A Potpourri of Vestiges Review
By Murtaza Ali Khan
Featured in IMDb Critic Reviews
Few movies have revolutionized a genre like the Ridley Scott 1982 cult classic Blade Runner. Interestingly, it took Scott almost 25 years to finally come out with ‘The Final Cut’—the digitally re-mastered version of the film that’s truest to his artistic vision. For, Scott didn’t have complete editorial and artistic control over the earlier four versions of the film. Of all the versions of Blade Runner, it is ‘The Final Cut’ that’s the bleakest and most violent. It’s the only version to contain the original full-length version of the unicorn dream. It also features all of the additional violence and alternate edits from the international cut not present in the US theatrical version. All this information may sound trivial to an uninitiated viewer but often a new viewer of Blade Runner is not sure which version to watch and so if you want to acquaint yourself with Blade Runner then surely you need to get your hands on ‘The Final Cut’, especially now that its highly anticipated sequel Blade Runner 2049 is out, more than 35 years after the original.
But, before we explore various facets of Blade Runner 2049, it’s essential that we first discuss some basic aspects of the original for the benefit of those who have yet to watch the 1982 film. Blade Runner is basically a loose adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s 1968 Sci-Fi novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? As oppose to the novel which is set in post-apocalyptic San Francisco, the movie is set in dystopian Los Angeles in the year 2019. In this nightmarish world we encounter humanoid robots known as replicants that are bioengineered by the ruthless Tyrell Corporation, headed by a narcissistic scientist named Eldon Tyrell, to work on off-world colonies. However, these replicants are known to abandon their assigned workstations, often turning rogue. Special police officers assigned with the dangerous task of ‘retiring’ these replicants are called blade runners. Now, a blade runner cannot afford to mistakenly kill a human being and so has to rely on the Voigt-Kampff testto distinguish the replicant from a human being. Depending on the level of sophistication of a given model, it can take anywhere from 20-30 to 100 or more cross-referenced questions for a blade runner to identify a replicant. Rick Deckard (immortalized by Harrison Ford) is a burn-out blade runner who reluctantly accepts one last assignment to retire a fugitive group of Nexus-6 replicants that has escaped back to earth. During the mission, Deckard falls in love with a highly advanced replicant named Rachael who makes him question his mission. What it means to be human? Can an artificially created being capable of human emotions and feelings is any less human? These are the questions at the heart of Blade Runner. The dilemma is perhaps best expressed by the haunting monologue that the dying replicant Roy Batty delivers to Deckard moments after saving his life: “I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.”
Blade Runner ends with a suggestion that Deckard himself was a replicant. It is a question that has haunted the movie goers for over three decades. Till date it remains one of the most befuddling questions in movie history. It is also a question that has over the years elicited contrasting answers from Ridley Scott and Harrison Ford. While the latter has always believed Deckard to be a human being, the former has gone on record to proclaim that Deckard is a replicant. Ever since the sequel to Blade Runner was announced, the debate has once again come to the fore. During the course of this article we will try to touch upon various important questions revolving around the Blade Runner franchise including whether Deckard is a human or a replicant. But first let’s try and get a basic idea about the storyline of Blade Runner 2049. As the name suggests, the much-awaited sequel is set in 2049—about thirty years after the events depicted in the first film. Following a blackout in the year 2022, which saw the end of the Tyrell Corporation, Niander Wallace (menacingly portrayed by Jared Leto), after taking over what remained of the corporation, has introduced a new line of replicant slaves, which neither try to escape nor disobey their masters. Wallace is now the new Tyrell, a megalomaniacal genius who sees himself as a god; only he is far more cruel, manipulative, and anarchistic. Make sure you watch the three short films viz. ‘Black Out 2022’, ‘2036: Nexus Dawn’, and ‘2048: Nowhere to Run’ to get a better idea of what actually happened in between the timelines of two Blade Runner films.
Roy and Deckard battle it out in Blade Runner (1982) |
Ryan Gosling as K in Blade Runner 2049 |
K meets Sapper Morton in Blade Runner 2049 |
K with his holographic girlfriend Joi |
A man escorts a woman with her newborn as the combatants stop fighting, awed by the miracle, in Children of Men |
Wallace's replicant enforcer Luv meets Lt. Joshi in Blade Runner 2049 |
Use of neon signs and Hindi influence in Blade Runner 2049 |
Blade Runner 2049’s box office performance has thus far been quite underwhelming. One of the reasons of course is its slow pacing. For, in the age of superhero movies its wishful thinking to expect a movie like Blade Runner 2049, deliberately paced with a running time of 164 minutes, to strike the right chords with the restless audiences accustomed to watching mini-climaxes every ten minutes. Another reason has to do with the movie's complex and ambiguous narrative that can be too demanding on the average viewer. The movie hits us with too much of food for thought that it gets a bit too much to handle, at least during the first viewing. Also let’s not forget that Blade Runner 2049 relies heavily on the original film and so all those who approach the sequel directly without watching the original are bound to be left perplexed by its multilayered plot and characters. Remember, Blade Runner 2049 is no Jurassic Park or Avengers! And it is way more convoluted than some of the best films made by leading Hollywood filmmakers in recent times, including Christopher Nolan. In fact, it wouldn't be a hyperbole to say that Blade Runner 2049 has gone closer to the realms of high art than any other commercial film in recent times.
Coming to the question of Deckard's identity, all that can be said is that Villeneuve does play with it during a late sequence wherein Wallace tries to tempt an aging Deckard, who befittingly appears to be as big an enigma for the evil genius as he has been for the gazillion Blade Runner fans over the last three decades. In other words, the movie doesn’t provide any definitive answer to cinema’s most enduring mystery. In Blade Runner 2049, Harrison Ford plays Deckard with the same mix of charm and vulnerability. In a memorable sequence wherein Deckard repeatedly punches K, Ford demonstrates the same desperation that he had shown when Deckard battled Roy in the original. Interestingly, while shooting one of Ford's punches did catch Gosling off guard and some ice had to be applied to mitigate the pain. The scene takes place inside a deserted performance theatre and has all the makings of an instant classic. If not for what Villeneuve, Ford, Gosling, and Roger Deakins achieve together in the sequence then certainly because of the love of Elvis Presley whose haunting presence elevates it to another level altogether.
Deckard encounters K in Blade Runner 2049 |
Jared Leto as Niander Wallace in Blade Runner 2049 |
A Still from Blade Runner 2049 that provides a glimpse of Roger Deakins' mastery over his art |
Rating: 9/10
A version of this article was first published in Cafe Dissensus Everyday.
Readers, please feel free to share your opinion by leaving your comments. As always your valuable thoughts are highly appreciated!
Readers, please feel free to share your opinion by leaving your comments. As always your valuable thoughts are highly appreciated!
Blade Runner 2049 - International Trailer (YouTube)
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