To Save Falling Man

Rating: 10/10 (29 December 2007)

After reading the many opposing views of Blade Runner, seeing the many different versions of the film and enduring the dismissive opinions of several of those I know who've no love for the film or its creator, I can still say that for me, my introduction to Blade Runner a quarter of a century ago was one of the defining moments in my enjoyment of film. Rachel's first and second visits to Deckard's apartment which features one of cinema's great merging of image and music, the fleeting movement of shadow in Rachel's childhood photo, the truly moving revelation of Rachel's realization that her cherished memories are as cold and calculated as the world she inhabits, Zora's desperate and futile effort to survive and of course, Roy Batty's roof top moment of knowing what it means to be human (experiencing mercy, memory and the reality that it is all ultimately fleeting "Tears in the Rain") and an ending that is ours to interpret (audiences have been trying for 25 years) "She won't live but then again, who does?"
I saw Blade Runner when it was the small type co-feature to "The Wrath of Khan". I'm sure the last dollar from "Khan" was spent long ago, still, this great and neglected film continues to find new audiences and challenge those who 25 years ago saw in it something special, something great. For me, Blade Runner is ultimately a religious allegory. The Son of God (Batty) fulfilling his ultimate destiny, to save falling man. Driving a nail through the very hand he will save Deckard with, the wind mills of man's futile search for youth, the dove (Holy Spirit whom he will release to the heavens upon his death), reaching out to save a falling Deckard with nail through hand, Deckard responds by spitting at him (as humanity spit upon Christ at Golgotha), Batty sharing the wonders his dying eyes had seen much as Christ shared the wonders of his Father in Heaven, "Time to die"-It is finished" and of course, Deckards salvation and his understanding of Graft's final words and the true role of the unicorn (how could Graft have known of Deckard's dream of the unicorn?). Lastly, Deckards subtle acknowledgement of who and what he is and that the future though unknown is already foretold for all of us, replicant and human alike. Just as Rachel is Deckard's bridge to his humanity, Graft's origami unicorn is the reminder that like Graft himself, Deckard is himself a replicant.
Like the Christian belief that man finds his true humanity through Christ (not to be mistaken for the Schuller, Hinn, Graham, Roberts, ad nauseum brand of heresy), so to, the replicant's begin to find their own humanity through love, mercy and finding meaning in their existence. Of course this is all supposition and opinion, but in the end Blade Runner's ultimate greatness may lie in its ability to have tilled such fertile soil for thought, opinion and enjoyment.