Blade Runner (1982)

I was so excited when I saw we'd get to see this in the Final Cut version on a big(ish) screen. It's a strangely compelling film, and you who saw it this way for the first time - you don't know how lucky you are!

Part of why I love it is the film noir look, which is a style I really love in all its permutations (original noir, neo noir, horror noir, and this, future noir). Some of the details are purely fatuous - ceiling fans? trench coats? that's just window dressing. I really hate when a film adopts the outward characteristics of a genre without capturing its heart, it's like watching a bad actor put on the voice and the silly walk and completely kill a role. Thankfully, Blade Runner is noir through and through, with the detective story, the dark palette and, absolutely essentially, the anti-hero.

Because Deckard, whether you think he's a guy or not (see below for discussion ad nauseum of Deckard's status), is not a good guy. He kills without remorse, he drinks (that old staple of detective drama!) and his relationship with Rachel could charitably be called assault. And yet, through the magic of the movies, this guy is our white hat. Part of why it works is that it's Harrison Ford. This guy was able to play lovable rogues when dinosaurs roamed the earth (he made two of the biggest franchises of the century - Indiana Jones and Star Wars [don't even mention Mark Hamil, Han Solo was where it was at]). Plus, a brutally efficient character comes across very well in these kinds of films, far better than some sub-emo moral doubt. It's just a movie thing I guess.

I'm going to give an honourable mention to Gaff, played by Edward James Olmos because to me Edward James Olmos = Commander Adama, end of. Plus, you can credit him with coming up with "cityspeak", the peculiar hybrid language spoken in the film which was brilliant prescient in creating a cultural mix with heavy emphasis on oriental language and culture.*

Blade Runner is another excellent case of sci-fi taking a philosophical stand and examining religious and existential themes - what does it mean to be human? what would you do if you met your creator? the answer here is gouge his eyes out...**

Part of what makes it fun is the fact that there's so much to speculate on! Of course, this doesn't work with the majority of the audience who, quite understandably, would like to know what the hell is going on but for the geekier elements, it's hours of entertainment.

Take the question of whether Deckard is a replicant: according to Ridley Scott, he definitely is. But Harrison Ford said, "We had agreed that he definitely was not a replicant", and many of the other people who worked on the film agree, including the producer Michael Deeley: "That was just a bullshit, an extra layer Ridley put in. Also an obfuscation." But I've always believed you should trust the tale and not the teller, so you have to do your own Film Noir style detective hunt for the facts. Unfortunately, since the creators had no consistent plan, neither does the story. While it does make sense in many ways for Deckard to be a replicant (his emotional immaturity, his ability to take a beating, his needing to be filled in on basic details) they could just as easily be faults in the production, and it clashes with the fact that if Deckard was one of the six escapees, surely Pris, Leon and Zhora would recognise him? Also, I think that if you make Deckard a replicant you take away from the contrast between man and machine. It is interesting to think of what it says about humans if you contrast the affectionate behaviour between Pris and Roy with Deckard's roughness with Rachel, and it makes the final fight a matter of man vs his creation instead of just two robots hitting each other.

For me, the most compelling evidence that Deckard is a replicant is the whole business with the unicorn. If you interpret it as an imprinted memory, which Gaff knows about and refers to with the origami unicorn, then it makes sense. Otherwise, it's just a random unicorn, and those are terribly rare these days.

Still, I don't have the definitive answer - I don't actually think there is one. It's just something which is fun to play about with.

Having reached such a stunning conclusion, I finish yet another of my geeky blog posts.

*Seen also in the brilliant series Firefly 

** Religion is a bit of a pattern when it comes to AI/robot stories, understandably, but I think I Robot does a really good job of being a non-typical philosophical robot film (what a sentence!) by actually looking at robots when it looks at robots, not at humanity. Or at least, not entirely; it derives its main theme from actual laws of robotics and offers really interesting insights into that. Plus - Will Smith. Need I say more?