Film and Visual Representation
The paradoxes of postmodern society are also seen with the film's self-referential emphasis on vision, representation, and the nature of reality. From the earliest scene, the eye becomes a central visual motif. The fact that this is clearly the blue eye of the replicant Roy Batty should make students question just whose story this is—Rick Deckard's or Roy Batty's? Are we, the viewer, to watch this through the lens of an enslaved individual fighting for human dignity and a desire to know who he is?
The motif is woven throughout the film. Deckard is a "private eye," in the tradition of American detective fiction. The character represents the outsider who exposes the evils of the social order. 18 He "sees" in a way others do not. This is true of the Blade Runner Deckard, who eventually "sees" that replicants deserve the same dignity reserved for humans.
The motif continues with Chew's Eye Works laboratory, the ubiquitous surveillance of the police, the androids glowing eyes, Rachael and Pris' eye makeup, and the blinding of Tyrell, whose thick glasses already indicate impaired "vision." Roy Batty tells Chew, "If only you could see what I've seen with your eyes." This begs the question, does it matter that the eyes are not "real"? Do they not still see? Can they not see better? Perhaps the machine sees more than the human eye. After all, the Esper device unlocks the mysteries of a photograph, "seeing" behind corners not visible to Deckard's human eye. The Voigt-Kampff machine measures the eye's response to emotion, becoming the proverbial "window to the soul" of a human subject or exposing a replicant's artificial eye. That a machine determines one's humanity is an irony that can encourage students to question their own relationship with, reliance on, and fears regarding technology.
The photograph plays a critical role in the film. As a visual representation of reality, it is similar to the replicant who is a replication, or copy, of a human being. What interested Dick and writers like Jean Baudrillard is captured visually and thematically in Blade Runner—simulation has become more real than reality. In the words of Tyrell, the corporate motto is "more human than human." This idea of "hyper-reality" 19 gains support when we see Rachael and Leon's attachment to photographs, which provide evidence of existence, of memories. While they may be programmed memories, they are memories nonetheless and in many ways, no less real. Deckard's own attachment to old family photographs provides the first clue that he may himself be a replicant. How would he know? And how do students know they really exist? (A question I love to ask!) Because so many of them have seen the Matrix triology, they are often primed for this kind of existential exploration.
Perhaps because Ridley Scott was trained as a painter, paintings—another visual representation of reality—inform the visual design of the film. Scott supplied the production team with Edward Hopper's "Nighthawks," attempting to capture a sense of urban isolation. 20 Two other paintings—Emanuel de Witte's "Interior with a Woman Playing the Virginals" and Jan Van Eyck's "The Arnolfini Wedding"—will also be shown to students. These Dutch interiors are similar in texture and nuance to the photograph taken from Leon's room. The Esper machine reveals a reflected image in a mirror (a simulated eye) that exposes the sleeping replicant Zhora around the corner. The Van Eyck's painting contains a similar mirror that exposes the painter and witness to the actual wedding—a replication of the event. De Witte's painting also contains a mirror as well as a series of doorways that capture and direct the viewer's gaze. What is not immediately seen is the man in the bed, suggesting that the human eye is often fooled.21
The emphasis on visual reproduction and simulated realities is worth exploring with students in depth. This generation of students receives the majority of their information through images, so they need more practice reading visual and digital texts. Photographs also seem to consume the world of adolescents, many of whom do not leave home without a digital camera or cellphone/camera combo to document their existence. Pictures appear on MySpace and seem to reaffirm reality, proclaiming friends, memories, likes, and dislikes. And with social networking sites and life-like digital avatars gaining in popularity, it makes sense to discuss how the idea of individual identity might be changing in the digital age.
Viewing Strategies
Just as students must be familiar with the elements of literature, so too must they become comfortable identifying and analyzing the elements of film. While there is some obvious overlap between the two mediums, film requires a new vocabulary that will be discussed prior to viewing Blade Runner. Ironically, students often feel confident in their abilities to comprehend film, yet their "reading" rarely goes beyond the level of plot. One way for high school students to approach film is provided by Teasley and Wilder in their book Reel Conversations.22 By having students distinguish between the literary, dramatic, and cinematic aspects of film, they can better appreciate the similarities and differences between the various mediums.
Literary elements include characterization, theme, and symbolism. For example, symbolism in the film not found in the novel is the aforementioned emphasis on vision. The dramatic elements of film are similar to what audiences would see at the theater. These elements, which make up the mise-en scène of film language, would include costume, props, and acting. Finally, the specifically cinematic elements of film include camera angle and movement, light, color, sound, editing, and special effects.
The three categories will be written on the board so that students can refer to them while viewing. I will also pause the film periodically so that students can take notes, identifying how Scott incorporates the various elements. Students should also ask questions that we will return to when we examine still images.
Characterization and Themes in the Film
After viewing the film, we will return to the doubling structure of the novel and see how the film focuses not on Isidore as Deckard's alter-ego, but Roy Batty. Students will be asked how this reshapes the original conflict of the individual. Roy is still the leader of the rebel replicants, but here his quest is explicit—to extend his four-year lifespan. There is no question that Roy and the other replicants kill humans in their escape from off-world, but students will be asked to consider whether the killing is understandable, even justified given their situation? Roy seems to have some remorse when he confesses, "I've done questionable things." As with Frankenstein, the child returns to confront his arrogant creator. Unlike Victor Frankenstein, Eldon Tyrell does not learn from his mistake; instead, he is destroyed by his own creation, and Roy's symbolic destruction of his eyes reminds us that the creator lacked vision.
Students will be asked whether or not future machines might similarly seek vengeance on their human inventors. I will prompt students to consider other popular films that share the same theme, such as I, Robot or the Terminator series. This focus also affords a good opportunity to discuss the current problem of computer viruses, self-replication, and the fact that the language of biology is already being applied to man-made objects and vice versa.
Roy Batty's symbolic function as a Christ-figure will also be discussed when students examine still images. With a single viewing, students may not immediately recognize Roy's self-inflicted stigmata or his releasing of a dove as biblical, but with further research and discussion they will make these connections on their own. Roy saves Deckard, and students need to consider why he does this. Perhaps he wants a witness for his own "death." In this way, Roy becomes Deckard's spiritual savior as well, rescuing him from his cold detachment from the oppressed "other." Deckard is alienated from humanity just like the replicants, but in the end he is able to feel empathy for their situation.
Lesson 2 will allow students to explore the biblical theme of the Fall of Man, John Milton's Paradise Lost, and the work of William Blake. In his article "Science Fiction and Transcendence," David Desser discusses how like science fiction Paradise Lost is, creating a strong sense of place in its depictions of heaven, hell, and the Garden of Eden.23 He provides one description of hell that evokes the Los Angeles of Blade Runner:
A Dungeon horrible, on all sides round
As on great Furnace flam'd, yet from those flames
No light, but rather darkness visible
Serv'd only to discover sights of woe,
Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace
And rest can never dwell, hope never comes
That comes to all, but torture without end
Still urges, and a fiery Deluge, fed
With ever-burning Sulphur unconsumed. . .(Paradise Lost, book I: 61-69)
I will ask students if the setting is indeed similar to hell, and based on their general knowledge of the epic, what this might say about mankind in the future. Is Scott's hellish world a result of man's fall from a state of grace? Does the film offer redemption? Students will provide their own research on Adam and Eve's expulsion from the Garden of Eden and possible associations with the film. They will be asked to consider a number of possibilities: How is the female replicant like Eve? How is the use of the femme fatale archetype appropriate in this context? Are Deckard and Rachael a new Adam and Eve?
We will also briefly discuss the Romantic idea that Satan, rather than Adam, is the true hero of Paradise Lost. Is Blade Runner worth reading in a similar way? Roy may be the fallen angel seeking vengeance against an omnipotent and cruel God, Tyrell. At the same time, Roy may be the redeemer of man, allowing Deckard to transcend his alienated state. Here we see how Deckard and Roy might also be two halves of a broken whole. As with the novel, Deckard seems to be more machine-like, but here it is the machine Roy who is more human, fighting for his freedom with the raw emotions of love, hate, pain, and fear.
That Roy's character can be likened to a fallen angel becomes clear when students examine a line from William Blake's America: A Prophecy. Roy revises it to say, "Fiery the Angels fell [cp. the original "rose"] while thunder roared around their shores, burning with the fires of Orc." I will also use Blake's poem "The Tyger," which evokes a similar tension between destruction and creation found in Blade Runner.24
A mystery that will probably linger with students is the inclusion of the unicorn that Deckard dreams about. This scene is never explained. The only other unicorn reference is at the end of the film when Deckard finds Gaff's origami. Most critics see the origami as a sign that Gaff knows Deckard is himself a replicant and has been given an implanted dream about a unicorn. Regardless of his origin, Deckard realizes Gaff has been at his apartment and has let Rachael live. Gaff's final words, "It's too bad she won't live, but then again, who does?" echo as a reminder to Deckard that the human and nonhuman beings have something in common.
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