I guess it is the moment when Deckard see the paper unicorn from his dream and realize he is a supervised replicant. Although he 'retired' lots of replicants without and any mistake, and saved by his antagonist Roy, he cannot save Rachael and himself. This is an inescapable fate when a replicant realize who he is.
All those moments will be lost in time...like tears in the rain.
I tried to think a little deeper about this monologue from Roy. This is not only Roy's last word, but also a message to Deckard. It seems everyone around Deckard knows that he is a replicant. Rachael knows it because she asked the questions whether Deckard had the test for himself. Leon knows it and he said 'more than you' when Deckard told him he's 4 year old. It's pathetic for Deckard to be the last one to know this and not even have a chance to struggle. He is just a instrument to 'retire' replicants. As a replicant, he is also have to be 'retired'. It's just a matter of time. His destiny is the same as the rest of the replicants. For replicants, his suffering is just another tear in the rain. It's hardly to be seen, and trivial to replicants.
Although Blade Runner is a science fiction, the philosophical problems are always in us. To me, this movie is another Holocaust in future. The only thing that the replicants are struggle is to survive. There is nothing wrong because this is a nature of all living being. Replicants in this movie sometimes are more human than human. In this movie, they are capable to reason, to work and even to love. In history, the colonization, the racial segregation and the Holocaust are basically the same. We isolate people just because they appear to be different, even they are intellectually and emotionally same as us. This is just a sin in us. I assume this is the reason why all replicants in this movie are kind of handsome and charming and humans are just ordinary.
A other question brought up to me in this movie is the humanity. When human beings are able to create artificial intelligence, the artificial intelligence could be made based on the best parts from us, no matter physically or mentally. They are capable to be even better than the best human being. If so, is that moral to decide the destiny of a being, who is even more moral than us? For example, Deckard is a responsible cop in this movie. Is that moral to manipulate him and make a good use of his loyalty? I'm sure most people won't manipulate and take advantage of the loyalty of their dogs. It's ridiculous to do that just because we are so arrogant and consider ourselves the only creature with intelligence and humanity and take advantage to others. This is another sin in us.
I believe you are absolutely correct with your observation of basically everyone knowing Deckard is a Replicant other than himself; but this doesn't seem to be just limited to the other Replicants, it can also be deduced from the terribly awkward demeanor presented by Bryant towards Deckard when he enlists him for the retiring of the remaining rouge 4. In the monologue Deckard refers to Bryant as a "racist cop" who refers to Replicants as "skinjobs" and this disposition is extended toward Deckard in a manner that is anything but warm and pleasant...
ReplyDeleteFuturistic Holocaust? Rounding up a "race" and systematically executing them because they are deemed a potential threat to the "superior race" - sounds pretty accurate to me! Humans have been oppressing those they fear many centuries, as they undoubtedly will for centuries to come; I think Ridley Scott was intending portray just that in his dystopian vision.
First off, I just want to say "kudos." I found a lot of your realizations very interesting and impressive.
ReplyDeleteParticularly, I like your view of Deckard as pathetic. Your evidence is very convincing and fairly obvious when you think about it, so I wonder if that's what they (Scott and the writers) were going for. It's almost difficult to root for him as a protagonist, especially when a character as fascinating as Roy Batty is available for our favor. I absolutely found myself sympathizing with and getting behind Roy. As Scott said in his commentary (if I'm not mistaken - I could be remembering someone else's point), Roy's motivation is much more commendable than Deckard's. The two characters really do foil each other. Roy is actively fighting his fate, and sticking it to the man. On the other hand, Deckard gives in to his superiors with very little persuasion. He claims that he doesn't work for them anymore, but all it takes is a little finger-shaking to get him back on the job. What a pushover... :)
Laura (filmbloghavey)
At the end of this movie, I see a tiny hope for replicants. If Deckard and Rachael escaped form the hunting (although very unlikely), I would like to expect the next episode of blade runner to be the revolution of replicants. And hopefully, both replicants and human beings will find their own identification and establish the peace with each other, just like what we see in Avatar.
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