I really liked Blade Runner. I thought it brought up some very interesting issues about post-humanity and an age of artificiality. Overall, I thought the visual aspects of the film were well done. Since it was made in the early eighties there were some pieces that felt outdated (funny…an outdated version of the future) like the semi-low-tech computer screens and the hovercrafts emitting billows of white smoke. But the mood and the atmospheric qualities of the film matched perfectly – the wetness and smoky haze that accompanied every scene “outside.” It created an oppressive, trapped feeling.
I am curious about what people have to say about the vision of the unicorn. I think it could be a clue that Deckard is a replicant. Is it an implanted memory that never actually existed? A part of someone’s dream? Also after Rachael asks Deckard if he ever took the replicant eye-screening test, he never answers. If he is a replicant, do we assume that he is unaware of that fact?
I looked up Jean Baudrillard’s theory of simulacrum –copies of things that no longer have an original or never had one to begin with. Models of a real without origin or reality. Baudrillard is saying that in a post-modernist world (are we there?) the distinction between reality and simulation breaks down. Just like in the film it was almost impossible to tell the difference between humans and replicants. Eventually it will become impossible to tell the difference between reality and unreality. I think that this version of "reality" has begun to manifest itself - in all the different post-human ways we've talked about - but I'm not sure how far simulation will go.
Image Credit:
http://bladerunner2019.com/blog/2007/11/19/new-blade-runner-font/
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