One Marvellous Movie

Rating: 10/10 (17 December 2010)

Matchless. A magnificent meditation on the reality of death, and life's ultimate lack of meaning. One or two mentally challenged reviewers have complained that "replicants" could easily have been created a different colour, say, green; or been given six arms. Why were they made exactly the same as human beings? Answer: because they are exactly the same as human beings. In fact, all human beings are replicants of oneself. They are what one sees with one's own eyes, in the mirror, and all around one. If you follow the film closely. I think it was Ogden Nash who wrote: "My fellow man I do not care for/ I often ask me what he's there for/ The only answer I can find/ Is reproduction of his kind." Had he lived a little later, he might have written "replication of his kind".
One of the brighter dumb-dumbs points out, in a puzzled way, that there are no children in this vale of tears. Well, there wouldn't be, since replicants are made instead. As well as toys for scientific Sebastian to play with. There's something of him in all of them. What exactly is Tyrell playing at? God knows. Why, exactly, were the pyramids ever built? What was the point of burying everything of material value inside them? I'll tell you about my wrapped-up mummy, you trick-cycling apparatchik. Take a trip to see her for yourself.
Another thing. Without memories we have no identity at all. We only exist because we have learned to walk and talk, and remember how to do it. Who could we possibly be without our collection of mental photographs? Search me. Another thought: could there be a collective subconscious, and was Jung possibly right? Are unicorns part of everyone's folk-memory?
Everything about Blade Runner is fabulous. It soars where the clunky and only semi-literate Kubrick stumbles and fumbles. Even greater than Marienbad, which sadly shot itself in the corporation; or anything by Bergman. The performances are nonpareil. The girl playing Rachael (funny spelling) is perfection itself. But all the players are flawless, anyway. The vision is transcendental. I guess you could say I admire it.