(08-11-2012, 07:09 PM)LovinDaHaley Wrote:
So the Las Vegas "Blade Runner Extravaganza" took place earlier today and I loved the movie. We also had a great time talking about it afterwards. 
Is Deckard a replicant? My friend says yes, I say no. My friend might be right because like the rest of the movie, it's suggested but never explained; nevertheless, I still say no because too many plot holes arise if he is. For example, why would the police let a replicant run around? And the movie gives you the impression that certain people have known him for years, and considering he was retired from being a Blade Runner, I don't think they'd let him live.
I found the movie very fascinating. It has great special effects (especially considering when it was made), but it was the character drive and story that kept me interested.
As for some of the writing and directing I will say it’s a damn good thing Harrison Ford always has his charm to fall back on, like in "Star Wars" or "Raiders of the Lost Ark", because his role as “Deckard” could have easily turned boring had it been played by anyone else. Rutger Hauer has some great moments, such as his monologue near the end, but it's a pretty darn creepy scene. He has a few moments where I wasn't sure if he was overacting or if that's how the character was written. Sean Young has a few great moments and a few poor moments. And Daryl Hannah, they could not have cast “Pris” better, she made the movie for me as much as any other single factor.
The landscape and the score are awesome in every sense of the word, just one big futuristic film noir. But what really made this movie work for me was that everything is centered on the "now". Characters are simply trapped in the plot, like flies being caught in a spider web (someone please edit Haley’s song into this movie). They don't make a big issue of their reasons, they just are. Humanity’s worst flaw is how we degrade people from other places and cultures so we can kill them without remorse. I thought "Blade Runner" handled this issue really well because it's a theme that's not forced down your throat, and you see both sides of the story. The replicants are clearly human because they do the same thing 
4 Hearts 
I agree with you. Deckard has been hunting replicants for years (replicants don't live long), maybe it was easy for him in his youth, but I think he's been blocking out the knowledge that even though the replicants are 'built' they have feelings and feel pain and fear. The killing is getting harder for him and why he wants to quit. But he is the best the force has, so he keeps getting pulled back.
The 'new' replicants don't know they are replicants because they have implanted memories (Sean Young's character). This is new technology so wouldn't apply to Deckard if he turned out to be a replicant.
If I remember, (didn't rewatch last night) The replicants have limited life spans as a sort of 'control'....They, after all, are stronger and smarter than their human masters.
They 'over act' because as they age, they develop self awareness, and then comes the realisation that their time is near. I think they don't have the emotional maturity to handle such huge emotions such as fear and fear of death.
They see their human masters as cruel, to give them such a grand existence (see Hauer's monologue near the end) and such short life spans.
If you look back at my post that introduces "Blade Runner" I describe Hauer as "Tragic" because he is super intelligent and understands that he will soon die and is trying to desperately find a way to save himself and his replicant 'family'. He is not a killer, but he is pushed into doing 'terrible' things in a race against the clock. The fact that he saves Ford right before he dies, when he could have easily let Ford die (especially as he was losing control of his limbs), proves to Deckard that the replicants are capable of 'humanity' too, even in the face of their own demise. The symbolic letting go of the Dove (his time on earth) as he dies is moving...
That is why Deckard finally decides to escape and save Sean Young's character, because her 'life span' is undetermined and she really is an innocent just coming to the horrible realisation that she is a construct and her memories are not hers.... She is not who she thought she was. I don't think of her acting as 'Poor'. Her character is "FREAKING" out inside, battling with the knowledge of what she is. She tries desperately to prove to Deckard (and herself) that she isn't what she
knows she is. She, like the other replicants, aren't emotionally capable of dealing with such grave emotions.
Pris was really Darryl Hannah's coming out. Fantastic character. As a sex replicant, she's not given the intellect that Hauer's replicant has. She's a combination of sex/innocent/'insane'/ and deadly.
Yet the screeching at the end as she's grasping at the last vestiges of life before she dies is as tragic, these poor 'people', at this point, will do anything to gain just a bit more life.
There is a 'director's cut' that doesn't have their escape at the end, and includes Deckard having a dream of a unicorn...which, if I remember, some said was 'proof' that Deckard was a replicant. That his dreams weren't 'human'... I don't remember how it signifies this, and maybe what your friend was referring when he thought Deckard is a replicant . I saw the dream as signifying Deckard's conscience comparing Sean Young's character to a mythical wild beast (In some mythologies the Unicorn's lose it's magic if unwillingly captured ), so should be protected.
But if you look at the end, the Hispanic police man chasing Deckard, leaves a unicorn origami at Deckard's apartment (referring somehow to the unicorn dream), telling Deckard that he was letting him run away with Sean Young (he was there but didn't take her).
Great movie on so many levels...So glad you enjoyed it, even better it stimulated conversation afterward
