Jack Batty PES English Dr. Strangeways
Victims Villains or heroes?
Compare the ways in which men are presented in Bladerunner and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
In Bladerunner and Cuckoos Nest Men can only Dubbed as victims, villains or heroes or a mixture of the three. Although all the male characters throughout the film and novel can be slotted into one or more of these attributes only the most significant characters for each of the attributes will be mentioned in detail. The ways in which the characters are presented not only comes through the character themselves but also through the use of literary techniques and in Bladerunner’s case, film techniques such as lighting sound and camera angles.
J.F. Sebastian and Billy Bibbit are the two main victims in the film and novel. J.F. like Billy is victimised by something that effect him physically, his disease where he ages to fast which in turn stops him from going to the off world making him stay on earth with the rest of society’s outcasts. Billy also shows these characteristics that Sebastian has as Billy is also excluded from society due to the physical fault that he has his stutter, this also effects Billy’s way with women and at Billy’s age being a virgin due to this just makes him even more of an outcast as it is an unlikely situation that you’d be a virgin at his age. Another way that these characters are victimised is through appearance, Billy looks younger than he really is, I turn excluding him from being normal and ironically Sebastian, as mentioned, ages quicker. From the novel and film it can be said that victims are prone to betray people as it seems to be the only that a victim can have is through betrayal. This is made obvious in Cuckoo’s Nest when Billy betrays McMurphy towards the end of the story, turning him in to Ratched. The other victim, Sebastian betrays Tyrell by letting Roy into Tyrrell’s building and in turn J.F. dies which is ironic as Billy also dies due to his betrayal.
