Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982) Thoughts

'Blade Runner', being a sci-fi film, allows itself to be full of editing techniques in order to capture the world that the film creates as well as deliver it's own feel and rhythm. 'Blade Runner' takes its time to get into faster editing as it originally begins with a slow montage of the futuristic world until the narrative begins and it takes a quicker pace of editing when more and more characters are introduced. 

The most notable scene that stuck out to me was the final monologue delivered by the antagonist Roy after the climax. Even the climax itself is well edited as, despite being a chase through a dilapidated building, is still slow and subtle. As a result, the suspense is heightened and the audience has no way of knowing what trick Roy is going to throw and Rick it becomes one of the most tense and thrilling climaxes. The aftermath, however, is the most memorable scene for me.  

Right from the start of this scene, the way that the shot is put together makes it surprise when Roy saves Rick from falling off the roof because of the fact that it’s so quick with the editing that the moment comes out of nowhere. Especially shocking considering that we had been seeing extreme close ups of Roy's face covered blood, clearly in no position to help Rick. After Rick is brought back on the roof, the editing becomes a back and forth between close ups of Roy's face as he delivers his final monologue and Rick's face for sake of reaction cutting and variety of content on screen. It also goes from an long shot of Roy as he begins until it finally sticks with a close up. Even when he dies, it is still ambiguous as the shot remains the same so all you see is him putting his head down. The audience only has it's one imagination based on information about Roy's life expectancy and the fact that he saved Rick in the first place. He knew he was going to die so he saved Rick in order to vent his life frustrations in the form of a fantastic monologue. 

Overall, ‘Blade Runner’ is a very thought provoking film. I labelled Roy as the antagonist but in truth it is hard to place him as such. Despite being artificial, he is still searching for the same thing that humans are and that being longevity in life. The contrast in the artificial reploids and humans is very interesting despite their ultimate goal. The humans in the film seem much more unpleasant than the relpoids and the sympathy from the audience is actually aimed at the supposed ‘antagonists’.

The aesthetics and iconography of ‘Blade Runner’ is where I feel the real strengths of the film come from. Even though the film came out in 1982, it still looks great and holds up well today. The characters are fleshed out enough to hold the film with Rick being an engaging protagonist against Roy’s insane yet sympathetic demeanour. It blurs the line in morality. The set pieces and backgrounds also look fantastic with character costumes fitting in nicely. The opening of the film sets the tone very well with slow editing to help the audience get accustom to the sci-fi setting.