3/2/08

In the movie we watched last week, Blade Runner, the futuristic idea of replicants is introduced and brings into question the humanity of the characters. One of the main themes is determining who is human and who is a replicant. The blade runners are basically bounty hunters whose jobs are to kill replicants that have escaped to the earth. They must decide the humanity of a person in order to determine if they need to act. To do this they use the Voight-Kampff test. Harrison Ford’s character, Deckard, uses this test on Rachel, a Nexus 6 model replicant. After 100 questions, he determines she is not human even though she does not know she isn’t. We never find out if Deckard is human or not. If he is, shouldn't he be being hunted? He never takes the test. In the beginning, I automatically assumed that he was human, but in the end his humanity is not distinguishable. He also questions if the replicants are really evil or not. The replicants have a safety net of only living four years so they don't become too human. But why create them if you are going to kill them in four years? The whole idea of giving memories to the nexus 6 models questions what is life. What does it mean to be living? Personally, I found this movie to have no real interesting plot that made a noticeable movement throughout the story. I thought it was very boring. Obviously, there is a lot of significance to the themes in the movie, but the movie did not capture my attention or interest. I heard that this movie is really popular, but failed at the box office when it first came out. I understand that last part but not why it is such a favorite.