Blade Runner isn't Dick

Rating: 10/10 (9 December 2010)

Having been recommended the (then) new film of Phillip K Dick's "Do Androids dream of Electric Sheep," I saw and loved Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner" when it was new. When I finally read "Androids" about two years ago and discovered that Blade Runner is obviously a jumping off point, but it's really a different story. Part "1984" and part "Children of Men," "Androids" is about a seriously dysfunctional, probably dieing society dominated by a pervasive propaganda effort.
While it's not clear that the world of "Blade Runner," is any less dysfunctional, the political elements seem very ordinary for a big city. Its focus is on the characters, which are very nearly human, as are we all. The focus is not on the times but on the experience of humanity that defines us and fails to draw a clear line between human and "replicant." Scott puts the question in the mouth of a replicant, to wonder whether our detective is himself human, at which point we may begin to remember what may be clues about this, but the question is never again raised. But they both seem to pass the tests we would make of their being human.
Where Dick is caught up in his own cynicism, Ridley Scott seems to have given us an anthem, especially with his dark and decadent future LA, but just magnificent, the last great non-CGI set, along with a dense and powerful Vangelis soundtrack.