Ok, maybe it’s not a Christmas movie but it does have an elf in it (Sebastian) and a Santa Claus of sorts (Tyrell) and an angel (Pris). It also has a bad boy, Roy, who all he wants for Christmas is ‘more life f#ø*!r’. Ok bad word but he gets his point across. He’s having a conversation with Tyrell, his maker (Roy is a replicant - not ‘human’). “More human than human is our motto” Tyrell informs Roy who has come back to Earth from the off world colonies were he has been doing the dangerous and difficult work that he was designed for.
I’ve watched this movie about 20 times. It took me the first 10 viewings to figure out what was really happening. Various levels reveal themselves over time. I’m talking about the original from 1982 not the sequel, the original with Harrison Ford and Rutger Hauer and Daryl Hannah, et al with soundtrack by Vangelis which you are listening to now if you are on the podcast.
This is a violent movie, no doubt about that, but it’s also a love story. It also has this amazing magical transformational thing going on where somehow the replicants become, infact, more human than the humans who are basically portrayed as scum in a dystopian world of their own making. It’s compelling as hell.
It’s Los Angeles in the future and it’s raining all the time, foggy and smoky and over run with scummy humans surviving in the urban environment amidst flying cars and advertisements for off world opportunity. “A new life awaits you on the off world colonies” blare the floating neon billboards, “the chance to begin again in a golden land of opportunity and adventure”. No doubt. Just ask Roy. “I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe” he says, “Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched c-beams glitter in the darkness at Tanhauser Gate”. I don’t know what c-beams are but probably had something to do with why the ships were on fire.
I like this movie for many reasons. Among them are the philosophical questions that it poses, ‘what is human?’ For the past seven years I’ve been writing a book addressing that very issue. It seems to be an open question and judging by the amount of violence that the humans perpetrate in this world there is considerable confusion about what it means to be human. How weird.
Ducks are not confused about being ducks. Cats have no problem being cats. Cows seem content being cows but human beings are all strung out about being human. I don’t know what to say.
Well actually I do. Self reflection, that uniquely human quality, needs to be promoted and admired in our societies so we can explore and discover this hidden identity of ours. “Know thyself”, right? Good ole Socrates from the BC days. Of course they executed him for corrupting the youth with controversial questions. Status quo rarely supports independent thinking. Oh yeah, it seems to but not really. Independent thinking is good as long as it’s innovating some new product or process to serve the economic interests of the status quo.
Blade Runner bombed when it first came out but then became a cult hit and people started watching it 20 times on DVD (like me). I watched it again last night and again new levels of meaning appeared. Each scene is framed, lit and composed with such care. It’s a masterpiece of filmmaking. Almost every Sci-Fi film since has copied it in some way. In fact it has been selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". How about that?
But instead of explicating the movie I’ll just say that there is adventure in the off world colonies and a chance to start over. That there’s an incredible love story and a magical transformation but it’s in the inner world of ourselves not the outer world. Fortunately. We don’t have to take a space ship to get there, we already are there. Sorry Elon.
So, Merry Christmas. The ancient pagan celebration of sun return, the shortest day, appropriated by Christianity (and every other religion) to mark the turning of the year. Summer is coming and the warmth of the sun. New growth and fecundity are promised. Gifts of the magi in abundance. The magi were wise men, magicians, wizards if you like - imagine what gifts they bear. Imagine if we could bear them. Imagine if we could accept the gift of being human. That would be a heck of a movie.
“All those moments will be lost” says Roy in the final scene as he ponders his mortality “like tears in the rain”. Indeed. He realizes what humans rarely manage to know - that life is precious and one day it will disappear. Poof. Gone. Another magical transformation.
music :: Vangelis - Blade Runner Soundtrack
Blade Runner and what is human?