Blade runner film analysis - Essay Example

This complicated multilayer story about life and death failed at the box office and was ridiculed by the critics. The so-called “critics” sarcastically mocked the film calling it Blade Crawler for its languid and sluggish narrative. They stated that the film is interesting only visually but the plot development leaves much to be desired (the film advertising positioned it primarily as an action thriller). The film is neither an action nor a thriller even. It’s rather a complex futuristic drama noir in style of the dark, black and white 40s, with the powerful semantic overtones.

The theme of artificial intelligence, which was used in the film, is fruitful and relevant to the present day. Philip Dick and Ridley Scott tried to figure out when a robot is no longer just a heartless machine, work tool and becomes a personality with senses and feelings. They make us imagine, trough Roy’s horror and despair, what a man can feel suddenly realizing that he is not a man and that he is destined to live some few years and disappear for good. This is not the film when you cross your fingers so that humans can win.

Having taken up the creative functions of God, people appeared to be unable to be Him to the end and turned into ordinary executioners. This paper will examine the theme of life and death in Blade Runner, its symbolism, the conflict of humans and machines, the only crime of which is the desire to live. Well, it’s 2019. The world has survived the war, decline, extinction of animals; having overcome all the difficulties it reaches the peak of development: journeys to the stars, colonization of alien worlds, high-tech.

People became God-like: with the miracle of genetic engineering they create AI - Nexus-6 replicants, whose potential surpasses human both intellectually and physically. But despite the obvious superiority they have the status of slaves – they are miners, prostitutes, members of dangerous expeditions. The theme of the film is in many ways similar to the theme raised by another immortal work - Frankenstein. That is the idea that a man is responsible for his creation and a creation often turns out to be no worse than a man.

Prudent people have limited the life cycle of replicants to 4 years only. It’s kind of okay, but it turns out that replicants can think, love, feel. And of course, as common people, replicants absolutely do not want to die. The theme of life and death is the key theme of the film. If replicants have souls, do they deserve death? What is the meaning of life? Ridley Scott’s brother died of cancer shortly before Ridley started filming Blade Runner. Doubtless, it profoundly shocked the director and became one of the reasons why Blade Runner is so soulful and sad.

The film is full of philosophical and biblical allusions. So, Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) is positioned as a new Christ. He kisses Tyrell, his “creator”, and then brutally kills him, referring us to the kiss of Judas (it is noteworthy that Tyrell, like Victor Frankenstein, dies at the hands of his own “monster”). And the scene where Roy pierces his hand with a nail just to keep life for a few minutes is a direct reference to the sufferings of Christ. So, Roy Batty is both Judas and the Lord.

He is the overman obsessed with the search for life. At the end of the movie he is unwilling to kill Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), although he has