los Angeles. The difference between story and plot is that story summarizes in a linear way the action of the film. Plot details the action of the film as it occurs in the minutes of the film (which does not necessarily have to be linear).

The plot of the film moves the main characters through the futuristically dreary metropolis, where the line between reality and the surreal are blurred. Deckard meets Tyrell, who has designed the replicants and who has an assistant named Rachael, who Deckard identifies as a replicant working for Tyrell. Unlike the fugitive replicants sought by Deckard, Rachael does not know she is a replicant. After being told she is a machine, not a human, she tries to prove to Deckard that she is in fact human and has a photograph supposedly of a time from earlier in her life and memories to prove it. Deckard tells her that her memories have been implanted by Tyrell. She is distraught and runs away. Deckard locates one of the fugitive replicants at a strip club, “retires” her, and meets another in the street after being told that he must also retire Rachael since she has run away from her duties. Deckard is attacked, however, by the fugitive replicant he sees in the streets. He is saved by Rachael who “retires” the fugitive. In a show of gratitude, Deckard takes Rachael for himself and promises not to “retire” her. Meanwhile, Blatty pursues Tyrell to seek an extension to his life, knowing that his time is running out. Blatty makes a confession of sorts in an effort to cleanse his consciousness but Tyrell dismisses Blatty’s need to confess. Blatty then kills his creator. Deckard and Blatty finally meet with the hunter turning into the hunted. After….....

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