Week 5: Blade Runner

This week's movie is "Blade Runner" (1982, 117mins). It starred Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, and Sean Young. Directed by Ridley Scott, screenplay by Hampton Fancher. It's a science fiction/cyberpunk/film noir detective story about a man whose job it is to "retire" androids, or "replicants". On this particular job, he has to find and retire four replicants who have returned to Earth to find their maker. 

The film was nominated for Best Set Decoration and Best Visual Effects for the 1983 Oscars. It won the prestigious Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation. "Blade Runner" is loosely based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, by Philip K. Dick.

Harrison Ford's prior roles included "Star Wars", "Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back", and "Raiders of the Lost Ark", among others.

Here's the Wikipedia page and the script.

Special vocabulary:

-Voight-Kampff machine - "A very advanced form of lie detector that measures contractions of the iris muscle . . .  The VK is used primarily by Blade Runners to determine if a suspect is truly human by measuring the degree of his empathic response through carefully worded questions and statements. —Description from the original 1982 Blade Runner press kit."

-replicant

Think about these questions while you watch the film:

1. How would you describe the world of "Blade Runner" to someone who had never seen the movie?

2. Images of eyes come up again and again in this film. What do you think is their significance?

3. Deckerd is himself a replicant. Agree or disagree.

4. What is the main theme of this movie?


HOMEWORK:

Finish working on Assignment #2 and get it to me by 5pm April 10th.

Optional: watch next week's movie, The Terminator (1984).

Note: The midterm is week 7, April 19th. It will cover all the movies we've watched so far in class. It will consist of multiple choice and short answer questions.