| Instructor: Dr. Jeff Webb |
Blade Runner
Read the following texts:
None. We will spend class time watching Blade Runner, the 1982 film
directed by Ridley Scott and starring Harrison Ford, a film famous for its apocalyptic
representations of the city of tomorrow.
Preparation:
Finish your paper.
Blade Runner is a two hour movie so please come to class on the hour,
prepared to turn in your paper and take notes on this remarkable film.
I've scheduled the film so that you can take a break from preparing for class
as you finish up your paper. But the film also serves a to introduce the topic
of the second unit of this module, the relationship between selves and the cities,
in particular the high density metropolitan environments that began appearing
as a result of the forces of industrialization in Europe and America during
the latter half of the 19th century. Blade Runner is clearly futuristic
but it speaks to issues dating from this earlier period. What effect does the
overwhelming environment of the city have on the people who live in it? In the
second unit we will investigate this question by considering a variety of other
texts by sociologists, novelists, economists, architects and cultural critics,
paying particular attention to the way these thinkers regard the relation between
selves and cities, and, in some cases, the relation between selves and environment
more generally. One handy way of expressing this issue comes from the title
to George Simmel's essay, "The Metropolis and Mental Life," which we will discuss
during our next class meeting: What effect do the conditions prevalent in the
metropolis have on the mental life of its inhabitants? Simmel's essay is one
of the classics of sociology, and, alongside Blade Runner, provides an
excellent introduction to the issues we will be considering throughout this
unit.
As you watch the film, pay attention, as always, to your own reactions--what
grabs you, or strikes you as significant?--and to the way the following elements
are represented:
- Hands
- Eyes
- Emotions
- Photographs
- Advertisements
- Kissing
- The urban environment (streets, buildings)
Finally, think about what the difference is--or whether there even is a difference--between
replicants and humans, as depicted in the film. There is another version of
Blade Runner, the
so-called "director's cut," which has a different ending that
puts this question in a new light. (Ridley Scott was apparently required by
the studio to alter his preferred ending.) If you are interested in writing
about Blade Runner, one thing you might consider is
the effect this other ending has on your interpretation of the film.
Further Reading (please contact
me if you find materials that should be added to this list):
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