Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, 1982

Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, 1982, did not do incredibly well at the box office when it was first released but it has become a cult classic due of its dystopian science fiction.
The film itself is said to have a post modern aesthetic, by mixing textual references and images, while the film noir genre is juxtaposed with the futuristic dystopia within the film, as well as time manipulation through the use of 1950’s film conventions set within the future.
Set in 2019, Los Angeles, the setting is a pastiche of ideas of the east, the West and the future, while the storyline deals with replicants, synthetic humans who long for an extension to their life span.
The use of pastiche within the cultures is represented through the characters within the film. For example, the use of western cultures such as Asia are portrayed through the womens lack of significant roles, just like how in Asian cultures women were supposed to fulfil roles in which satisfy the male. This is implied through the pleasure replicants within Blade Runner, 1982, one of these would be the replicant Zhora, during the scene where Deckard has entered her dressing, where she is seen to be wearing quite sexual clothes, and then makes no attempt to cover her body after coming out of the shower.
Also, just before Zhora’s death, Deckard shoots her in the back and she crashes through glass repeatedly, in the background mannequins are shown to be wearing underwear which similarly resemble Zhora’s. As she crashes to the ground her body looks like a broken mannequin, through her stiff gaze, almost implying that she is worthless, except to look at like mannequin, which is used as an aesthetic for people when shopping for clothes.
This is similar to when Pris was killed in JF Sebastian’s house. Pris had disguised herself as a mannequin, almost a life sized doll. During the attack between Pris and Deckard, Pris is shown to be holding Deckards head between her thighs, portraying a sexual image, suggesting that she is the pleasure model. This use of pastiche portrays post modernism. However the clear use of hierarchy is portrayed within Blade Runner, suggesting that it is not post modern. Within the film the more wealthy people live higher up in the buildings while the poorer people stay within the lower grounds, this is implied when Pris is waiting outside JF Sebastian’s, she tries to get comfy within the lower grounds of the city, where it constantly rains and is dirty and full of sewage.
The westernised culture is portrayed through their clothes, for example Rachel wears a long lengthened dress and is extremely lady like.
The pastiche of cultures is also shown within the scenes showing China Town, which is at the bottom of the city. This is reflected within the bright neon lights advertising shop names, dimly lit and polluted streets, as well as speech “No, four” “Two, Two” “FOUR” implying the gap between the languages and a misunderstanding.
The film brings about many questions such as Can emotions be programmed? Can humanity be manufactured? The same question postmodernist ask about hyper reality, and how we cope with the world around us. The post modern Los Angeles advertises the perfect utopia through huge advertisements promoting the off world colony and the idea that everyone has left the ‘real world has left for a more attractive world. While bill boards advertise Coca-Cola, this is an example of consumerism.
Blade Runner also poses the question “Is Deckard a Replicant?” While Harrison Ford said that he didn’t think that Deckard was a replicants and that him and the director agreed at the end of the film that Deckard was human. However according to interviews with Ridley Scott; Deckard is a replicant.
However it could be suggested that Deckard is a replicants as he fails to show emotions throughout the film, like when he kills the replicants as well as during the rape scene with Rachel, however towards the end he develops emotions for her. It is suggested that a fault with the replicants allow them to develop emotions, they are not created with emotions. Deckard could also be a replicant as Rachel was manufactured and then given someone else’s memories and she is unaware that she is a replicants, this could explain why Deckard would think he is a human.
Deckard also has a series of photographs within his flat, none which are recent suggesting that they are implanting memories for him, it also suggested that replicants favour photographs as it gives them ties to a past which is non-existent, like the photograph that Rachel carries around with her, which reassures her that she is a human.
Deckard also has a dream at the beginning of the film, about a unicorn, while at the end of the film Gaff plants an origami unicorn outside his flat, this could suggest that Gaff is aware that Deckard is a replicant and the unicorn dream has been implanted into Deckards’ memory.
Gaff also says to him “You’ve done a man’s job, sir. I guess you’re through, huh?” after Deckard has retired all of the replicants suggesting that he’s not a man and is a replicant but he was able to fulfil the duties of a man. When Deckard is also given the original assignment, they mention 6 replicants, three male and three female, however Deckard only eliminate 4 suggesting that Rachel could be the fourth and Deckard himself, is the sixth.
It is suggested that Ridley Scott thought it would be more provocative to imply that Deckard is a replicant with no reason, as it ties in with the theme of What is it to be human?
The film deals with the issue of time and the lack of it. The replicants are young, but their body’s age as a timer has been set to prevent replicants developing emotions causing them to expire. As Roy dies he says “All these moments will be lost in time like tears in rain.” This forces the audience to confront the way in which the modern world is constructed through binary opposites, truth and lies, reality and fiction, human and machine, life and death, good and bad. Also, through time, technology has advanced, this has developed a negative effect on the humans as they have taken on a god like figure and think that they can control the human race, leading to a downfall and is similar to Frankenstein, this is an idea which is pastiche.
Blade Runner uses strategies of pastiche, identity crisis and time while confusing history and mixes up traditions and cultures such as the juxtaposed Los Angeles and China Town on the lowest levels, while confusing the difference between the real and the mediated, portraying what it is like to live in a post modern world.