Blade Runner (1982) 30th Anniversary Photo Series
1. “Blade Runner 30th Anniversary Photos” Blade Runner Partnership, accessed December 06, 2013, http://bladerunnerthemovie.warnerbros.com/photos.html.
These images, from a series of photographs marking Ridley Scott's 1982 film Blade Runner's 30th anniversary, depict the science-fiction conventions that permeate the cinematography and subsequently characterize the setting and narrative. Corporate neon signs and logos engender a dystopian depiction of futuristic Los Angeles: a suggestion that America’s capitalist system has eventually deteriorated. The pictures present an evident dichotomy within this projection of a future America, as technological advancement is seemingly juxtaposed with social poverty and violence, as suggested by Harrison Ford’s visible weapon. Ultimately the neo-noir aspects of the film support the creation of a social commentary of American society that condemns the futuristic world as undeniably dystopian and subsequently undesirable.
- Mark Davison
- Mark Davison
Blade Runner (1982) as a dystopian depiction of American socio-economic realities and its representation of the mythic Frontier narrative
The film Blade Runner depicts a futuristic, dystopian representation of America, largely based on the novel 1968 novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” by Phillip K. Dick. Ridley Scott’s 1982 movie expands on the notion of decrypting humanity by juxtaposing humans with their mechanized counterparts, Replicants. The use of Replicants in off-world colonies imparts an ironic sense of historicized colonialisation of America itself, at the hands of several European powers. Furthermore, the sense of slave labour that permeates the narrative is reminiscent of American treatment of the native population throughout history.
Indeed the key antagonist, the Replicant Roy Batty, states “quite an experience to live in fear isn’t it? That’s what it is to be a slave”, augmenting the notion that slavery is a key thematic consideration within the film, as it is in American history. However, this notion of slavery takes on a different form, due to the implication that American society has deteriorated as a result of the corruptive forces of capitalism and consumerism. Thus as slaves to American consumerism, the human race has became divided as a result of the widening economic gap. Ultimately, the rich are able to escape to off-world colonies, whilst the poor “little people” are consigned to remaining on Earth to live in poverty and despair.
Therefore the film takes on the role of a social commentary, in displaying the undesirable existence of a socio-economic hierarchy. This depiction of an American, capitalist society is augmented by the designated setting for Blade Runner. The setting of the film is noted as Los Angeles 2019 and the West coast is described by an automated, patrolling machine as a “golden land of opportunity and adventure”, in keeping with the idealized depiction of the mythic West that is immortalized as part of the American Frontier myth. The male protagonist Rick Deckard, played by Harrison Ford, augments this suggestion of a Frontier narrative that is often a basis of science-fiction films, by inhabiting the role of the lone-ranger. A somewhat corrupted heroic figure, Deckard is used to illuminate the essential qualities of humanity: strength, compassion and violence.
- Mark Davison
Indeed the key antagonist, the Replicant Roy Batty, states “quite an experience to live in fear isn’t it? That’s what it is to be a slave”, augmenting the notion that slavery is a key thematic consideration within the film, as it is in American history. However, this notion of slavery takes on a different form, due to the implication that American society has deteriorated as a result of the corruptive forces of capitalism and consumerism. Thus as slaves to American consumerism, the human race has became divided as a result of the widening economic gap. Ultimately, the rich are able to escape to off-world colonies, whilst the poor “little people” are consigned to remaining on Earth to live in poverty and despair.
Therefore the film takes on the role of a social commentary, in displaying the undesirable existence of a socio-economic hierarchy. This depiction of an American, capitalist society is augmented by the designated setting for Blade Runner. The setting of the film is noted as Los Angeles 2019 and the West coast is described by an automated, patrolling machine as a “golden land of opportunity and adventure”, in keeping with the idealized depiction of the mythic West that is immortalized as part of the American Frontier myth. The male protagonist Rick Deckard, played by Harrison Ford, augments this suggestion of a Frontier narrative that is often a basis of science-fiction films, by inhabiting the role of the lone-ranger. A somewhat corrupted heroic figure, Deckard is used to illuminate the essential qualities of humanity: strength, compassion and violence.
- Mark Davison