Movie Reviews: Blade Runner

Title: Blade Runner



Director: Ridley Scott



Released: 1982



Runtime: 116 min.




Do Androids dream of electric sheep?

Maybe I'm not the best one here at BSD to tackle this one, but I've been on a sci-fi kick lately and this is the movie that began my summer of trying to watch science fiction movies. I'd already seen the movie, but my girlfriend hadn't, so we popped it into her DVD player (which strangely enough looks as if it was made by Fisher Price) and watched.

While I may not ever be able to forgive it completely for starting that damn cyberpunk fad, this movie stands completely on its own. Sure it's science fiction, but it's not Buck Rogers or Star Trek. I've always believed that at it's purest level, Sci-Fi is an amazing avenue for writing because it gives the writer a way to explore human nature without the reality of the future getting in the way. The reader or viewer can just sit back and truly think about themselves and their own society. I think, perhaps, that 1984 by George Orwell did this the best.


From this perspective, Blade Runner is a complete mindfuck. If you really watch, the view of humanity through a Replicant's eyes is not a pleasant thing. That is the true heart of the movie. These are human creations, human slaves and their actions are our responsibility. I could go off on metaphysical tangent about the rights of artificial sentient creatures, but I won't right now. I will sometime down the line, I'm sure, but I think that it's best that you watch this movie first.

Tyrell Corporation

Based on the novella Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Phillip K. Dick (which I haven't read, but Caleb has), Blade Runner is an exceptional film in every aspect. The basic plot outline is that humanity has created artificial intelligence that looks and behaves just like humans, or close enough. After a rebellion of these "Replicants", they are banned from Earth and special police officers "Blade Runners" are trained to find and kill any found on the planet. The protagonist, Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) spends the movie seeking them out and trying to "retire" them. This journey reaches a crescendo on a roof top with one of the most moving soliloquies in any movie I have seen by Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer).

One of the most striking aspects of the movie is the background. Set in the Los Angeles of 2019, the city is dark, polluted and awash in a neon glow that would make todays metropolises green with envy. Cars fly, the streets are teeming with people and the black market thrives. It is a beautiful picture of a city that feels real unlike many of the genre. Even the ziggurat of the Tyrell building seems real in this world, despite it's massive size and rather alien appearance.

All the actors playing Replicants do an admirable job, as does Edward James Olmos as a sort of sidekick/driver/adversary to Ford's Deckard. These characters all have life of their own, even down to the little black market eyeball salesman. It is charming in its own dark and gritty way, and will no doubt leave you with the impression that this world is as vibrant and real as our own.


Do Androids dream of electric sheep? I'd like to think they do...


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