Class #15Literary Criticism

Today’s Menu

I. Blade RunnerII. White NoiseIII. Coda

Blade Runner By Ridley Scott (1982/1992)

http://www.elsew.com/data/bladr_b.jpg

Plot Summary (1) The film describes a future in which

genetically manufactured beings called replicants are used for dangerous and degrading work in Earth's “off-world colonies." Built by the Tyrell Corporation to be 'more human than human', the Nexus-6 generation appear to be physically identical to humans — although they have superior strength and agility — while lacking comparable emotional responses and empathy. http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Blade-Runner

Plot Summary (2) Replicants became illegal on Earth

after a bloody mutiny. Specialist police units — blade runners — hunt down and "retire" (i.e., kill) escaped replicants on Earth. With a particularly brutal and cunning group of replicants on the loose in Los Angeles, a reluctant Deckard is recalled from semiretirement for some of "the old blade runner magic.“

http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Blade-Runnehttp://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Blade-Runnerr

The "Director's Cut" Released in 1992 The voice-over narration is

excluded More mythological ambiguity is

introduced (with the inclusion of a scene of a unicorn running through a forest)

The finalé of an escape into nature is removed. http://trumpeter.athabascau.ca/content/v14.4/jenkins.html

What’s left out Based on Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968)

by Philip K. Dick It is never explained in the film that

(1) most healthy humans have emigrated off a pollution-ridden Earth; only the sick ones stay home, such as the prematurely aging robotics expert, Sebastian

(2) nearly all animals are extinct; most surviving animals are artificial. The movie makes reference to it notably in the android empathy test, where lack of sensitivity to animal life is a key clue to the androids' supposed lack of real feeling.

(3) the possibility that Deckard himeself may be a "replicant" http://www.csie.ntu.edu.tw/~ntucs82/PEOPLE/b2506017/sf/0.hthttp://www.csie.ntu.edu.tw/~ntucs82/PEOPLE/b2506017/sf/0.htmlml

Discussion Questions

1. What’s the major theme of the movie?

2. Describe the city landscape. Is it a postmodern city? Why or why not?

3. In what ways are the replicants “more human than human”?

4. What’s the function of memories in the film?

GenreScience fictionDystopiaFilm noircyberpunk

Film Noir Originally a French term (literally "black

film"), now in common usage, to indicate a film with a gritty, urban setting that deals mainly with dark or violent passions in a downbeat way. Especially common in American cinema during the late forties and early fifties, its themes of existential alienation and paranoia have often been read as signs of postwar malaise and Cold War anxiety. (http://webpages.csus.edu/~abuckman/filmnoir.htm)

Cyberpunk a sub-genre of science fiction that

focuses on advanced technology such as computers or information technology, usually coupled with some degree of breakdown in the social order. The plot of cyberpunk writing often centers on a conflict among hackers, artificial intelligences, and mega corporations, tending to be set within a near-future Earth. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberpunkhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberpunk

Postmodern City?

http://www.leninimports.com/metropolis.jpg

Metropolis

http://artchangesbracknell.org/pn/modules/gallery/albums/album27/Metropolis.sized.jpg

Gotham City in Batman Returns

http://www.greencine.com/static/primers/expressionism2.jsp

Traffic also takes to the sky in this filthy, rainy, and dark Los Angles of 2019. http://www.ecosensual.net/drm/ideas/future1.html

http://www.georgetown.edu/faculty/irvinem/technoculture/pomosf.html

http://www.ecosensual.net/drm/ideas/future1.html

The high-tech future of a polluted planet being abandoned for off-world colonies and the remaining society run as a

police state.

http://i.timeinc.net/time/2005/100movies/images/blade_runner.jpg

Capitalism

http://www.nationmaster.com/wikimir/images/upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/0/04/BladeRunner_Spinner_Billboard.jpg/550px-BladeRunner_Spinner_Billboard.jpg

http://www.putlearningfirst.com/br/

http://www.brmovie.com/Magazine/BR_Magazine_P17.htm

An Advertisement “ A new life awaits you in a

golden land of opportunity. It's a chance to begin again. Let's go to the Colonies!”

Characters

http://home.comcast.net/~fosteronfilm/blade.htm

Rick Deckard

http://www.physics.hku.hk/~tboyce/sf/films/Blade_runner.html

Roy says to Deckard: "Quite an experience to feel fear. That's what it's like to be a slave."

Is Deckard a replicant? There are two main reasons for

this: 1 that his minder, Gaff, seems to

know about his dream of the unicorn. He leaves an origami unicorn outside Deckard's flat and could only know about the dream if it had been implanted

2 Deckard refuses to reply to Rachel's question "Did you ever take the test yourself?“

http://www.putlearningfirst.com/br/clips.htmlhttp://www.putlearningfirst.com/br/clips.html

http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Boulevard/7920/unicorn.jpg

http://www.putlearningfirst.com/br/grape/unicorn.jpg

http://www.putlearningfirst.com/br/grape/gaffsunicorn.jpg

origami

http://scribble.com/uwi/br/brfaq/batty-grab-big.jpg

Roy Batty:

Satan or Christ?

Roy celebrates his memories:

“I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.” http://www.creativescreenwriting.com/csdaily/csdart/images/2004-08-August/Blade%20Runner%20-%20Roy%20dove%20(200w).jpg

The characters are surrounded by genetically engineered animals fakes. Only the pigeons scattered by Roy's pursuit of Deckard at the end of the film are authentic. Roy delivers his soliloquy as he sits holding a pigeon in his hands so different from Tyrell's well-engineered observing owl. When Roy dies, his hands relax, the pigeon is released, and . . . Roy's soul is liberated.

http://www.muse-apprentice-guild.com/august_2002/donaldwilliams/http://www.muse-apprentice-guild.com/august_2002/donaldwilliams/literary_magazine.htmlliterary_magazine.html

Rachel

"It's too bad she won't live.  But then again, who does?" http://www.seanyoung.org/images/filmstills/blade1a.jpg

http://www.tyrell-corporation.pp.se/

http://dandalf.com/dandalf/BLA_0006.gif

Adam and Eve?

Motifs:The eyes → “I” (Identity)

Photographs → a narrative of “self”

Memories

http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Boulevard/7920/ojo.jpg

Roy to Chew, “if only you could see what I've seen with your eyes.”

http://jeu.frcd.free.fr/jpg/09s04i01.jpg

http://ftp.sunet.se/pub/pictures/tv.film/Bladerunner/Bladerunner-03.jpg

a Voigt-Kompt test which checks their irises to see if they have emotional reflexesa Voigt-Kompt test which checks their irises to see if they have emotional reflexes

http://www.tyrell-corporation.pp.se/

White NoiseDon DeLillo

The Most Photographed Barn in The Most Photographed Barn in AmericaAmerica: 12-13: 12-13

Knowledge/epistemologyKnowledge/epistemology: 22-25, : 22-25, 129-131, 171-72129-131, 171-72

CConsumerismonsumerism: 7, 20, 36-38, 82-: 7, 20, 36-38, 82-84, 154-55, 325-2684, 154-55, 325-26

Elvis vs. HitlerElvis vs. Hitler: 70-74: 70-74 TVTV: 16, 50-51, 64-66, 92, 104-105, : 16, 50-51, 64-66, 92, 104-105,

161-62, 222-23161-62, 222-23

SIMUVAC simulationSIMUVAC simulation: 138-42, 204-7, : 138-42, 204-7, 270-71270-71

TabloidTabloid: 5, 142-46, 160, 326: 5, 142-46, 160, 326 FFire (insane asylum)ire (insane asylum): 239-40: 239-40 Orest MercatorOrest Mercator: 181-82, 207-8, 266-: 181-82, 207-8, 266-

68, 297-9868, 297-98 DDéjà vuéjà vu: 116, 125-26, 133, 151, 162-: 116, 125-26, 133, 151, 162-

63, 176, 22163, 176, 221 DylarDylar: 52-53, 123, 187-89, 192-203, : 52-53, 123, 187-89, 192-203,

211211 Identity as copy/simulacrumIdentity as copy/simulacrum: 16-17, : 16-17,

82-84, 214-1582-84, 214-15

Car crashCar crash: 40, 217-19: 40, 217-19 GunGun: 252-54, 274: 252-54, 274 Consumer trashConsumer trash: 258-59: 258-59 Willie MinkWillie Mink: 304-13: 304-13 Sister Hermann MarieSister Hermann Marie: 317-20: 317-20 WilderWilder: 322-324: 322-324 Cloud/SunsetCloud/Sunset: 127-28, 157-58, 170, : 127-28, 157-58, 170,

227, 324-26227, 324-26 DeathDeath: 6, 15, 26, 37-38, 47, 72-74, : 6, 15, 26, 37-38, 47, 72-74,

97-98, 140-42, 150-51, 198, 216-17, 97-98, 140-42, 150-51, 198, 216-17, 228-29, 282-95228-29, 282-95

Other motifsOther motifs::The American homeThe American homeMurray Jay SiskindMurray Jay SiskindBarbetteBarbetteChildrenChildrenHitler StudyHitler StudyWhite NoiseWhite Noise

Coda

““ The golden age of cultural theory The golden age of cultural theory is long past.” (1)is long past.” (1)

““For the moment . . . We are still For the moment . . . We are still trading on the past – and this in a trading on the past – and this in a world which has changed world which has changed dramatically since Foucault and dramatically since Foucault and Lacan first settled to their Lacan first settled to their typewriters. What kind of fresh typewriters. What kind of fresh thinking does the new era thinking does the new era demand?” (2) demand?” (2)

((After TheoryAfter Theory, Terry Eagleton), Terry Eagleton)

The End