Hollywood Haiku #5

Blade Runner

Replicant hunter

meets his match with Roy Batty.
Wake up, time to die.

This is an entry for the Best For Film Hollywood Haikus blogging competition. Enter now.

Book / Movie comparison: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? / Blade Runner (Philip K. Dick blogathon)

There are a lot of aspects of Philip K. Dick’s ‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?’ that are missing from Blade Runner. Even from the first page of the novel, we read about two things that aren’t present in the movie: the Penfield mood organ and Deckard’s wife, Iran. The mood organ has different settings that regulate a person’s emotions and makes them feel a certain way. It is programmed by dialing the corresponding number of the required setting, for example, 888 is “the desire to watch TV, no matter what’s on it”. People are becoming emotionless, like androids (known as ‘replicants’ in the film). They need things to cling to in order for them to feel alive. Along with Buster Friendly (a talk show host everyone watches on TV), the empathy boxes and Mercerism (a religion where people join together to collectively experience the suffering of the mystical figure, Wilbur Mercer), the mood organs provide this.

The omission of Deckard’s wife, along with Roy’s, Iran, means that both of these characters are free to be with other women in the film. Rachael is made to be more of a love interest than the femme fatale of the novel who pushes his goat off the roof, and Pris is a lot friendlier with Roy.

Speaking of goats, the book places a lot more emphasis on animals, both real and electric. This is evident from the change of title when it was adapted for the cinema. There is a longing for real animals, a rarity since the ‘World War Terminus’ which left the Earth covered with a layer of contaminated dust, destroying most animal life on the planet. Animals are seen as status symbols as they are extremely expensive, and those who cannot afford them buy electric ones instead, almost as realistic but not a proper substitute. Deckard’s motivation in the novel for retiring the androids is to get enough money to buy a real sheep to keep on the roof of his apartment and make his wife happy. In Blade Runner he has quit his job but is blackmailed into returning because he’s seen as the only one who can do it.

The almost deserted San Francisco of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? relocates to Los Angeles and is over-populated with people of all cultures. J. R. Isidore becomes J. F. Sebastian, and rather than driving a truck for a false-animal repair firm, he is a genetic designer. In the novel he is a ‘chickenhead’, someone who has been contaminated by the dust. In the film he has a disease that accelerates his aging, giving him something in common with the replicants who also have a limited life-span.

 

Philip K. Dick’s androids were emotionless beings, heartless and selfish. They were considered to be less than human and were ultimately dispatched with quite easily by Deckard. In comparison, Ridley Scott’s replicants were superhuman. They were more intelligent, stronger, faster and considered superior to humans. They were a lot harder to retire and had the capacity to develop feelings and emotions. Some become “more human than human”: the motto of the corporation that created them.

 

The movie and the novel are clearly separate works of art. While Blade Runner is not a wholly faithful adaptation, it is still an exceptional film: a thought-provoking vision of the future dealing with themes of existentialism and what it means to be human. In this way, the book and the film perfectly complement each other. The film is a visual feast but is somewhat lacking in narrative, the book provides rich detail and many extra interesting aspects about the dystopian future world. When you experience both, you feel like you have a complete view of the story.

Review: Blade Runner (Philip K. Dick blogathon)

(Note: this review is based on The Final Cut and contains SPOILERS)

Ridley Scott’s dark, dystopian film set in a future Los Angeles is a visual masterpiece. The rain-drenched city with its towering skyscrapers reaching up to the clouds of smog overhead, contrast with the bright neon lights and huge, colourful advertising screens. There is an over-populated, claustrophobic feel on the ground, with a strong Asian influence resulting from a blending of cultures. Every scene is mostly shadow, with minimal light used to highlight the key areas of interest, and smoke drifting and twirling atmospherically. The beguiling soundtrack by Vangelis complements the action perfectly.

Our main focus here is Rick Deckard (a moody Harrison Ford), the ‘Blade Runner’ of the title. He was a bounty hunter who tracked down replicants (artificial humans) and ‘retired’ (some would say ‘killed’) them. He quit his job but is called back into action to stop a group of Nexus-6 replicants that mutinied, killed their captors and escaped to Earth. These replicants are used as slaves on distant planets for a variety of jobs: combat, heavy lifting, some even for pleasure. They attempted to infiltrate the Tyrell Corporation (a genetic development company which created them) in order to find a way to extend their limited 4-year life span and two of them got “fried”. Four replicants remain and it is up to Deckard to find them.

During a visit to the huge, pyramid-shaped Tyrell building, Deckard meets another replicant named Rachael (Sean Young). As she had been implanted with memories, she believed she was human, until Deckard carried out the Voight-Kampff test on her and confirmed otherwise. A series of questions designed to elicit an emotional response are asked, and subjects are judged on their answers and physical reactions. New types of replicants such as the Nexus-6 are becoming harder to detect because of these fake memories and the capability to develop emotions.

After two of the replicants, Leon and Zhora, are retired (one by Rachael, who saves his life), Deckard is left with a hard challenge: Pris (Daryl Hannah), and the one seen as their leader, Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer giving his best performance). He has been told by his boss that he must also retire Rachael but he cannot do so because he has fallen in love with her. Pris and Roy have found shelter with J. F. Sebastian, a genetic designer who works for Tyrell. He has a disease which accelerates his aging process and as a result is not allowed to emigrate off-world as many of the population have. He takes a shine to Pris and sympathising with their plight, agrees to help Roy meet his maker, Tyrell. The “prodigal son” returns home and Roy demands a longer life. Tyrell explains that this isn’t possible: "The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long, and you have burned so very, very brightly, Roy." Angry and frustrated, Roy kills Tyrell and then Sebastian.

She was about to shout "Boo!" and make him jump a mile

Meanwhile, Deckard makes his way to Sebastian’s apartment where Pris is waiting. She blends in with the toys that Sebastian made as his friends. After a close call, he shoots her with his laser gun, ‘killing’ her. Now only Roy remains, but he will be Deckard’s greatest trial. The huge dilapidated apartment building where he stalks the last replicant is rundown and abandoned. Water drips down the walls as he moves silently and alone. We see his laser gun fill the whole screen, just as Roy’s arm bursts through the wall and grabs him. After having his fingers broken, Deckard escapes his grasp. He realises that he may have met his match this time. Inside the building it switches between near darkness and bright, searching spotlights from the hovercraft outside. Roy howls like a wolf, signifying that the hunter has become the hunted. Deckard’s job may have been to find and retire the replicants but now he is fleeing for his life.

Deckard climbs up through the ceiling, outside, and onto the roof. Thunder booms, lights flash, and there is the sound of bells tolling...but for whom? Roy appears and Deckard attempts a leap across to the next building. He misses and is left to hang uselessly from the edge. Roy, realising that his own time has come, catches his arm and saves him. He sets him down safely on the rooftop and gives a beautiful final speech about all the things he has witnessed in his short time, all the memories that will now be forgotten. "I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I've watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those...moments will be lost in time...like...tears...in rain. Time...to die."

Deckard is victorious, but we don’t feel like celebrating. The final confrontation is atypical of most good guy/bad guy fights in action movies. For one thing, Deckard would have lost if it weren’t for a final display of humanity from the replicant. In the end, we are made to sympathise with Roy. He was used as a slave and was just trying to escape his fate, in another story he may well have been the hero.

In the final scene, Deckard leaves with Rachael, the words of a colleague echoing around him “It’s too bad she won’t live. But then again, who does?” This film questions what it means to be alive. The defining trait of the replicant used to be that it was emotionless. Yet many humans act selfishly and without emotion, and these replicants had feelings and showed compassion. The lines between man and machine become very blurry by the end, with some questioning whether the cold, reluctant bounty hunter is a replicant himself.

Philip K. Dick movie blogathon

Everything is almost ready for me to kick off the blogathon I mentioned here a while ago. Over the next few months, I will review the eight English language films that have been adapted from Philip K. Dick novels or short stories and discuss their original source material. A ninth may be added if I get the chance to see The Adjustment Bureau before the blogathon is complete. Here is the list:

• Blade Runner (1982) - 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?'
• Total Recall (1990) - 'We Can Remember It For You Wholesale'
• Screamers (1995) - 'Second Variety'
• Impostor (2001) - 'Impostor'
• Minority Report (2002) - 'The Minority Report'
• Paycheck (2003) - 'Paycheck'
• A Scanner Darkly (2006) - 'A Scanner Darkly'
• Next (2007) - 'The Golden Man'

The Saturday Screen Shot #5

Shot from the Screen: Blade Runner

Screenshot: Roy sits cross-legged on the rooftop opposite Deckard, holding a dove, in the pouring rain

Shot from the Scene: Roy could have let Deckard fall to his death but instead saves him. He gives a beautiful speech, "I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I've watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in the rain. Time to die." Roy then bows his head and dies. An unforgettable piece of cinema

Philip K. Dick movie adaptations

Philip K. Dick is one of my favourite sci-fi writers. The films that have been adapted from his novels and short stories have generated over $1 billion in world-wide box office and ancillary revenue. Most famous of all is probably Blade Runner (1982), adapted from "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?". Other films also based on his works include Total Recall (1990), Screamers (1995), Minority Report (2002), Paycheck (2003), A Scanner Darkly (2006) and Next (2007). I am really looking forward to seeing the upcoming The Adjustment Bureau starring Matt Damon, Emily Blunt and Terence Stamp. In the near future I am hoping to rent these films again so I can re-watch them, I might also re-read the stories at the same time and then write reviews incorporating how well I think they have been adapted. In the meantime I shall leave you with the trailer for The Adjustment Bureau...