More Relevant Now Than Ever

Rating: 10/10 (2 May 2019)

Blade Runner is a legendary piece of science-fiction. Not many films are able to establish such a profound and unique cinematic universe in a little more than two hours. Ridley Scott went a step further, and revolutionized a genre.
Blade Runner was one of the primary influences for the now extremely popular cyberpunk sub-genre of sci-fi - characterized by a corporatist dystopian take on a technologically advanced society. In the film, Detective Rick Deckard (played by Harrison Ford) is pulled out of retirement, and tasked with tracking down four Nexus 6 Replicants - robots with superhuman strength designed to be used as slave labor on hazardous planets - who have illegally landed on Earth after hijacking a spaceship and murdering everyone on board.
The film is stylized like a film noir. The only main difference between the plot of a true film noir and Blade Runner is that Blade Runner is set in the distant future of 2019 (the distant future in 1981 anyway). Though, with the setting, there comes a number of dramatic turns that could only be accomplished in film of its kind. The movie's plot brings to mind questions about humanity through the allegory of the Voight-Kampf test - a device and procedure designed to tell man from machine. Though the test is only conducted twice in the entire film, there is certainly more to glean from it than whatever is on the surface level - especially after a character asks Deckard if he's ever done the test on himself before. The movie's ending leaves the viewer just as many questions as the beginning, which, in Blade Runner's case, is probably the best possible way to conclude. I personally believe that this movie is one of the few films which has a perfectly written story.
While in my opinion the plot is the best aspect of the movie, the way the movie was filmed and constructed is just as, if not more important than any amount of writing.
Every single shot has a purpose. There is not one camera angle, one brief snippet of film used, that isn't necessary. Anything that is visible on-screen is there for a reason, however cryptic it may be. Nothing is on-screen for longer than it needs to be either. The shots are cut in such a way that every featured object is on screen for just long enough for the viewer to both see it, and contemplate it and its relevance to the film. I retained more from my first viewing of Blade Runner than I have retained from consecutive viewings of most other movies. Right alongside the camerawork, the lighting is also fundamental to creating the atmosphere of the movie. Being a sort of "neo film noir", most of the movie is set in darkness. The weather is constantly dark and stormy. Most illumination is done via neon, street lights, and headlights. If anything is lit up, it's important. For example, when light is shone in a replicant's eyes, there is a strange reflective effect reminiscent of the eyes of a cat or dog. It creates a way for attentive viewers to keep track of who is and isn't a replicant, and in general is a very intriguing effect to behold. Conjunctly, this is one of a few movies where I noticed the lighting directly contributes to the mood of the story. For instance, during a tense, high-energy chase scene in the film, most of the lighting is done with rapidly rotating or otherwise mobile spotlights - usually associated with risk and danger. In this film in particular, light is so important that it can drastically change the mood of a scene whilst still maintaining relative subtlety.
The casting in this movie is extremely fitting. I couldn't picture an actor other than Harrison Ford playing Deckard. It's just not possible in my mind. Aside from the main character, the way the replicants are portrayed in the film feels extremely fitting - given a major plot point in the movie is that replicants only have a four-year lifespan. They behave in what could be described as a child-like manner, putting feeling before thought into their actions. They don't have any past memories or maturity to go off of, so they'd naturally act like an upset child during the situations presented. The actors did a great job of conveying this, and I probably wouldn't have caught it if they didn't accentuate it.
In conclusion: Blade Runner is unique. It's an art film that doesn't feel drawn out (as art films have a tendency to do) and is also extremely engaging. Despite being made in 1981, it still stands up today, and remains a timeless classic. 2019 may not be the futuristic landscape Ridley Scott pictured when he set the film, but being the current year, it's more relevant than ever to look at this classic piece of science fiction, and appreciate its worth - both as it was back then, and now.