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The Appropriate Tune: 'Blade Runner Blues' by Vangelis
Speaking of science fiction films that were panned at first but went on to become pop culture touchstones, we have Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner. When it was first released in 1982 it was lambasted by critics (Siskel and Ebert to be specific), thanks in large part to an abysmal theatrical cut which featured narration by a bored Harrison Ford. Years later with the advent of director’s cuts Blade Runner was reevaluated, and the trend of opinion made a complete 180. Not only was it one of the top science fiction films of the decade, but it was also the definitive cyberpunk movie; The visual blueprint which inspired hundreds of movies, TV shows, games and so on, almost as much as the actual cyberpunk novels by William Gibson and Neal Stephenson. So much like The Thing, a review feels like a formality more than anything, but sometimes you want to watch something you’ll know you like.
Released in 1982, Blade Runner was directed by Ridley Scott, written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples and produced by Michael Deeley through The Ladd Company, Shaw Brothers and the Blade Runner Partnership, based on the story “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” by Philip K. Dick. It’s the far-flung year of 2019, and Los Angeles is a fetid, shambolic mess of steel and concrete, but slightly more Japanese iconography than usual. Humanity has made it to the stars thanks in large part to the Tyrell Corporation and their Nexus 6 Replicants: bioengineered robots that are stronger, faster, and just as intelligent as human beings. The perfect tools, at least until they decide they don’t want to be tools anymore and start killing folk, which is probably why they aren’t allowed on Earth anymore. Although from the look of things they aren’t missing much.
Enter Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), a former member of a special police unit known as Blade Runners, whose mission was to identify, track and ‘retire’ Replicants that had snuck onto the planet. Formerly former that is, as he is dragged back to the station for a new case. Six Replicants recently hijacked a transport ship and killed its crew in an attempt to reach Earth. Two perished, but the remaining four, Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer), Pris (Daryl Hannah), Leon (Brion James) and Zhora (Joanna Cassidy) made it through and are now somewhere in Los Angeles. Deckard, as the best Runner in the game, is tasked with the job of retiring these rogue robots, but finding four people who don’t want to be found in a city of millions isn’t exactly an easy task. Especially when he meets Tyrell’s secretary Rachel, also a Replicant, and begins to question just where the line of humanity is drawn.
Blade Runner is at its core a film noir, complete with a jaded cop protagonist in a gritty depiction of Los Angeles. As neon-drenched as this world is, it's still in shades of gray. Our lead is not only a cop but has returned to the job’s primordial essence as a slave catcher. The Replicants are slaves, human but ‘inhuman’ at the same time, so even when Roy and his group kill it’s not hard to empathize with them. The world of Blade Runner is not one of heroes after all, but one of victims and victimizers, where brutality is the only way to ensure some measure of justice (so basically just our world but with flying cars). Just as the cyberpunk literature of the time was taking cues from the violent, alienated world of hardboiled pulp writers like Dashiell Hammett and Mickey Spillane it makes sense that the prototypical cyberpunk would take cues from the cinematic equivalent, and it makes sense for Scott, who had just a few years prior introduced science-fiction elements to a slasher film to great success. Film noir, like slasher horror, has beats and character archetypes that are easily digestible and recognizable for the audience.
As a film, Blade Runner’s biggest contribution to cyberpunk is, naturally, visual. The late 1970’s saw the rise of ‘lived-in’ worlds in science fiction, popularized by Star Wars and Alien, but none capture that quality quite like Blade Runner. Ridley Scott’s depiction of the future is positively nightmarish: Monolithic skyscrapers and corporate ziggurats which tower over ruined rain-soaked streets that are stuffed full to bursting with people and animals and probably more than a little fecal matter, as gigantic billboards float above the city droning out advertisements. The advancement of technology, long promised to be the liberator of mankind, take on a different guise in the context of the capitalist society: maintaining the power of the State (the flying car of the LAPD), expanding corporate profits and influence (the Replicants) and luxury goods (the artificial animals). And while there would certainly be other dystopian depictions of society in later sci-fi films, it is the surreal decay of Blade Runner that seems to have persisted in RPG’s, comics, and so on. Even things that aren’t quite science-fiction seem to have picked up some cues; While Batman: The Animated Series obviously had its origins in Tim Burton’s films, one can’t see that depiction of Gotham without being reminded of Ridley Scott’s 21st century Los Angeles.
Onto the casting, and once again we have Harrison Ford as the leading man playing against type. The late 70’s and early 80s had seen Ford rocket into upper echelons of Hollywood by portraying roguish daredevils like Han Solo and Indiana Jones, but in Blade Runner he’s gone the completely opposite direction. Far from charismatic, Rick Deckard is a sullen, burn-out detective, positively robotic when compared to his quarry (no doubt intentional). Speaking of quarry we have Rutger Hauer as the Replicant leader Roy Batty, having had his Hollywood debut the previous year with the film Nighthawks, and despite not featuring in the film all that much until the end he quickly becomes the most engaging character in the entire story. Sean Young does some great work as Rachael despite getting shafted a bit on the story side of things, she easily has one of the more engaging arcs as someone whose entire life turned out to be a lie based on someone else’s life, but she ends up being more of a prop for Deckard’s story, which is a bit disappointing. We’ve also got Edward James Olmos as the enigmatic Gaff, M. Emmet Walsh, Brion James, James Hong, there’s some solid talent both behind and in front of the camera.
On the score front, we had the legendary Ennio Morricone on the music for The Thing, and now for Blade Runner we have Greek composer Vangelis, who had previously done the composing for Chariots of Fire. The music of Blade Runner is split into three categories: the blocky 80s synth, the noir jazz, and a combination of the two that you could call tech-noir, which fade out of and into each other as the scenes change. As a fan of both blocky synth and noir jazz this is right up my alley, and while EDM and industrial would make up a major part of the ‘sound of cyberpunk’ later on, the tech noir of Vangelis helps to sell the world of Blade Runner as much as Ridley Scott’s directing.
By the way, this review is based on The Final Cut edition of Blade Runner, which is the copy I own and which is currently on netflix as of this time of this writing. Having not seen the theatrical version I can’t tell you what all has been changed, aside from the removal of Deckard’s narration and most likely updated graphics, but aside from a couple weird editing choices that feel a bit forced, it looks and plays fine. I also don’t know how prevalent the other cuts are, but if you’ve gotta make a choice I’d say you’ll be fine with The Final Cut.
Blade Runner gets the recommendation. Putting aside how influential it would become, at its core it’s just an interesting film. Interesting world, interesting characters, wrapped up in questions about what defines a human and the value of life. If you actually read this blog for some reason chances are you’ve already seen it, but if for whatever reason you haven't then put Blade Runner on the top of your queue immediately. And if you have seen it, watch it again. Not like you need an excuse to watch a good movie.
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