One of the most intelligent and profound science-fiction films of all time

Rating: 10/10 (4 August 2011)

"Blade Runner" is, together with the original version of "Planet of the Apes", my favourite science-fiction film. The two films ask diametrically opposed questions of fundamental philosophical importance. That posed by "Planet of the Apes" is "What distinguishes humans from animals?"; that posed by "Blade Runner" is "What distinguishes humans from machines?"
The film is set in the year 2019. In 1982 that doubtless seemed a long way away, but in 2011 we can see it as yet another sci-fi film which greatly overestimated the speed of technological progress. Fortunately, the quality of science fiction movies is not always dependent on their ability to foretell the future. The central idea of the film is that science has perfected organic robots called replicants, virtually indistinguishable from adult humans, the one difference being that replicants (supposedly) lack emotions. Replicants may only be used for dangerous or menial work in outer space or on other planets; their use on Earth is forbidden. Nevertheless, replicants have been known to defy the ban and return to Earth, where they are hunted down and killed (or "retired" to use the official euphemism) by a special police squad known as "Blade Runners".
The main character is Rick Deckard, a Blade Runner assigned the task of "retiring" four returned replicants hiding in Los Angeles. In order to prevent them from developing human emotions, the life-span of replicants is limited to four years, and it is believed that these four have come to earth to force the Tyrell Corporation, which manufactured them, to extend their lives. Another important element in the plot is a romance between Deckard and Rachael, a beautiful young woman whom he later discovers to be a secret replicant. Unlike the other replicants we see in the film, Rachael is a more advanced model who believes herself to be human, having had artificial memories implanted into her mind.
Despite its science-fiction theme, "Blade Runner" can also be regarded as belonging to the neo-noir genre. Like other neo-noirs from this period, such as "Chinatown", "Body Heat" and "Gorky Park", it has a very distinctive visual style. The city we see is very futuristic, complete with towering buildings and flying cars, and yet for all its high-tech buildings, the Los Angeles of 2019 is a gloomy, rainswept city disfigured by litter, graffiti and poverty, a literal and metaphorical City of Dreadful Night. The atmosphere is reminiscent of 1940s noirs such as "The Big Sleep", also set in a dark, rainy Los Angeles, although it is said that director Ridley Scott also drew on his roots in the industrial North-East of England. Since 1982 this dark, moody look has become something of a clichÃ© in science-fiction, horror and superhero movies, but in its day it marked a radical alternative to the bright, gleaming "Star Wars" vision of the future.
Another typically noir element in the film is the character of Deckard, a disillusioned, world-weary detective of the type who, had the film been made thirty or forty years earlier, would undoubtedly have been played by Humphrey Bogart. Harrison Ford was already known to the public as Han Solo in "Star Wars" and Indiana Jones; "Blade Runner" was perhaps the film that first revealed him as an intelligent, thoughtful actor as well as an action hero. This, together with "Witness" and "The Fugitive", is probably his best performance. Sean Young is an actress who has largely disappeared from view in recent years, but in the eighties she was a rising star, and here she gives her one really memorable performance as Rachael, the woman who has to cope with the knowledge that everything she has hitherto believed about herself is a lie. Rachael's hairstyle is a deliberately old-fashioned one, possibly in order to suggest another link with forties film noir. (Sean is one of several female actors of her generation to be known by a male forename; another, Daryl Hannah, appears as one of the four escaped replicants).
The third great performance comes from Rutger Hauer as the replicant Roy. Hauer, who is Dutch, speaks English fluently, but with a slight foreign accent, and this is put to good use in the film to suggest a being almost identical to, and yet subtly different from, the human characters. (Rachael's rather formal speech has a similar effect). Roy is believed to be a dangerous, alien being, yet as the film progresses it becomes clear that he and his fellow replicants are fully human souls with their own personalities who have developed in full the emotions they were not supposed to share.
A key scene comes near the end, where Roy stretches out his hand to prevent Deckard from falling to his death. This scene called to mind Michelangelo's famous painting of God creating Adam, but reverses its meaning. Deckard is a member of the race which created Roy, and therefore a metaphorical "god", but here it is the created being who stretches out his hand to his creator and thereby confers the gift of life on him. In this moving scene we see that the replicants are every bit as capable as humans- if not more so- of experiencing the emotions of pity and compassion.
The film initially performed poorly at the box office, but later became recognised as a classic, especially after a "director's cut" was released in 1992. (I must admit that I never saw the original version that was released in cinemas; my comments are based upon the director's cut and the more recent "final cut"). Scott is said to regard "Blade Runner" as his most complete and personal film; I would regard it as his finest. There is not enough space here to do justice to all its complexities and shades of meaning, but it must count as one of the best films of the eighties and one of the most intelligent and profound science-fiction films of all time. 10/10