Revisiting Ridley Scott’s masterpiece that is Blade Runner (final cut version), is like looking at yourself in the mirror for two hours straight. You begin to formulate questions of your own humanity while simultaneously discovering new aspects of your appearance that had since been unrecognized. As complex and unique as the features of the human face actually are, upon the surface level they can go unnoticed and under appreciated. Similarly when watching Blade Runner audiences can very easily see it’s aesthetics simply upon the facade effect it has and not fully appreciate the set design of the film. Audience members like myself, who are millennials, might have a hard time really appreciating the set design because we have seen it before in films like Star Wars (second trilogy), The Matrix, and Dredd. Although it is Blade Runner that created a new wave genre called cyberpunk that would later influence such films.
Being a prior art director himself Ridley Scott put as much money, work, and time into the art design than producers would usually allow. The attention to detail from Scott and his team pays off. Fictional worlds in film are made believable by their set, costumes, and props. And although the film’s time period of 2019 is almost two years away and there are no signs of flying cars or replicants in our near future, every time I watch Blade Runner the world it has created becomes more real.
Syd Mead who is credited as the “visual futurist” sees the world of the future to be a place that wears the guts of it’s technology externally. Many of the buildings on set are split open and put on display, as wires and generators scale their outer walls. This idea of inverting a buildings structure is what defines the cyberpunk genre. Cyberpunk is described by being in a futuristic world where society is high tech but low life. Although the set design of the city appears “high tech” with all its flashing neon lights and big screens, it also appears to be “low life” because all of the inner workings of the tech are exposed and naked to the eye.
Along with discovering something new about the intric, layered, stimulating set design with each watch you can also discover something new about your own humanity. Protagonist Rick Deckard, played by Harrison Ford, is a Blade Runner which means it is his job to hunt and kill replicants (or androids). Distinguishing who is human and who is not in the film becomes rather difficult and may cause you to do some self reflection. What does it mean to be human? Although this question is not exactly answered in the film it is one that Scott poses. The film is ambiguous in the fact that it doesn't really answer any of the many questions it imposes on viewers. But, with that being said if you look close enough it does show you the answers rather than tell you.
This is why it is crucial to watch the final cut of this film not the theatrical release. In the original release Harrison Ford's voice over plays throughout the film causing audiences to be told what is happening rather than see what is actually happening. Watch this film but when you do, you must really watch it, let the world of Blade Runner consume you. This true start of a cyberpunk movement will relinquish your insides and put them on display.
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