Tuesday, 18 January 2011

Blade Runner OCR Textbook

  • A classic piece of dystopian science fiction
  • Often discussed as a postmodern film
Style

  • A postmodern aesthetic, mixing textual references and images.
  • Film-noir juxtaposed the futuristic, dystopian images (time is manipulated).
  • L.A in the future is in itself a pastiche of our ideas of the East, the West and the future.
  • Mise-en-scene of decay and decline.
  • An end for humanity as we know it.
  • The replicants striving for an extension to their lifespan.
Reception

  • The meaning of humanity in the postmodern age.
  • The distinction between the human and the machine is unclear.
  • L.A seen - the postmodern city. (Huge advertising images promoting an off-world colony, the idea that anyone who can has 'fled' the real world for a more virtual experience).
Subject Matter

  • Unsure as to whether the protagonist, Rick Deckard, played by Harrison Ford, is human or not, remaining an enigma.
  • 'All these moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.' - Roy Batty, the lead replicant's line when dying.
  • Blurring of opposites: reality/fiction, human/machine, life/death and good/bad.
  • Deals with racism (the extermination of replicants) and so replaces real world concerns in a fantasy setting.
  • The classic oppositions that have defined our philosophy are undermined, or at least exposed as vulnerable.
Source: OCR Media Studies for A2 Textbook

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