"Blade Runner" is a Science Fiction film, originally released in 1982, with stylistic roots in the hard-boiled "film noir" classics of the 1940's.

The ex-blade runner is detained and taken through the drippy, noisy streets with honking horns. He is escorted to the vertically-opening, winged doors of the cockpit of a sleek, vertically-lifting 'Spinner' - a futuristic hover car.

After landing at Police Headquarters, Deckard is directed to ex-boss Inspector M. Bryant (M. Emmet Walsh) office for a briefing - a location he knows too well. Bryant is a bullish, balding, middle-aged man. A reluctant Deckard is called back to duty and told of his mission, to track down a group of murderous cyborg replicants, advanced NEXUS 6 androids. Replicants, according to Deckard's racist, no-nonsense ex-boss Bryant, are the 'niggers' or slave labour of the future that have no rights or value:

During the confrontation, Gaff makes one of his trademark origami paper folding - a chicken. Deckard is given "no choice" but to accept his assignment

In the opening, panoramic long shot, fire belches out of oil refinery towers and factory smokestacks in the industrial overgrowth. There are thousands of city lights flickering in the misty night air. Futuristic vehicles cruise through the darkened, polluted sky where the sun doesn't shine. It is evident that it is in fact a depressing world, shown by the secluded atmosphere, and the rain that forever falls. The blurred smoke on the ground also gives the same effect. To give it a futuristic, all most  alienated feel; orange lurid light is visible in the first shot of the ground below. To give a sense of technological superiority vehicles are seen flying in the sky, and umbrella’s have been give a ‘retro’ look. However this ‘superiority’ is soon dismissed when more images of living conditions are visualised. The layout of the city appears to be a jungle of buildings, and the traffic in the air gives perspective of the size of this vast metropolis. Barely visible in the distance are two huge buildings with spotlights shining out of their tops. They are flat-topped pyramidal buildings hundreds of floors high, much higher than any other run-down skyscrapers below them. A huge, disembodied eye stares unblinkingly at the city stretched before it, reflecting back the city and a fiery smokestack in its clear surface. LA in the future does not appear to be a utopia.

The music in this film has a striking effect. It gives energy and intense emotion to chase or love scenes. This may be because the music speaks louder than the acting. A good example of music at its best is in the scene where Deckard (Harrison Ford) and Rachel (Sean Young) are in a love scene. Here the music is of a slow jazzy quality, giving it more emotion, than that meets the eye. By contrast however it is also effective when Roy Batty (Rutgeur Hauer) is chasing Deckard through J.F Sebastions block of flats. Vangelis has produced a low, yet menacing sound, almost reflecting the republicant’s movement and logic. The music also encourages the feel of multi-cultural LA Evidence for this is at the beginning of the chase scene between Deckard and Zhora. As the female bursts out of the door leading to the outside world, a distinct sound of bagpipes, wind chimes and a piano can be heard. The bagpipes represent a Scottish influence, the wind chimes an oriental influence and the piano a universal influence. A good example of oriental influence is at the beginning. A Japanese, or Chinese, female is advertising a food product, on the side of a building. A few minutes later more evidence for this multicultural metropolis, are the Hari-Krishna monks.

Like the music, the editing to this typical film-noir classic and gives it that X-factor. The most effective piece of editing is the chase scene with Zhora. The camera moves quickly through the metropolis, following Deckard throughout the chase. It gives an energy, which would not be otherwise created, due to the nature of the sequence, and genre of the film. This enhances and intensifies actions, that word would not portray, in the way this does. It also mimics the movement of Zhora- when she flees, so does the camera, when she rests to gasp air, so does the camera, always watching her every move. This returns to the idea of the eye being an icon. An eye sees everything, like the camera in the chase scene.  

This death scene has been choreographed superbly, due to the surroundings, and the use of props. As Zhora, an engineered ‘human’, starts to escalate to her death one notices mannequins in a shop in the background. This is ironic, as she is like them, artificial, yet moves in a completely different fashion.

However one needs to comment on the superb acting. Critics have criticised Harrison Ford heavily on his performance as Deckard in this movie, and have insisted that Rutgeur Hauer was the key to its success.  However I have to disagree with them. I think that Ford played his character with skill, to make him appear as mortal as possible. Harrison Ford portrays Deckard in the fashion that the story line dictates, while adding a great deal of emotion to the seemingly unemotional character. Ford's Deckard appears to be the product of the society as he scours the city in search of replicants. Hauer's replicant is a strong force in the movie as he shows the machine and the human side of the replicants. The key to Hauer's character was to portray the replicant desperate for more life, but still cunning, manipulative, and dangerous; and Hauer achieved this very difficult combination. The actress portraying Rachel also showed the emotional fluctuations of Hauer, but she was not called upon to do any powerful acting. She did create the feeling of artificial life in the first scene and continued it while occasionally using sex appeal and fear. The other actors were mainly bit parts but did create the required scene and mood of the picture. In comparison to other science fiction movies, Blade Runner has strong acting and uses these actors to enhance the picture itself.

This sci-fi was a major success when it was first produced on video. Today it is still no of the most creditable films ever made and recently was placed in the top 10 films ever made. This, in my opinion, was down to the skills of Ridley Scott, Vangelis. However the actors too need to be credited in due consideration for this masterpiece, and the success it’s had over these past years.