On Bladerunner, Or: Chasing Down that Danged Unicorn













Bladerunner gets a lot of ink in cultural studies circles.
I think the key thing you have to remember about this "cyborg manifesto" is the concept of the fetish...............what does it mean to be cyborg/replicant?
A: it means to have made the world and everything in it a fetish object. see nietzsche and deleuze on "the overman".

E.G.
The clown/toy motif
chess
L.A. as B-movie set
The asian scientist that make only eyes
the kiss of harrison ford and rutger hauer
the origami, esp the unicorn
ford's/deckard's gun
the "snake woman"/replicant
theatrical performances from the replicants -- all their movements look like gymnastics competition
hauer's stigmata of the hand

in fact, the whole movie's fetishization of all the symbols contained within it leads logically to the fetishization of goth culture and bladerunner's consequent influence on goth/punk. Goth as B-movie?

the central moral dilemma of the movie -- the question of mortality (e.g. "four more years") becomes fetish in itself in the finale where hauer manically attempts to kill ford/deckerd, then poetically resigns himself to death.

i think you take bladerunner and watch it next to "city of the lost children".........they seem to read similarly.  ¶ 1/26/2008