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Sunday, April 22, 2012

Do Andriods Dream Of Blade Runners

The Film Blade Runner I would have to Say is a loose adaptation of the book Do Androids Dream Of electric sheep. Many of the Elements that drive the book have been dropped such as Mercerism, Deckard's wife, Deckards desire for a real pet, WWT and its worldly impact, and the motivations of the android in a human society. Although both are studies of the human condition, in the book Deckard struggles with identity, relationship trouble, and mortality. In the book it is the 6 escaped  Replicants that struggle with humanity, mortality, and identity by doing things to make them unique and more human such as taking trades, altering appearances, and having real empathy for one another. the film its self is more of a commentary to the book. seeing as the book was written in a different time period the discourse of the author and the audience are much different ( fear of nuclear war and aftermath of the 60's) versus in the 80's when the film was made, globalism and capitalism were rampant in modern society, and the film echoes the pitfall of corporate expansion and wild capitalism. I think Ridley Scott and Hampton Fletcher did an excellent job adapting the story and making it their own. by keeping the religious aspects of the book out they possibly reached a wider audience by not alienating those that have strong faith based belief systems. They also pushed the story towards a more gritty detective story than one that explores the human condition in depth. The themes of the book may seem captivating but I  can see how it could bore a film audience, and would need much more time than two hours to go into all of its complexities. My thesis comparison would be a Complete play on the themes of the film, the book, and humanity its self. my thesis would be:

"If androids are simply products what does that tell us about who we are and how we view "things" we once value? If androids have dreams do they also have desires? Souls? The human condition present in both the film and the book of this story may varies from source to source, but tells more about the view of the audience then that of the authors of the original and the adaptation. A novel that is driven by empathy and a film driven by mortality, and yet the story in the novel ask the audience to empathize with androids yet it is android that experience sadness and fear and human that need mechanical assistance to simply feel. And the film is driven by mortality, in a society that people define their lives by what they have new and not who they are, how is it that the humans in these stories are correct in their action by simply creating to avoid living, working and denying themselves living and hardship.

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