Over the past few nights I’ve taken some time to watch Blade Runner – The Final Cut while Vero worked on her competition for her job. This was an opportune time to watch it as she has a fear of robots.
I just looked up what the medical term for ‘fear of robots’ would be and suprisingly, I cannot find any! There are phobias for spiders, frogs, dead things, long words, robbers (close!), but no robots! That’s interesting. The closest thing I could find is that in Isaac Asimov’s books, he refers to the phobia as the ‘Frankenstein complex’.
Anyhow, I haven’t seen Blade Runner in YEARS. I must have rented it from Video Station because they had a great science fiction section. I remember renting Dune there and wondering what the heck that film was about. It wasn’t until years later when I read the book that I got really interested in the series (but have yet to see the film again. I remember it was quite random.).
If you don’t know about Blade Runner, it takes place in 2019 where there are robots who look like humans doing some hard work on different planets. However, the new-age robots are becoming smart as humans (as in they are conscious of themselves as robots) and sometimes escape back to Planet Earth to escape the horrors of the other planets. Because of this, there needs to be a force to go hunt down these robots and ‘retire’ them. These guys are called Blade Runners and Harrison Ford plays one who is called back into action when six robots (actually called Replicants in the film) escape and hit Planet Earth for a grand old time.
This film was really interesting to watch again as I had forgotten about the specifics of the film. I had forgotten how noir the film was (or as I’ve read in a few reviews…neo-noir). It’s interesting to see the film’s version of the future…advertising everywhere, overpopulation, robots doing man’s work. It’s a simple tale but has a lot to offer in thinking about the future of robots (these themes play out in a lot of science fiction films/novels that I’ve read over the years).
I can’t really comment on the ‘Final Cut’ of the film as I don’t remember the original film that I watched so I don’t know what was edited/changed from the older versions. At least it’s the definitive cut of the film as there were about seven of them beforehand through various releases. Imagine being a director of a film and you aren’t even allowed to have a say of what version of your film is released to the mass market!
If you haven’t watched Blade Runner before, it is a must for science fiction fans. Go nab it right now at HMV for $8 like I did.
iplaying: Ohio – Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young (So Far)