Unparalleled

Rating: 10/10 (12 March 2007)

It seems that the best ideas explored in science fiction originated in the minds of authors like Philip K. Dick and W. Burroughs. Blade Runner evolved from their ideas, and is an inspired project that really deserves respect.
I was very young when I first saw the movie on its initial release. My friends and I were stunned. We didn't have the wherewithal to properly verbalize what we came away with, but we knew we loved it.
This movie accomplishes something very few works do, it provokes that profound sense of how strange it is to be a human being, and that it's truly difficult to imagine any alternative.
It's interesting to note that the "replicants" are referred to in the movies opening as "robots" when they are in fact organic, genetically engineered...humans. This is an example of how we structure morality on what's convenient or essential for our continuation, not necessarily survival, but so-called progress. In Blade Runner replicants are required for the colonization of other planets. Society side-steps the moral implications, referring to replicants as robots and to killing them as retirement. It's great that the story focuses on these profound issues rather than space battle action type stuff. That is in fact quintessential to the nature of the story, it's not about what happens on the front lines, but in the dark recesses of a world left to die.
There's so many cool ideas in this film. There are layers of interconnectedness that reach beyond the story. The fact that the hotel in which Sebastian lives was the hotel used to film the Outer Limits episode "Demon with a Glass Hand", which explores similar themes about what it is to be human, is an example.
A friend of mine tells me he was instructed by an architect who worked on the film's sets. After filming the architect had the sets burned, so that they wouldn't appear in any subsequent projects. The film makes ample use of stone columns and pylons, and it's great how old structures are situated alongside huge new ones. The backdrops are rich in detail, nothing is plain, and there's strange uncharacteristic things like small fires in the street's gutters.
One of the ideas in the film is Philip K. Dick's concept of "kipple", the unwanted and useless junk that accumulates and tends to reproduce itself. The Blade Runner world is full of it, and its presence seems to reflect the situation of humanity itself, reproducing, accumulating, spreading through the universe, blind to any purpose, and incapable of knowing what the ultimate outcome will or even can be. The film's dialog also subtly reflects this, Gaff tells Deckerd; "It's too bad she can't live, but then again, who does?" The different ways of interpreting this statement are typical of the film's deliberate ambiguousness, it's not only a statement about mortality, but existence versus living. Both meanings are equally valid. Fortunately, the story isn't compromised with some kind of resolution, religious salvation, or final answers. It's lack of closure gives it more impact.
Technically the movie is brilliant, the look and feel of it aligns perfectly with the story. At first I was disappointed that the director's cut removed the narration, probably because it was the version I was used to. But the director's cut works a little better I think, and it's a bit darker without Harrison Ford's vocal interjections. The movie does have some strange, cheesy quirks, but on repeated viewings they don't have as much impact because you know they're coming.
A great film, it's hard to imagine a science fiction film that could equal it.