Every time the most classic science fiction films in film history are selected, "2001: A Space Odyssey" and "Blade Runner" will always be moved out to tell the story. However, when many people watched these two films admiringly, they would come up with a simple summary of "not good-looking".
Is it because you are too old? After all, a year in 1968, a year in 1982, the special effects spectacle of that year is nothing today. The "idea", such as the rebellion of artificial intelligence and the self-awareness of clones, have been repeated many times by later generations. Classics are classics because of their groundbreaking and historical value, but don’t they have much appreciation value today?
A word often associated with "Blade Runner" is "cyberpunk". "Cyberpunk" is Cyberpunk, Cyber is Cybernetics (cybernetics, referring to information technology), and punk is punk, a rebellious style. Together they are "information technology rebels." This is an imagination of the future and a unique artistic style. In the future, highly advanced technology will not bring utopian happiness to mankind. On the contrary, because technology is in the hands of a few people or large companies, this gap will aggravate the mutual oppression and differentiation of mankind. Under the shadow of dazzling technological visual effects, the metropolis is full of all kinds of dirty, poor, and dark corners.
"Blade Runner" is not the pioneer of cyberpunk thinking. Before it, there have been many science fiction novels with this theme. This movie itself is also based on a novel. But "Blade Runner" is the first time that cyberpunk shines on the big screen. It has never been easy to visualize the thoughts and emotions in literature. As a result, the creators are very clever looking for inspiration from the real world. Tokyo Shibuya and Hong Kong are the most suitable for this kind of highly dense population, highly developed cities and technologies, and huge class gaps. As a result, East Asian faces, Chinese characters, bizarre neon lights, combined with the dark night and rain, have become indispensable elements of cyberpunk.
Fortunately, in 1982, when the visual effects were not developed, the dark main tone could just hide the lack of technology. This is also the reason why the visual effects of "Blade Runner" do not lag behind today.
Think about "Ghost in the Shell", "The Matrix" and other later cyberpunk masterpieces. None of them bears this distinctive brand. This is due to the precedent set by "Blade Runner".
Of course, this is still a "groundbreaking and historical value." Looking back, let's look at the reasons why most people give a "not good-looking" evaluation: the pace is too slow and unintelligible. It's not that the special effects are old, the bridges have been seen, and so on. Could they be regarded as classics because they are actually hidden in "the rhythm is too slow and incomprehensible"?
Our audience today has already formed a habit of narrative rhythm of Hollywood genre films, and take it for granted. The film must first tell a good story, which seems to be justified. If you agree that film is an art form, we might as well compare another art-literature. Literature can include story-telling novels and fables, as well as prose and poems that don't tell stories. So why can't movies be like prose and poems and not prioritize storytelling? What's more, "Blade Runner" still tells a story very clearly, but it's really slow. So is the reason for this slow pace by adding something poetic like prose?
The story of "Blade Runner" is about "replicating humans". Its connotation is similar to artificial humans and clones. One feature is that they clone all human functions, but not emotions, and the second is to prevent development. With dangerous emotions and thoughts, their lives are only four years. In today's science fiction film, the first mission of the copy person is definitely to survive, and then find out the truth, then defeat the conspiracy, kill the boss, celebrate the liberation, and then live in peace with humans or go to war for a sequel.
Let's take a look at how the 1982 cloner thought and thought.
In the beginning, they also naturally survived. The difference is that they are not fighting against slavery and fighting for survival, but the four-year life expectancy is approaching, looking for the people who invented them to find a way to extend their life. Having played down the mark of the "oppressed", do we find that these clones are familiar? Since ancient times, have we humans been asking God to worship Buddha and seeking immortality? The pursuit of eternal life will inevitably lead to the pursuit of one's own creator, the process of tracing the creator, and the essence is the ultimate question of "who am I? Where do I come from and where am I going?" So you see, "Blade Runner" actually tells the story of human beings themselves.
From this perspective, it is not difficult to understand why the copyist killed his creator, the big boss Taylor. Taylor, the creator, doesn't care about the demands of copying people, prolonging life, and the meaning of his own existence, but just proud of how exquisite and "perfect" the masterpiece he has created is so delicate and "perfect". Thinking back to the gods in various religious myths, why not have this attitude toward humans? Kneading plasticine is generally used as a toy. If you don't act according to your own mind, you will bring natural disasters; if you dare to build a tower to find yourself, then there will be a flood and all will be destroyed and re-emerged. As the created, the original meaning of one's existence is just a toy, how can one not hate the creator who brought this pain into the world?
Since it is the story of human beings who cannot pursue longevity, what will we do next? That is the pursuit of identification. I have a better physique and the same mind than humans. Why can’t I survive like humans? The several clones that appeared in the film all tried their best to live like a person. The most typical example is Zhora, who performed in the underground dance hall. She just mixes in the crowd to make a living on her own, and has no intention of harming her, but she is surrendered from the sky. The blade runner relentlessly hunted down and died tragically among a pile of plaster models in a clothing store. Trying to live like a person, but the end is dead among a bunch of dummies, how sad.
The clones possessed humanity and longed to be a real person; in turn, they chased down their Blade Runner Deckard, who claimed to be a real person, but slaughtered them for granted reasons, and gradually lost their humanity. The boundary between the real and the fake is thus blurred. The film also hints at this point in many places. Another female copycat, Pris, is disguised as a doll and sits among a large number of movable dummies. It is difficult to tell the truth from the fake; her bizarre gymnastic attack and shot. After falling to the ground, the blood flowed and the violent struggle defined her as a kind of shocking form between a real person and a fake person.
Roy, the leader of the clones, transcended human nature and demonstrated divine nature. Roy's fighting power far surpasses Deckhard, but facing the enemy who killed the two companions, Roy did not hurt the killer. He drew the nail and pierced the palm of his hand. At the last moment of his life, he released the dove that symbolized peace, saved the life of his enemy, and awakened his enemy's disappearing humanity. Being nailed through the palm of the hand, redeeming an ignorant enemy, is this also a bit familiar? The realm of a copy of Roy can be compared with Jesus.
On the other hand, does the self-confidence of a real person have to be so reliable? Rachael, another female copy in the film, does not know her identity as a copy, because she has a complete set of transplanted memories. And the unreliability of memory, later science fiction films have been rendered. As the protagonist, Blade Runner Deckard, because he had dreamed of a unicorn, and his colleague put a unicorn origami in front of his house (this colleague also left the same unicorn in the copy's room) Beast origami), so I suspect that my memory has also been transplanted. Whether he is a real person or a copy, fans from all walks of life are arguing, but I don't think the truth is important, the key is that he doubts it. I doubted my identity, my humanity, my soul.
It is said that the eyes are the window of the soul, and Blade Runner did not miss this point. From the opening of the film reflecting the look of Los Angeles in 2019, to the whole scene of the old man who designed the eyes, the owl's constantly rotating eye camera, and even Rachael's seemingly empty eyes with complex emotions, and the seemingly "unnecessary" details such as nails poking at the palm of the hand, are examples of the prose-like poetic things added in the slow pace of the film.
If you can't seek longevity, and you won't ask for approval, then what else can you pursue? That can only be a short life experience. This is the origin of Roy's "most beautiful last word in the history of science fiction": "I have seen things that you can't imagine. I saw the battleship burning on the shoulders of Orion, and I saw the C-ray outside the door of Tanghouse It blooms and shines in the darkness. These moments will eventually pass in the torrent of time, like tears in the rain. It's time... to die."
If you can’t ask for longevity, and can’t be a master, do you think about things like traveling around the world and experiencing a lot, so that you won’t be in vain in this world?
A sci-fi story full of allegorical meaning, close coordination of various details and elements, and the grand background of this cyberpunk, together create an immortal poetry. Is it really deeper than "find the truth, defeat the conspiracy, kill the boss, and celebrate the liberation"?
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