Ridley Scott's Blade Runner
In 1982 Ridley Scott’s movie “Blade Runner” was quietly released and received mixed reviews7. As time passed the movie’s fan base expanded and today, many consider it to be one of the greatest science fiction movies of all time. Numerous people consider it Harrison Ford’s greatest acting role, which, considering the competition consisting of Han Solo and Indiana Jones, is no small feat. Originally, critics missed or were confused by the philosophical questions the movie posed but as more people saw it, the movie’s brilliance was gradually realized. The questions Blade Runner posed about the future of computer intelligence were far ahead of their time. A major issue of the movie is that, if AI ever became human-like, would it be accepted as a work of genius or feared as a threat to humanity’s uniqueness.
Blade Runner is set in dark and depressing 2019 Los Angeles. America has evolved into a decaying, totalitarian police state. An interesting thing to note about the setting is the high degree of multi-culturalism visible6. There are as many Arabs and Japanese as Caucasians. The Japanese seem to be the dominant economic class, an allusion to the rapid expansion of Japanese industry and culture into western California in the 80’s. Along with decay and dilution of cultural identities, another constant in the movie’s background is the promise of ‘off-world’ colonies (colonies on new planets). Giant zeppelins float around the cityscape, advertising “A new life, a chance to begin again in a golden land of opportunity an adventure”5. The general idea of the setting is that the Japanese rule a decaying LA thus forcing people to flee in rapid numbers.
The main character is a retired ‘blade ...
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...tish Film Institute, 1997.
2. Bignell, Jonathon(editor) Writing and Cinema (article: Stephen Lacey -- Preserving Machines : Recentering the Decentered subject in Blade Runner and Johnny Mnemonic). New York City: Pearson Press, 1999
3. Kerman, Judith B. Retrofitting Blade runner: issues in Ridley Scott's Blade runner and Philip K. Dick's Do androids dream of electric sheep? Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, c1991.
4. Sammon, Paul M. Future noir: the making of Blade runner. New York City: HarperPrism, 1996.
5. Fancher, Hampton K et al. Blade Runner: Screenplay. Hollywood, California: Script City, 1990
6. http://scribble.com/uwi/br/off-world.html
7. http://www.tyrell-corporation.pp.se/
8. Hofstadter, Douglas R. Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid. New York, New York: Basic Books, 1979.
Blade Runner, which is directed by Ridley Scott and is based on Philip K. Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, is a Sci-fi Noir film about a policeman named Rick Deckard (played by Harrison Ford) in 2019 Los Angeles who was contracted to retire four genetically engineered replicants. The four fugitives, Pris (played by Daryl Hannah), Zhora (played by Joanna Cassidy), Leon (played by Brion James), where led by Roy Batty (played by Rutger Hauer) and have escaped from an off-world colony in order to find their creator and oblige him into expanding their pre-determined four year life span. A part of the success that this feature has received can be attributed to the film’s ability to operate on many different levels.
Film Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep This film is much more than just an acceptable homage to Philip K Dick, author of many original science fiction novels, often laced with philosophical perspectives on reality and human dependencies. The book, published in 1968, deals with the very postmodern theme of cultural fatigue in relation to our humanity, of the essential human quality of empathy, its limits and its contrasts. Human beings remaining on Earth are propped up by dependence on artificial pets and their feelings towards one another is contrasted to explore the ironic nature of how we place our emotions in order to survive. This is the device and purpose of the concept of androids: He had wondered as had most people at one time or another precisely why an android bounced helplessly about when confronted by an empathy-measuring test.
Context leading to being critically acclaimed now. Blade Runner was a box-office failure compared to Ridley Scott’s other films. Their messages transcended context-breaking boundaries of their time. Yet issues explored are still relevant and permanent today.
The plot of the movie “Blade Runner” becomes unrevealed till the end of the movie. Many assumptions about the plot and the final of the movie appear in the spectator’s mind, but not one of these assumptions lasts long. Numerous deceptions in the plot grip the interest of the audience and contribute for the continuing interest to the movie eighteen years after its creation. The main character in the movie is Deckard- the Blade Runner. He is called for a special mission after his retirement, to “air up” four replicants who have shown flaws and have killed people. There are many arguments and deceptions in the plot that reveal the possibility Deckard to be a replicant. Roy is the other leading character of the movie. He appears to be the leader of the replicants- the strongest and the smartest. Roy kills his creator Tyrell. The effect of his actions fulfils the expectation of the spectator for a ruthless machine.
The final scene of Blade Runner reveal religious and philosophical parallels and these are Milton's Paradise Lost and humanity itself. God is questioned, mocked and finally destroyed. The use of tightly framed shots, reaction shots, and mise en scene are used to highlite the allegoricall relationship to Christianity. Humanity itself is brought up for definition in this film, as the Replicants are in many ways more human than the " real humans" they are interacting with. The mise en scene suggests a vision of the future that is not only a sprawling, technological metropolis, but an empty soulless place.
Salvador, Damon. “Why College Athletes Should Not Be Paid?” 20 April 2013.Web. 18 May 2014.
After a brief introductory text crawl which explains the world in which the movie takes place, "Blade Runner" cuts to a dark, futuristic Los Angeles. There are some flying cars, but mostly we see dark, smog-filled skies and smokestacks belching fire. As the camera moves across this landscape, blue eyes are superimposed on the screen. These eyes first establish traditional humanity as a force in the film.
Johnson, Dennis A., and John Acquaviva. "Point/counterpoint: Paying College Athletes." The Sport Journal 15.1 (2012). Questia School. Web. 3 Dec. 2013.
"Paying College Athletes." Issues & Controversies. Facts on File News Services, 21 June 2010. Web. 10 Apr. 2014.
..."The Plot Holes and Paradoxes of the Back To The Future Trilogy." Den of Geek. Den of Geek, 24 Oct. 2010. Web. 18 Feb. 2014.
Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” is an early 19th century cautionary tale examining the dark, self-destructive side of human reality and human soul. It is written in the Romantic era where society greatly valued scientific and technological advancement. Throughout the novel, Shelley expresses her concerns of extreme danger when man transgresses science and all ethical values are disregarded. The implications of debatable experimentation and thriving ambition could evoke on humanity are explored in the novel. Likewise, “Blade Runner”, a sci-fi film directed by Ridley Scott in 1982 is a futuristic representation of Los Angeles in 2019. The film reflects its key widespread fears of its time, particularly the augmentation of globalization, commercialism and consumerism. The film depicts a post-apocalyptic hell where bureaucracy and scientific endeavoring predominate in an industrial world of artifice and endless urban squalor.
College athletes paid due to the miss education opportunities ,injuries, and being able to support their families with their income potential. College athletes are often considered to be some of the luckiest young students in the world. Most of the time they’re riding on full-fledged scholarships that cover all the costs of school plus, they are in a prime position to make a reputation for themselves in the sporting world and prepare for the big leagues. However, there are a lot of problems with how college athletes are treated, and many students, coaches, team owners and organizational members (such as those at NCAA, or the National College Athletic Association) are demanding reform.Athletes are producing revenues not only for the schools, which gives these students scholarships, but also for shoe companies, television networks, and the conference in which these
How do we know that we are human and, if we are human, what does it mean to be human? These two philosophical inquiries are explored in great depth in Ridley Scott's film "Blade Runner", and of course the text of Philip K. Dick's wonderful novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? on which the film is based. Most would agree that these themes exist in the novel, but a handful of critics and academics have some doubt as to their presence in the film. If one examines both the film and the text, one will realize that they both serve to support the same motifs, but do so in different fashions. Many critics argue that the awesome visuals overwhelm the contents of the plot and theme, but I argue that the visuals depicting Los Angeles in the year 2019 help to advance the themes. Viewers often miss the human side of the story or lack there of, and may object to the strong visuals for this reason. It can be argued that the visuals serve to portray a dehumanized world where only subtle signs of humanity's existence are dispersed throughout, where existentialist notions such as what being human is and what being human means are not easily answered.
When most people think of artificial intelligence they might think of a scene from I, Robot or from 2001: A Space Odyssey. They might think of robots that highly resemble humans start a revolution against humanity and suddenly, because of man’s creation, man is no longer the pinnacle of earth’s hierarchy of creatures. For this reason, it might scare people when I say that we already utilize artificial intelligence in every day society. While it might not be robots fighting to win their freedom to live, or a defense system that decides humanity is the greatest threat to the world, artificial intelligence already plays a big role in how business is conducted today.
Artificial Intelligence “is the ability of a human-made machine to emulate or simulate human methods for the deductive and inductive acquisition and application of knowledge and reason” (Bock, 182). The early years of artificial intelligence were seen through robots as they exemplified the advances and potential, while today AI has been integrated society through technology. The beginning of the thought of artificial intelligence happened concurrently with the rise of computers and the dotcom boom. For many, the utilization of computers in the world was the most advanced role they could ever see machines taking. However, life has drastically changed from the 1950s. This essay will explore the history of artificial intelligence, discuss the