Stylistic Importance of Blade Runner to the Film Noir Genre and Genres of the Future
By Dan Giese
The 1982 science fiction production Blade Runner by director Ridley Scott used the premise of “man vs. man’s creation” to effectively create a movie many have classified as “future noir”. First released in June, 1982 (the-numbers.com) in the hopes of becoming a summer blockbuster, Blade Runner made only a small showing at the box office. This is often credited to the dark nature of the film, and in many ways the complexity of the storyline. Neither of which were compatible attributes to most Hollywood audiences. (Yahoo! Movies, Gadfly Online)
In present time, Blade Runner has been realized as the influence for many science fiction films that have been produced since. For example, 1995’s ‘Judge Dredd’ can be argued to have several Blade Runner influences. The world’s populated regions are covered entirely with urban skyscrapers and structures, and are isolated from the outside because nature is non-existent and survival on the “outside” isn’t possible. In both instances, law is upheld by few but elite police forces. The reasons for the planet’s decayed state are not revealed in either film. Blade Runner has also been realized as a strong link to the bleak crime/detective films of the noir genre in the 1940’s. The storyline, sets, and music all have traits that are characteristic of the film noir genre.
The idea of “man vs. man’s creation” has been played upon from the 1831 novel Frankenstein all the way up to the recent Matrix trilogy. In fact, as it has been discussed in class, a new genre of “reality” films is emerging, and popularly blending with the man vs. man’s creation premise. For instance, Blade Runner Dick Deckard, Judge Joseph Dredd, and Neo of the Matrix all struggle with the reality of their own existence. Deckard must ask himself if he is a replicant. Dredd must accept the fact that he is an artificially created super soldier. Lastly, is Neo a program? These character struggles are characteristic of film noir in that the hero or heroin is in a solemn or dangerous position in life.
Recapping the world Deckard lives in, much of the environment is in total disarray. Buildings are abandoned and unfurnished. The population is extremely overcrowded into the only single area where civilization exists, all of whom are left behind while the majority of the planet’s people have moved to “off-world colonies”. The sun rarely shines due to intense pollution and rain showers are an everyday occurrence. Industrial waste is scattered on the streets. Essentially, society has become infected by industry. Deckard, in his retirement, resides alone and isolated in a small high-rise apartment, wandering through the small oriental food stops with no real purpose anymore. He has a lot to be unhappy about.
Also, he may have had some traumatic or regretful experiences in his violent career, but it is not revealed to the viewer. When called upon to reenter his life as a Blade Runner, he is reluctant to do so. One might interpret this as a slight moral hesitation Deckard has about “retiring” replicants. Throughout the film, he has growing sympathy for the replicants. First, he falls in love with Rachel, and at the end of the movie he stares at Roy for several minutes, perhaps intrigued and touched by his final act of good.
In the final scene, (Blade Runner Director’s Cut only) Deckard retrieves Rachel from her home to rescue her from “retirement”, but then comes across one of Gaff’s origami unicorns. When he picks it up, he remembers the words Gaff told him: “It’s a shame she won’t live, but then again who does?” The movie ends fairly open-ended; leaving the viewer to ask what will Deckard decide to do?
He might have had a sudden epiphany about his role in the situation and decide to terminate Rachel because he has to. He might terminate her out of sympathy because he knows her death is inevitable anyways as replicants only have a four year lifespan. Or, he might have realized the association between the paper unicorn and his own dream about a unicorn. If this is the case, Deckard would suspect the dream to be a memory implant that Gaff knew about, and thus believe himself to be a replicant. (BRmovie.com) By believing himself to be a replicant, he would have every reason to bring Rachel to safety. But if he is human, he could also rescue her as a moral choice.
These many possibilities, coupled with Roy’s heroic act before his death, create a greater sense of conflict that, in the end, remains unsolved. The audience has seen the good side in Roy and thus the humanness of replicants. They don’t know whether to support Deckard or not because they don’t know what choice he will make. They might not even know what choice they want him to make.
Blade runner is well known for the way its film form advances the mood of the movie. From the opening credits, a certain tone is set. All the text is white on a black background, except for when the title itself appears in blood red, implying that this really is a movie about life and death. The distant pulses are of a deep heavy pitch, already creating a dark atmosphere. Gradually, the notes become a higher pitched melody with an ambience of wonder and hope, but repeatedly dip off into a low tone again. The same can be said with noir itself. Hope or joy, if any, usually fades away into despair. Throughout the rest of the film, “notes hang on the air seemingly forever, melodies are left tantalizing unfinished.” The synthetic rises, falls, and trickles of synthesizers create a futuristic link between the “human and inhuman elements” of the film. (MusicFromTheMovies.com) At the point where Roy Batty dies, a “twinkling” melody plays displaying the human emotion Roy possesses. The lighting of Blade Runner also is expressive of noir. Most scenes are shot with minimal light and lots of shadows. Most light comes from an outside window in the daytime. In the night sequences, the scenes are lit by neon signs from the businesses on the street. During both day and night, colors are faded and bleached, showing the effect of pollution and smoke.
All of Ridley Scott’s sets portray future technology. The architecture is futuristic but not flashy. There are viewing screens several stories tall but with low resolution. Police cars fly but they are designed as boxy squad cars. In one scene, Deckard uses a machine to edit a photograph. The machine is loud, clunky, and resembles an old television. While all these examples might only reflect the technology that was available in the late 70's for filmmaking and special effects, they might also be a symbol of irony used by Scott. One might interpret that even though society and technology have evolved, they still bear the marks of earlier times, and that all the efforts to advance civilization have only resulted in reverting to primitive ways and urban decay.
Blade Runner was a landmark movie in many ways. It accurately resurrected the urban noir genre from the 40’s and boosted material for modern science fiction movies that are set on earth. Despite the negative receptions at screenings and from critics, it has become what some would call a “cult” movie. It was also one of the first movies to present the use of synthetic scores and synthesizers in a soundtrack. (MusicFromTheMovies.com)
By Dan Giese
The 1982 science fiction production Blade Runner by director Ridley Scott used the premise of “man vs. man’s creation” to effectively create a movie many have classified as “future noir”. First released in June, 1982 (the-numbers.com) in the hopes of becoming a summer blockbuster, Blade Runner made only a small showing at the box office. This is often credited to the dark nature of the film, and in many ways the complexity of the storyline. Neither of which were compatible attributes to most Hollywood audiences. (Yahoo! Movies, Gadfly Online)
In present time, Blade Runner has been realized as the influence for many science fiction films that have been produced since. For example, 1995’s ‘Judge Dredd’ can be argued to have several Blade Runner influences. The world’s populated regions are covered entirely with urban skyscrapers and structures, and are isolated from the outside because nature is non-existent and survival on the “outside” isn’t possible. In both instances, law is upheld by few but elite police forces. The reasons for the planet’s decayed state are not revealed in either film. Blade Runner has also been realized as a strong link to the bleak crime/detective films of the noir genre in the 1940’s. The storyline, sets, and music all have traits that are characteristic of the film noir genre.
The idea of “man vs. man’s creation” has been played upon from the 1831 novel Frankenstein all the way up to the recent Matrix trilogy. In fact, as it has been discussed in class, a new genre of “reality” films is emerging, and popularly blending with the man vs. man’s creation premise. For instance, Blade Runner Dick Deckard, Judge Joseph Dredd, and Neo of the Matrix all struggle with the reality of their own existence. Deckard must ask himself if he is a replicant. Dredd must accept the fact that he is an artificially created super soldier. Lastly, is Neo a program? These character struggles are characteristic of film noir in that the hero or heroin is in a solemn or dangerous position in life.
Recapping the world Deckard lives in, much of the environment is in total disarray. Buildings are abandoned and unfurnished. The population is extremely overcrowded into the only single area where civilization exists, all of whom are left behind while the majority of the planet’s people have moved to “off-world colonies”. The sun rarely shines due to intense pollution and rain showers are an everyday occurrence. Industrial waste is scattered on the streets. Essentially, society has become infected by industry. Deckard, in his retirement, resides alone and isolated in a small high-rise apartment, wandering through the small oriental food stops with no real purpose anymore. He has a lot to be unhappy about.
Also, he may have had some traumatic or regretful experiences in his violent career, but it is not revealed to the viewer. When called upon to reenter his life as a Blade Runner, he is reluctant to do so. One might interpret this as a slight moral hesitation Deckard has about “retiring” replicants. Throughout the film, he has growing sympathy for the replicants. First, he falls in love with Rachel, and at the end of the movie he stares at Roy for several minutes, perhaps intrigued and touched by his final act of good.
In the final scene, (Blade Runner Director’s Cut only) Deckard retrieves Rachel from her home to rescue her from “retirement”, but then comes across one of Gaff’s origami unicorns. When he picks it up, he remembers the words Gaff told him: “It’s a shame she won’t live, but then again who does?” The movie ends fairly open-ended; leaving the viewer to ask what will Deckard decide to do?
He might have had a sudden epiphany about his role in the situation and decide to terminate Rachel because he has to. He might terminate her out of sympathy because he knows her death is inevitable anyways as replicants only have a four year lifespan. Or, he might have realized the association between the paper unicorn and his own dream about a unicorn. If this is the case, Deckard would suspect the dream to be a memory implant that Gaff knew about, and thus believe himself to be a replicant. (BRmovie.com) By believing himself to be a replicant, he would have every reason to bring Rachel to safety. But if he is human, he could also rescue her as a moral choice.
These many possibilities, coupled with Roy’s heroic act before his death, create a greater sense of conflict that, in the end, remains unsolved. The audience has seen the good side in Roy and thus the humanness of replicants. They don’t know whether to support Deckard or not because they don’t know what choice he will make. They might not even know what choice they want him to make.
Blade runner is well known for the way its film form advances the mood of the movie. From the opening credits, a certain tone is set. All the text is white on a black background, except for when the title itself appears in blood red, implying that this really is a movie about life and death. The distant pulses are of a deep heavy pitch, already creating a dark atmosphere. Gradually, the notes become a higher pitched melody with an ambience of wonder and hope, but repeatedly dip off into a low tone again. The same can be said with noir itself. Hope or joy, if any, usually fades away into despair. Throughout the rest of the film, “notes hang on the air seemingly forever, melodies are left tantalizing unfinished.” The synthetic rises, falls, and trickles of synthesizers create a futuristic link between the “human and inhuman elements” of the film. (MusicFromTheMovies.com) At the point where Roy Batty dies, a “twinkling” melody plays displaying the human emotion Roy possesses. The lighting of Blade Runner also is expressive of noir. Most scenes are shot with minimal light and lots of shadows. Most light comes from an outside window in the daytime. In the night sequences, the scenes are lit by neon signs from the businesses on the street. During both day and night, colors are faded and bleached, showing the effect of pollution and smoke.
All of Ridley Scott’s sets portray future technology. The architecture is futuristic but not flashy. There are viewing screens several stories tall but with low resolution. Police cars fly but they are designed as boxy squad cars. In one scene, Deckard uses a machine to edit a photograph. The machine is loud, clunky, and resembles an old television. While all these examples might only reflect the technology that was available in the late 70's for filmmaking and special effects, they might also be a symbol of irony used by Scott. One might interpret that even though society and technology have evolved, they still bear the marks of earlier times, and that all the efforts to advance civilization have only resulted in reverting to primitive ways and urban decay.
Blade Runner was a landmark movie in many ways. It accurately resurrected the urban noir genre from the 40’s and boosted material for modern science fiction movies that are set on earth. Despite the negative receptions at screenings and from critics, it has become what some would call a “cult” movie. It was also one of the first movies to present the use of synthetic scores and synthesizers in a soundtrack. (MusicFromTheMovies.com)
