Blade Runner Original

Blade Runner Original
Names of groups members

Blade Runner was made in the year 1982 and was released in June of that year. The film was directed by Ridley Scott and produced by Michael Deeley; Screen writers are Hampton Fancher and David Peoples. The movie maintains a screen time of 1h57min. The main actors are: Harrison Ford (Rick Deckard), Rutger Hauer (Roy Batty), Sean Young (Rachael), Edward James Olmos (Gaff), M. Emmet Walsh (Bryant) and Daryl Hannah (Pris).
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083658/fullcredits/?ref_=tt_ov_st_sm

  ACTORS? INTEXT CITATION NEEDED

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eogpIG53Cis

Plot Summary

This movie takes place in Los Angeles in November 2019. It’s the story of a rebellion of a group of replicants (Leon, Zhora, Pris and Roy Batty), robots made out of human genetic manipulations who are mainly used for work or pleasure purposes. These replicants are banned from Earth because they have developed self-awareness and revolted against their human owners. Their ambition to prolong their short term lifespan explains their return to Earth.

Rick Deckard a former blade runner, whose job was to track down the replicants and kill them, comes out of retirement to abolish this group. However, the newer replicants are very hard to differentiate from humans. That is where the Voight-Kampff (IN-TEXT CITATION NEEDED) test comes into play, which differentiates replicants from humans based on their answers to specific questions to test their reactions to different situations.
https://bladerunner.fandom.com/wiki/Voight-Kampff_test
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_Runner
Throughout the story, Deckard has an intimate relationship with a replicant called Rachael, who saved his life and believes she is human. 

In the movie Blade Runner, the film techniques are an essential element to the development of the story. This movie is known for its props and sets.

Props:

The origami unicorn

Multiple props in this movie play important roles in the plot, including Gaff’s origami unicorn and the Voight-Kampff test . These two props leave the audience questioning if Deckard, the main character, is a replicant by showing different clues at different points of time in the movie. Many people see the origami unicorn left by Gaff as a sign that he knows the truth about Deckard. Deckard had a unicorn dream sequence, which relates to the origami. It's like Gaff could have seen a part of his memories, which means that Deckard himself would be a replicant. Unfortunately, the movie does not answer the question, it leaves us hanging.

The Voight-Kampff test is used multiple times in the movie. In one of the first scene of the movie, when Leon, a replicant, is interrogated by a blade runner named Holden. Or also when Deckard's skills are put to the test when he interrogates Rachael using the test itself. With such ease, Deckard finds out that Rachael is a replicant which creates a doubt to the audience that himself could be one, with the fact that it's so easy for him to tell the difference. The test itself is a series of questions to differentiate a replicant from a human. A replicant tends to have stronger feelings such as compassion in contrary of humans.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_Runner

Sets:

Blade Runner uses futuristic technology, (as an example: the spaceships and the high buildings) which is very developed and high-tech at some places to represent a modern/futuristic vibe but very outdated and ancient at other places like Sebastien's residence. This contrast between the past and the future creates a very interesting setting. This movie is also very dark, every scene takes place at night. The only scene with sunlight is the last one, when Deckard rides through the hills with his beloved one Rachel. It closes the movie on a positive note but also leaving the audience with so much unanswered questions. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_Runner

Framing:

In the movie, there is different types of framing such as close-up, medium shot or long shot. Each has different consequences for the effect or impression that Ridley Scott is trying to convey. At the beginning of the movie, there is many close-ups on the actor’s head in particular Deckard to really focus on their reactions and emotions in the moment. As an example, when Deckard is peacefully eating his ramen at the beginning of the movie and agents come get him to bring him to Bryant or when he enters Bryant’s office there is a close-up on Deckard and Bryant, it shows the reaction of both characters as they see each other. There is also at the beginning of scenes long shots of the city in the air, with the buildings and spaceships. The diversity of choice of framing throughout the movie adds an important and original aspect.

Sound diegetic:

The sound track of this movie is a really important aspect, it adds energy and depth to the visuals and the story. The movie is accompanied with lots of sound effects and music over the visuals  (e.g.: when Leon kills the girl he approaches at the bar, he chases her and finally kills her, there is a little music during the slow motion and many other examples). All these nondiegetic sounds are really essentials for the visuals and impressions of the movie. There is also lots of diegetic sounds, meaning that the sound emanates from the movie, such as Sounds of the spaceships, dialogues between characters, also during fights; as an example when Roy Batty punches through the wall during the fight scene.

Drawing of some characters:

Rachel drawn as a very emotional character that has feelings even though she is a replicant. All throughout the movie, She has a mysterious and unique look to herself, just the way she looks at Deckard, it gives an intrigue to the audience. She is convinced that she is human, and when Deckard says the otherwise it affects her feelings. She starts showing pictures of her family. 

Rachel taking the Voight-Kampff test

Roy Batty is drawn as the bad guy, tough guy, with no feelings, and fearing nobody. All throughout the movie, you learn to dislike him with his mean expressions and deep voice with his manipulative intentions towards Sebastien. However, at the end he changes and starts to value life in general, and decides to save Deckard’s life. He feels empathy, all of a sudden the bad guy has emotions. 

Rick Deckard is drawn as the hero of the story, the main character, who is in charge of killing those replicants banned from Earth. All throughout the story, he comments over it, he is the narrator.

In the film The Blade Runner, many themes, issues or big questions are raised by the movie. Such as the replicants in the movie, which are created and made out of human genetics. All throughout the movie, there is this main theme humans vs machines (replicants), the replicants have revolted agaisnt their human owners. At the end of the movie, Roy Batty, the leader of the rebellion groups of replicants, expresses emotions by saving the life of Deckard at the really last second. He demonstrates that he understands the value of life, and what it means to be "good". It is one of those moments that flips the perspective of the entire narrative, and suddenly the supposedly "bad guy" is now the sympathetic and caring person. Roy Batty at the end of the movie changes and values life in general. There is also the Voight-Kampff test that demonstrates that replicants appear to have more emotions and empathy with one another, according to their answers of the test. Rachel also swears that she is human and demonstrates feelings throughout the story even though Deckard proves she is a replicant.  The movie goes so far as to question the audience if Deckard is a replicant himself by dropping many signs all along, while questioning the audience the fundamental meanings of being human. The movie sorts of questions the audience if replicants deserve their treatments just because they are not considered humans, as if humans were on top of the world. At the end of the movie, when Deckard is hanging off the top of the building, Roy Batty talks to him on how they (replicants) are treated as slaves, he also tells him “That’s how it feels to be a slave”, talking to Deckard on the edge of his life. It basically means that replicants can reflect, they know they exist and know how maltreated they are. They can represent their own consciousness. This self-aware-self concept really demonstrates the fact that replicants can reflect.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_Runner

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Personal critique

We personally didn’t like the movie in general, the story behind it is great and original but it is too slow, we feel like it could be more entertaining. The actors were great, especially Harrison Ford (Rick Deckard), Rutger Hauer (Roy Batty) and Sean Young (Rachael),  fitting their personality, completely embracing their character and playing the role. Most of the scenes were very dark, filled with shades, which gave me a dark and depressed vibe. The costumes were different and original, once again matching each character and their role in the story. We didn’t see any cross-cutting with action scenes, which builds up suspense and interest to the audience. We also didn’t understand the fact that the movie takes place in Los Angeles when we felt in Asia because of the settings and the town population. We feel like it lacks of action scenes, it is very slow. At the end of the day, this movie is a classic to be watched. We like the fact that they ended the movie by building up clues and traces to question the audience if Deckard is a replicant or not. It lets the audience build its own opinions. We would personally not recommend this film for pleasure to our friends or family because we would not recommend a movie that we personally don’t like. 

1)Dualism; and the correlation between body/brain(objective) and mind(subjective). In the movie replicates are shown as regular individuals with what seem to be basic morals but do they know what it's like to be them, what do they feel they are with in themselves and how does it give rise to the subjective if they do in fact have such concepts

2)Sentience; Real question is can replicates be considered sentient?  In the film Deckard made Rachael cry after he showed signs of not believing her about her truth or was it the implants talking. She claimed to know and be aware of all these memories and her thought process was designed so well that she was not aware of what she actually was...just a creation by the Tyrell Corporation. 

3)Panpsychism; This term refers to the concept of consciousness. Replicants are human look a likes not only in appearance but could we say in mentality as well. They think similarly to us but could that just be implants or are they made out of the same micro physical building blocks as we are all made out of.  Do they have some type of conscious just as we do?

Questions

1)Would you consider the act of killing a replicant murder or retirement?

2)Could AI be prominent in the near future?

3)How long do you think t'ill be before we are walking the earth with human replicates? 

Web Links

1) https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/creepily-human-like-robots-2/ I thought this one would be interesting because replicants were designed robots to look exactly like humans. CBS news had a story on whether or not they were human or robot, "it's getting tougher to know the difference" they quoted in on of the articles.

2)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_valley The on going talk about uncanny valley and the meaning behind it; It is the emotional attachment created between a human look a like and a human themselves.  Deckard falling in love with a replicant; he showed great emotional attachment to her character even though considering she is technically an object designed to look as human as possible.

Cited work

About film: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_Runner

Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eogpIG53Cis
 Web link 1: BS News. “Creepily Human-like Robots.” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 2 Aug. 2017, https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/creepily-human-like-robots-2/.