Blade Runner: What Does It Mean To Be Human?

Blade Runner - the 1982 film by Ridley Scott -  presents us with many interesting philosophical questions.

  How do we know we are human?  What is a human?  What are our memories and can we trust them?  What is reality?  Can we allow the mistreatment of a minority group?  Should we create  artificial intelligence?  Can we/should we extend our natural life span?  What is the meaning of life?

The film brings these questions to light in a bleak LA of 2019, but reminds one of the overcrowded cities of China with its decay and endless garbage.  Based on Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep the film follows Deckard, a retired law enforcement officer who must track down replicants (human-like androids).  He meets and falls in love with another replicant named Rachael while visiting the Tyrell Corporation.  The renegade replicants are seeking information that will extend their short four year lifespans.  Deckard hunts down and eliminates the replicants except Roy who dies naturally while fighting Deckard.  Rachael and Deckard then run off together.

Since the replicants look and act exactly like humans, they can only be exposed by a variety of questions that seem to focus on empathy.  Apparently the replicants show less empathy than humans, although as depicted in the film this seems reversed in most of the human characters.  Even the violent Roy displays some compassion at the end of the film, while most of the humans are robotic and unfeeling.  The replicants even have memories implanted to make them as the Tyrell Corporation's motto states "more human than human".  With all the similarities between humans and replicants  how do we know we are human, and what exactly does this mean?  If our memories cannot be trusted, how can we trust anything?  The French philosopher Rene Descartes (1596-1650) investigated this same problem and came to the conclusion that everything can be doubted except the fact that he is thinking.  Since we are thinking - at least those reading this - do we exist?  Can we really trust our memories though?  What if they were programmed in like the replicants?  What if we hit our head and we lose them?  If memories cannot be trusted, can anything  ever truly be certain.  What are memories?  Electrical implants?  Don't memories change over time?  Doesn't everything?

The philosophical issues that this film highlights are deep and worth investigating.  As you will see there are many other films that touch on these same issues.

Class Discussion Questions

1)  What if there wasn't a test to expose the replicants - would that mean the replicants are human?

2)  Rachael and Deckard express love for each other despite the fact that they are replicants, since they show love how are they not human? 

3)  Replicants are so human-like that it seems wrong to use them as forced labor.  What would need to be different about the replicants to allow us to use them for forced labor?   

4)  Is there anything that you know that is an absolute certainty?  How so? Explain

5) How is Blade Runner a dystopia?  

6) What are the parallels between Blade Runner and Metropolis?

7) Describe the similarities with German Expressionism

Nosferatu & Horror

This week we will be studying the horror genre, one of my favorites.  Nosferatu by F.W. Murnau (1922), is a gothic masterpiece and set the standard for truly scary vampire films.  Watch this film and notice the gothic imagery and compare the vampire Count Orlok to modern vampires.

Check out this documentary on Horror Films:

One of the first 'horror' films - The Haunted Mansion by Georges Melies:

Edison's Frankenstein (1910)

The First Annual Zombie Run

Run fuun, Hungryy....BRAINS!!!!!!!!!

Do the Right Thing - Fight the Powers that Be

Spike Lee's film Do the Right Thing (1989) is once again at the forefront of the Film Institute.  I hope our

students who viewed the film found it enlightening.  I have always loved this film.  The film tells the story of one block in Brooklyn which becomes the locus for many of the major problems of the 1980's:   racial relations, equality, oppression, violence vs. nonviolence, and human nature - all encapsulated in a 24 hour period.  There are many interpretations of the film - its metaphors and symbolism.  An idea I like is the concept of voice - who is being heard in the film and our society?  What message is the film trying to put forth?  What is Mookie's solution?    How does our society limit or stifle certain messages?  How does the film reflect the issues that plague America, and seem to be unsolvable?

Racism is the major theme.  One definition I found seems useful according to Albert Memmi,  "the generalized and final assigning of values to real or imaginary differences, to the accuser's benefit, and at his victim's expense, in order to justify the former's own privilege or aggression".  Keep this in mind as you analyze the film.

Birth of a Nation Essay is Due Friday 10/18


Assignment for Wednesday 10/23:

1)  Does Mookie 'do the right thing' when he throws the trashcan through the window?
What does this mean?  Relate this defining moment to the rest of the film.  Lastly, what is the film's message about racial relations?

2)  How does this film "fight the powers that be.." regarding racism?  Relate to the opening sequence with Tina (Rosie Perez) - what other forms of oppression are being attacked?  

3)  Most of the time the hero in film (and other media) have defined goals and move toward them in a linear fashion.  Is this true of Mookie?  What is his goal if he has one?  If he doesn't have one - what does the film focus on?  


Here's Spike Lee talking about DTRT back in '09:

Here's Spike Lee's latest:

http://www.npr.org/2013/08/08/210218261/spike-lee-doing-the-right-thing-for-himself


Here's the Love/Hate original from Night of the Hunter:

Week of February 18th:

Finished viewing 127 Hours and King's Speech. Formal criticism due on either film by Wednesday 2/23. Preliminary (first draft) of movie posters were finished on Friday 2/18.

Next week - Coppola Unit:

The Godfather - my favorite film of all time! You'll see why...

Introduction, biography of Francis Ford Coppola, history of the Mafia, Puzo's novel, and begin viewing The Godfather. Finish work on decades project.

Waiting for Godot (Costal)

Interlude - Time for a bit of Kubrick


Week of February 11:

Monday 2/7: King's Speech background Information and preparation for the film. True Grit criticism due

Tuesday 2/8: Computer time for project

Wednesday 2/9: The Shining film

Thursday 2/10: Finish viewing The Shining, Complete questions & hand-in on Friday

Friday 2/11: Analysis of the film, Vivian Kubrick's documentary on making The Shining, and reading of reviews on same. Questions on film due, analysis questions due