Blade Runner

I strongly disliked watching Blade Runner. I thought the acting was good, the characterization was good, but I just did not like the movie as a whole. There is a definite reason for this. It was too science fiction for me.

The whole sci-fi factor covers it all. First, I do not like sci-fi movies. I do not enjoy the space or futuristic films with the genetic mutants and flying cars. I don’t buy it. I enjoy watching naturalistic mise-en-scene films that include realism versus something fake and made up. I laughed when the screen told me the film was taking place in 2019 because that’s only nine years from now and what was shown on screen is nothing even close to what things are like. There were human replicants. Humans and replicants were living on other planets. Roy, a replicant, had white hair (or just really really really blonde hair), which it seems like most sci-fi movies do have somebody with white or another strange color of hair. The buildings and city were designed in a way that reminded me of other futuristic films. Also, there were flying cars and other digital effects. I understand the film was made in the 80s, but really, 30-40 years would produce flying cars and mutant humans?

I know. The movie makers were probably trying to make it a sci-fi film, however, I was viewing this film comparing it to the other film noir movies that I’ve seen (Double Indemnity, Touch of Evil, and Brick). I saw that Blade Runner had similar characteristics to the other film noir movies—use of smoke, darkness, night, rain, shadows, etc. The character’s used the word “pal” when speaking to each other which reminds me of something that would be said in Touch of Evil or western movies. It is hard to put Blade Runner in the same category as films I’ve enjoyed/appreciated.

I guess I do appreciate Blade Runner’s use of film noir characteristics, but even there I was disappointed in some aspects. I never knew if it was day or night because it was always dark, but there were always people around. There was no distinction between day and night, which through off my sense of time. Also, it rained quite a bit during the film. And there was steam or smoke in many of the scenes. It seemed like when the movie makers decided they would use dark, water/rain and smoke/steam in the film, they went a little overboard with it.



Side note: Another thing that bothered me was Deckard’s vision/dream of the running white unicorn. It seemed to serve the same purpose as the water buffalo, explicit pictures and clouded skies in the remake of Psycho…nothing.