We see the Doppler shift of the spinners as they pass by the camera at a high speed. Spinners have a diegetic function, as they show that you are worlds away from your current point. The opening scene of the film is very spectacular and at the same time quite depressing. It evokes a landscape full of oil refineries, very dark, and punctuated, by a density of light sources, it reminds us of ‘’the heavens’’ but this is not merely a heaven but definitely a hell.
By Todorov’s conventions films begin with equilibrium. This equilibrium is then disrupted and by the end of the film order is restored. This film undermines Todorov’s idea of a conventional start to all narratives by beginning with a world that is already disrupted. When we begin with this we do not want this state of the world reconstituted. We feel that we want a disruption we desire an intervention, to this world a reversal to what really happens.
Right at the beginning the film is subversive. These opening scenes are interrupted with extreme close ups of what looks like a disturbed eye. We see in the pupil the reflected image of this distopic environment; eyes are usually associated with ‘’windows to the soul’’ but quite the opposite in this scene.
When we see the eye with the reflection, we ask questions on the nature of the subjectivities, constituted in such a world as being disturbed. We get the idea that this eye is a generalised eye it represents the people living on this planet. We get the idea that they have adapted to the brutality of this world, as we see no surprise in this eye looking over Los Angeles.
Another theorist Claude Levi Strauss has also dealt with the structural principles underpinning our understanding of the world. Our understanding of the world is based upon binary opposition; we understand goodness only in relation to evil, humanity in relation to inhumanity etc. In narrative the goodness is related to the protagonist, evil is associated with the villain. The major conflict in the text is mutually between these two opposites. Blade runner indicated the following binary oppositions: Human- inhuman, organic-inorganic, reality-illusion, Death-life. For the replicants their humanity is an illusion. Death is the final state of the replicants and life is with Deckard. In narrative the positive side of opposition is associated with good and vice versa. In Blade Runner this association is ambiguous. We are made to consider in greater depth about the nature of humanity, ‘’in what does it consist’’
In so many narratives the villain is presented as the doppelganger. In Blade runner both seem to be presented in a doppelganger of Deckard. There are a number of ways this association is made. The Ontological status of Deckard is indeterminate because he may be a replicant; there are many small details in the film to suggest this. He has little memory of his child hood and his dream about the unicorn. There is also some evidence of this in the textual analysis. He sympathises with the replicants, he doesn’t want to let Rachel know she is a replicant, his reluctance to kill replicants play a part in this. But in the end he is blackmailed into it. He is asked ‘’are you for real’’ which in the context of the film is questioning his humanity is he or isn’t he. What the film is trying to say is your life is constituted of the memories that you have, and the meaning you have in life is based upon those memories. Gaff also leaves an origami figure of a unicorn. Gaff’s role in the film is to commentate on what is going on.
Psychoanalysis deals with the principles of projection. In many narratives the villain is presented as a doppelganger of the hero. In our case it is Batty is the doppelganger of Deckard in many ways. Firstly in the final scene both their hands (Batty and Deckard) are incapacitated. The ontological status of Deckard is indistinct because he may be a replicants. There are also a number of clues in the text. Firstly he feels sympathy for Rachel because she does not know of he replicants nature. Deckard sympathising with her puts his own ‘form’ in doubt. Moreover after Roy batty dies, Gaff comes on to the scene and says to Deckard that ‘’you’ve done a mans ‘ job’. Another clue is the photo he has of his ‘’parents’’. It seems to be a very old picture putting its authenticity into doubt. It could be associated with any other replicants Rachel maybe or Leon who touchingly goes back for his photo. In fact these aren’t the parents of these replicants the Tyrell Corporation has used this photo of Tyrell’s niece and mother to plant memories into other ‘humans’.
What the film is trying to say is that your life is constituted of the memories you have, the whole meaning of your life is based upon these. In the directors cut we have a unicorn sequence. And Gaff leaves behind him an origami figure of a unicorn, suggesting an implanted memory. Gaff plays a commentative part in the film. He plays his role through Origami figures, which he leaves in strategic positions to tell the story. There are three figures; a chicken, a man with an erection and a unicorn. The chicken is left first suggesting Deckard’s cowardness, when he refuses to take the job. An aroused man could show his acceptance of the job showing his machismo, and finally the unicorn, which has the suggestion that Gaff has access to Deckard’s memory, the same way Deckard had access to Rachel’s memory once again this implies the replicants nature.
It would be good for the developments of the themes of the films that Deckard was not a replicant. The contrast between the replicant warrior Roy Batty full of life, as Tyrell said ‘’the light that burns twice as bright burns half as long’’ with the estranged human of flesh and blood. The unicorn sequence can be looked at from a different way. The unicorn is a mythical beast that can be tamed by a virgin, this dream came when he was falling in love with Rachel. At the End Gaff could be saying that Deckard now has a meaning in life through is love and commitment for Rachel. ‘’blow the Gaff’’ means to reveal secrets about the world, as gaff does about the characters. At the end Deckard picks up the unicorn and Gaff’s words come back to him, ‘’too bad she wont live, but then again who does’’, he acknowledges these words as we see him nod. He accepts these words with commitment, he knows that in the end we all have to die so the little time we have should be spent well.
What the film is saying is to be human you must be able to empathise with others, who are different in the case the replicants. Deckard’s humanisation, occurs in the final scenes with batty, ‘’now you know to live in fear’’. Deckard goes into the lift there is a small fade out then another boom the words ‘a Ridley Scott production’.