Simply a thrilling and exceptional film

Rating: 9/10 (4 January 2018)

I think Blade Runner is simply a thrilling and exceptional film. The brilliantly crafted Sci-fi extravaganza, directed by Ridley Scott is based on a blade runner named Rick Deckard, played by Harrison Ford. He is given the quest to hunt down and kill four cyborgs, known as replicants: Pris, Leon, Zhora and Roy who is their leader. The deep philosophical questions that arise from watching the film makes it more interesting: "What happens after death?", "What makes us human?" and "What's the purpose of this life?". The director raises these questions but doesn't proceed to answer them in the film. The ambiguity of the film is what makes it successful as the audience are left with a cliffhanger.
Films are a popular source of entertainment due to the use of sound, visuals, body language, tone and expression of voice. This is effective in creating mood, conveying emotion and getting the audience thinking. An affordance of the film medium is its cinematography which is defined as "writing in movement" (Bordwell 2013:160). In the film noir, strong backlighting, light shafts, contrast and rain were used in most scenes to give the film its personality and an atmosphere of uncertainty which is the films main theme.
"Light is central to creating the mood or atmosphere of a scene and can be used to highlight certain elements" (Monaco 2009:86). The heavy use of neon lights, smoke and thick fogs combined with shots of towering buildings and police cars flying in line with air traffic, helped create a futuristic city that the audience could believe in. The use of smoke and black and white effect helped create a perfect setting for the film. It showed the future Los Angeles to be a gloomy, polluted, ghetto and rainswept city full of litter. The angles in which the streets were captured in, made the people appear like ants, giving a sense of an overcrowded street. Again, this gave the audience a glimpse of the what the future will be like. The cast were amazing in bringing their characters to life which added a lot to the coldness and darkness in the futuristic city.
The soundtrack is another affordance of the film medium as it gives off a mood-controlling effect and captures the tone and theme of the film. "The soundtrack carries the film; the images are dominated by it" (Monaco 2009:181). The soundtrack by Vangelis in the Blade Runner helps represent a dark and gloomy world of uncertainty. In the scenes between Rachel and Deckard, the music is soft with the piano playing in the background to give a feeling of intimacy. Whereas, in other scenes, there is a more fast pace synth heavy track that works well with all dynamic movement amongst the characters. In the scene where Deckard retires Zhora, the combination of the slow motion with the blade runner blues playing in the background shines a light on the cold nature of the killing which gives it more emphasis.
Overall, the Blade Runner is a masterpiece and deserves credit and remembrance for its breathtaking effects, the deep philosophical story, amazing cast and its dark, atmospheric tone throughout. I would definitely recommend watching the Blade Runner as I believe it to be one of the deepest and greatest science fiction films ever made.