ShopCrazy

Were you a wee bit disappointed with Superman Returns? I was. It’s sad how today’s big-budget action flicks rely too much on special effects to mask the absence of a good story. I wanted to like Superman Returns, I really did! But there was simply too much fromage in that movie. That stand-up “I’ve forgotten how warm you are” flying scene over Metropolis with Lois Lane absolutely killed me.

How does a girl resuscitate her neurons after watching a wussy action flick? Blade Runner – The Director’s Cut usually does the trick for me. Studios can learn a lot about balancing high-powered action with intelligent storytelling from this classic. Blade Runner is more than two decades old, but its insights on genetic engineering, globalization, climate change, and the fate of humanity are as timely as ever.

First, we must distinguish between Blade Runner’s original version and the director’s cut. The original version screened in theaters in 1982 included voice-over narration and a Disneyfied ending to make the film easier to understand. This was done against the wishes of lead actor Harrison Ford and director Ridley Scott. The movie flopped. In 1992, Ridley Scott commemorated Blade Runner’s 10th year anniversary by reissuing the film on video, without the narration and with a more ambiguous ending.

Blade Runner is set in Los Angeles in the year 2019. Man has succeeded in creating artificial humans called replicants, who are superior to real humans in every way except they are less capable of feeling love and empathy. Memories are implanted on all replicants to make them as human as possible. A maximum four-year lifespan is built in to keep them under control. They are exiled to off-world colonies to work as soldiers and laborers. Blade runners like Rick Deckard (played by Harrison Ford) are employed to eliminate replicants who stray back to Earth.

Four rogue replicants comandeer a spaceship to Earth to force their maker, Dr. Eldon Tyrell, to reverse their fast-approaching expiration date. Deckard is assigned to hunt them down. Through the course of the pursuit, Deckard takes us through a bleak future of decaying 400-story buildings, a permanently smoggy sky, and wretched populace left on Earth after affluent citizens moved to off-world colonies where natural resources have not been exhausted. He falls in love with Rachel (played by Sean Young), a special Tyrell replicant who doesn’t know she’s a replicant.

Inquisitive viewers will start asking questions early in the movie. Does Rachel have a longer lifespan than four years because she is a special model? What is the significance of the eye theme that keeps recurring in the movie? (Replicants are identified through pupil dilation in empathy tests. Murders are perpetrated by gouging out the eyes. A genetically engineered owl with one eye appears periodically.) How did the four emotionally immature rogue replicants develop empathy for each other? Is Deckard himself a replicant? These questions are never answered directly in the film, and if you keep watching it over and over (as you should), your theories will keep changing.

Behind these details lie the higher philosophical questions. What makes human beings human? Is it the ability to feel empathy and have memories? Is a genetically engineered human less human than a natural-born human? Why do all beings have an instinct to preserve their lives when they are threatened with extinction? If a man knows when he is going to die, will his life be more meaningful or less meaningful? Can life have any meaning if nothing comes after death? Spoiler alert: A scene towards the end of the movie brilliantly and poignantly illustrates this last point. Highlight the text below if you want to know what it is.

At the end of the movie, the leader of the rogue replicants, Roy (played by Rutger Hauer), almost succeeds at killing Deckard. But then Roy’s life force starts to peter out. He decides to rescue Deckard, then sits beside him, expiring slowly. As the rain pours, Roy remarks, “I’ve seen things you wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in the rain . . . Time to die.” He dies.

This scene is filled with such profound sadness, it never fails to make me cry no matter how many times I’ve seen it. But since this is Blade Runner, we must pose the question—did Roy really witness all those grand things? Or were they simply artificial memories implanted in his mind?

Next year, 2007, Ridley Scott will be releasing the final cut of Blade Runner on DVD to commemorate its 25th anniversary. Some fans are hoping he will clarify the film’s many ambiguities. But I think I prefer not knowing. Watch the film and let me know if you agree. Enjoy!

Blade Runner – The Director’s Cut is available in video stores for P75 (VCD) or P475 (DVD). If you can’t find it at proper shops, you know where to go.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 20th, 2006 at 5:00 pm and is filed under Media (Books, CDs, DVDs, Movies). You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.