Blade Runner and Frankenstein
Blade Runner
Ridley Scott’s film Blade Runner was released in 1982, post World War II, Post Cold War and the holocaust, a period of rapid development in science and communication technology, and commercialism. It coincided with the phenomena of economic rationalism and globalisation (often seen as American corporate imperialism), the rise of Asian involvement with Western nations and increasing concerns about the environment.
Blade Runner is a Ridley Scott adaptation of the Phillip K. Dick novel ‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?’
As a dystopia (dark future) it uses the glazed cinematic techniques of film noir that tends to distance us from the characters and actions.
In literature – a rejection of the forms and conventions developed in the first half of the 20th century. A feeling that life is meaningless and often cruel, and that those things that were previously thought to be solid and certain are now revealed to be ambiguous and changeable. In terms of society, the phrase Post-Modernism also refers to late capitalism in the 20th century, characterized by fragmentation and dominance of commercial values and of technology over human actions and values. This can be compared to Tyrell (creator) and his desire “more human than human”.
Blade Runner has a strong environmental focus. It was only after the publication of Rachel Carson’s (An American writer and scientist) ‘Silent Spring’, (1961) that people began to recognise the potential of human disaster through the vandalism perpetrated by improved technology. Rather than resilient, nature was fragile and vulnerable when fundamental natural rhythms were ceaselessly destroyed by ruthless exploitation by ever increasing mammoth technology. If ecosystems are repeatedly defeated, human life will be diminished and likely extinguished. The bleak vision portrayed illustrates a chaotic nuclear holocaust, ecological fragility through soil depletion and acid rain. In Blade Runner man has not only subdued the
Ridley Scott’s film Blade Runner was released in 1982, post World War II, Post Cold War and the holocaust, a period of rapid development in science and communication technology, and commercialism. It coincided with the phenomena of economic rationalism and globalisation (often seen as American corporate imperialism), the rise of Asian involvement with Western nations and increasing concerns about the environment.
Blade Runner is a Ridley Scott adaptation of the Phillip K. Dick novel ‘Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?’
As a dystopia (dark future) it uses the glazed cinematic techniques of film noir that tends to distance us from the characters and actions.
In literature – a rejection of the forms and conventions developed in the first half of the 20th century. A feeling that life is meaningless and often cruel, and that those things that were previously thought to be solid and certain are now revealed to be ambiguous and changeable. In terms of society, the phrase Post-Modernism also refers to late capitalism in the 20th century, characterized by fragmentation and dominance of commercial values and of technology over human actions and values. This can be compared to Tyrell (creator) and his desire “more human than human”.
Blade Runner has a strong environmental focus. It was only after the publication of Rachel Carson’s (An American writer and scientist) ‘Silent Spring’, (1961) that people began to recognise the potential of human disaster through the vandalism perpetrated by improved technology. Rather than resilient, nature was fragile and vulnerable when fundamental natural rhythms were ceaselessly destroyed by ruthless exploitation by ever increasing mammoth technology. If ecosystems are repeatedly defeated, human life will be diminished and likely extinguished. The bleak vision portrayed illustrates a chaotic nuclear holocaust, ecological fragility through soil depletion and acid rain. In Blade Runner man has not only subdued the