Blade Runner and Genre: Film Noir and Science Fiction
1986; Salisbury University; Volume: 14; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
0090-4260
Autores Tópico(s)Digital Games and Media
ResumoBlade Runner makes an excellent example by which to study certain aspects of genre theory because it combines conventions of more than one genre - those of film noir and science fiction. Other recent films which do the same include Outland (western and science fiction). Pennies From Heaven (musical and film noir), Streets of Fire (film noir, musical and western), Gremlins (horror and comedy), and The Terminator (science fiction and film noir). For convenience sake, we label these films multigeneric, a term referring to the mixture of genres in a particular film that precludes a simple, single, or predominant generic classification. Genre functions through a set of codes that are recognized and understood by both the spectator and the filmmakers via a common cultural consensus or a collective cultural expression. The strongest mutually shared traits or codes - that is, the most easily identifiable - exist as both pretext (subject matter, content, and theme) and text (i.e. style - setting, decor, lighting, mise-en-scene, editing, and music). Genre also functions semantically (as an autonomous system of conventions), and by syntax (narrative systems). After conventions are recognized as belonging to a specific genre, certain expectations of narrative patterns, character, and ultimately specific meanings, arise. By extension, these meanings are often connected to deep-rooted human or societal fears and concerns. We realize the potential for any film to employ conventions of more than one genre, but these films are not necessarily what we would consider multi-generic because their various stylistic and narrative characteristics seem homogenized so that only one culturally recognized genre dominates. Multi-generic films, on the other hand, do not homogenize their various conventions, thus failing to emphasize one particular genre and perhaps causing problematic generic classification for the spectator. We will analyze Blade Runner as a multi-generic film, as a combination of film noir and science fiction. These individual genres will be highlighted, as will certain aspects of genre theory. Though this mixture of film noir and science fiction undoubtedly contributed to Blade Runner's critical dismissal, it provides a key for appreciating the complexity of the film. A brief synopsis of the film is necessary for later discussion. Blade Runner is set in Los Angeles in the year 2019. The city has become a dark, rain-drenched megalopolis, over-populated by a myriad of racial groups who speak a street jargon composed of a conglomeration of languages known as cityspeak. The story concerns a group of four replicants (androids) who escape from an off- world colony and return to Earth searching for the genetic genius, Tyrell, who designed them. The replicants, two females (Zhora and Pris) and two males (Roy and Leon), are seeking a way to extend their four-year life span. This limitation is an automatic fail-safe device that serves as protection against the replicants' increasing penchant for developing human emotions and desires. Replicants are forbidden on Earth because of their potential for becoming too human. When escapes to Earth do occur, a special unit of the police force is employed to hunt and destroy the renegade replicants. These officers, known as runners, use the Voight-Kampf test (VK test) to isolate replicants from the general populace since they are superficially indistinguishable from their human creators. The most experienced blade runner. Rick Deckard, is dispatched to retire (kill) the four escaped replicants. During an investigation at the Tyrell Corporation, he meets an experimental female replicant model named Rachael, who not only does not know she is a replicant, but has even been programmed with memories from a non-existent childhood. After discovering the truth, Rachael flees the corporation and begins a relationship with Deckard. Throughout the film, comparisons are drawn between Deckard's emotionless, bitter, and disillusioned existence and the replicants' desperate search for more life at whatever cost. …
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