Review of Blade Runner

Featuring Harrison Ford, the movie takes place in rainy Los Angeles in 2019. The story features a retired “blade runner”, a policeman who specializes in tracking down and killing illegal replicants on earth. A replicant is an artificial humanoid who can’t be distinguished from humans except for the fact that they have no memories and they can only live for four years. Decker (ford) is called out of retirement to take care of five illegal replicants who have taken over a spacecraft and come to earth.

There are elements of film noir that are present in this movie. It might seem uncharacteristic because the movie is comfortable in the science fiction zone. That is another reason why this movie can be seen as legendary and that’s because of the marriage of Noir and sci-fi. The elements of film noir in this movie were the fact that an alienated hero of questionable morality had to face some sort of evil, a femme fatale trying to stop the hero, rain and dark streets, large usage of shadow and dark setting, and a voice-over narration. The main hero is a detective as well trying to find out and stop evil.

The cinematography was amazing for the year it was it was made in. not only does it show the futuristic technology, but the movie also shows how things will still be the same, for example people reading newspapers, street vendors selling food, that sort of thing. One thing that I noticed were the large billboards depicting young Asian ladies sipping on Coca Cola and I can’t help but chuckle at the fact that maybe in 2020 the Chinese will be the new superpower as it is looking as if we will be treading that path soon.

Just like so many movies that are viewed successful today, the movie originally was not a big hit but then it changed later on in life. It seems the moral or theme of the movie is based on the question of the nature of humanity and its relationship with technology. One question that I wasn’t sure of was whether Decker was a replicant or not. There were signs of evidence suggesting he was a replicant himself but there were also signs of evidence pointing out his nature of humanity.

Overall I liked the movie. I liked the cinematography and the plot but I didn’t really like the pacing of the movie. The movie seemed really slow paced at first and then later it sped up and that’s when I started getting more and more interested. Another thing is like the way the main characters were depicted. The strength and brutal nature of the main replicant leader even thought there was a shadow of pity I had to cast over him because if I were in his situation I would probably go through the same path he did.