Author Topic: Blade Runner - My favorite scene  (Read 11435 times)

DarkCrystal

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Blade Runner - My favorite scene
« on: October 24, 2010, 10:24:33 PM »
Some analysis of my favorite scene from Blade Runner - I've chosen the sexual scene between Deckard and Rachel at his apartment in the middle of the movie to write about.  This scene, one of many beautiful ones in the movie, serves as a fine example of why Blade Runner is rightly hailed as a masterpiece by Ridley Scott.  It's a gorgeously layered, philosophical, and textured scene, and serves as a mini-climax of subtle buildup that's occurred throughout the first half of the movie.  In a film largely centering around the idea of "What defines our humanity?" the scene is a rich and unique way to visually tackle this question.  

Why do I love this scene?  It's in the details of objects in the room + the dress of the characters, and how both of these things symbolically mirror what's going on in the script with Rachel at this point in the movie: her coming to grips with the fact that she is, in fact, an Android.  





Previously in the movie, Ridley Scott shows the viewer a piano, and various stacks of sheet music on the music stand.  Following Chekov's famous "If there is a gun on the wall, it has to go off," quote, we know that the piano/music will be used later in the movie.  During this scene, the music finally comes into play.  It should also be mentioned that there is a second set up of music, a constant throughout this movie: the soundtrack used almost always has some sort of synthesized layer to the score, or a sort of 80's, electronica vibe, a clever subtle way of bringing in a kind of "robotic", or in-organic, feel to the music in the background.  As music is almost always thought of as a form of art that is incredibly emotionally expressive, this soundtrack highlights without any use of dialogue the recurring theme of questioning whether a robot/android's emotions make them genuinely human or not.    





For the purpose of analyzing my take on this scene, I am going to equate a large part of "being human" with the idea of being able to feel wild passion, inspiration, deep emotion, and a sort of spiritual or intangible quality that makes us what we are.  If this is true, then symbols or metaphors showing the opposite will equate to a form of inhumanity: perfect order, stoic-ness, quantified results, calculated appearances, things that are neat, ordered, and easily defined.  Following this idea, we have Rachel, who throughout the movie is meticulously dressed.  Her hair is always up in a bun, her dress (shoulder pads and all) neatly designed to make her look clean, sleek, and proper.  Her make up is also carefully layered in a way that gives her a ghastly, near-inhuman, or "too perfect" quality.  She walks neat and ordered.  She speaks with perfect enunciation, carefully, without error.  She is the classic femme fatale, cool, analytical, and emotionless.  In all respects, Rachel is physically presented as having lost all human characteristics...wild, primal emotion is no where to be found in how she dresses and carries herself.





Aside from Rachel's demeanor and style of dress, we can also see the same images reflected in how music is portrayed in this scene.  Where for us, the passion of music often conjures up images of sweat drenched, electric guitar solos ripping out to a roaring crowd on a stage, or the soft, sweet beauty of the romantic classical pieces from centuries ago being able to move even the hardest of men...yet for Rachel, music is represented in a far more passionless way: through calculated, quantifiable, tangible clusters of clearly defines notes scored on her sheet music.  Ridley Scott has even gone so far as to choose sheet music that has a very neat and ordered look to how the notes are arrayed on the pages themselves: notes are shown in neat arpeggios moving up and down the staff, there is a clear order, rhyme and reason to them visually, and it appears simply as something easily to translatable to an instrument, as opposed to something emotive that comes from the heart.  Scott also chooses to show a close up that slowly pans over the sheet music, underscoring the fact that this image is important for the viewer as a visual metaphor.  Furthering this motif, when Rachel sits down in this scene to play this music, the performance mirrors her physical appearance.  It is played "perfectly"...smooth, cool, calculated...her body is stiff, rigid and overly-composed.  While it is a pretty piece that sounds nice to our ears, there is a clear lack of emotional content when she plays it, and it sounds like she is simply going through the motions, replicating note for note what is on the sheet music.  There is nothing of Rachel in this music.  She is not capable of putting her emotions into the music.  

The duality here is that although how she plays is mechanical, in Rachel's face we are able to see an unmistakable longing.  





Longing for what?  This question is answered from a set up earlier in the scene, when she first sits down at the piano bench.  Before playing, she picks up one of Deckard's pictures sitting on the piano.  When Rachel looks at the picture, the viewer is reminded that in the Blade Runner universe, Android's are programmed with a back story of memories from childhood.  Android's have images in their minds of these events, and yet they are not real.  Some are in possession of photographs of the events as well, and yet these too are false images, events that never actually occurred in the reality of the Androids.  





We can infer that as Rachel looks at Deckard's pictures, she is contemplating the validity of her own memories and her own photographs...questioning her own being.  Bringing us back to the piano scene, when she plays the instrument, we can further infer that her look of sad longing stems from the fact that she so desperately craves to be to be genuine, to be human, that she is playing what should be an emotional piece as if to convince herself her emotions and aspects of humanity are real.  It is a truly heartbreaking moment for us as a viewer.  As we watch her face while she plays, we, too, want her to be real.  And yet between hearing her try just a little too hard, and her playing coming across as just slightly mechanic...the moment rings false, even though we don't want it to...an incredible mix of melancholy and ambiguity.  

However, the musical piece winds up acting as a catalyst for what is to come next: a transformation where Rachel's emotionless, "Robotic" qualities are disrobed (literally and figuratively), allowing her more human emotions to surface and blossom.  





While she sits down to play piano, she removes her outer jacket-garment, which is itself a very stiff, formal, professionally looking outfit...symbolically Scott is showing us that Rachel is removing her icy exterior, and is ready to let some of her inner warmth show.  As she plays, she notices her music has awakened Deckard.  We see a sort of shift occur in her...perhaps she has a moment of self awareness, where she realize how mechanical her playing is, and is embarrassed by it, as she is coming to the realization she is not herself fully human...or perhaps she is intrigued by Deckard's masculinity, and wants to attract him to come closer.  Rachel stops her playing and caresses her hair, slowly untying her carefully kept bun, letting her hair spill over her shoulders.  It is the first time in the movie that we have seen her look imperfect, and allowing a certain chaotic (and attractive!) look to settle in her physical appearance.  





Deckard enters the frame and sits next to her on the piano bench, clearly mesmerized by this new, more human look to Rachel.  They share a look; she retains some of her robotic nature, as she looks at him impassively, and yet at the same time shows a very human trait of scared, awkward insecurity, not quite knowing what to do next.  








Deckard, in classic Harrison Ford intensity-of-the-eyes fashion, is starting to be consumed with a curious, raw passion for this woman, and moves in to kiss her neck (which can arguably be described as one of the most erotic, sensual place to kiss someone...a further attempt at sliding Rachel's robotic traits away to reveal her humanity).  





We see Rachel kind of enjoy this, but she also seems aware that she may not be enjoying this moment fully, powerfully, the way a human would, that her own carbon copy emotions are not fully genuine.  Or maybe she's simply frightened of the emotions Deckard is bringing out in her.  Seemingly scared by this realization, she hurriedly moves away from the piano to leave the apartment.  This is also ambiguously mixed with a coy, femme fetale nature common to the film noir genre...she's playing hard to get, and wants Deckard to chase after her, wanting him to remove his own emotional barriers and reveal his own primal nature.  Deckard, now consumed with lust, blocks her exit by slamming the door shut, grabs her shoulders, and roughly shoves her into a wall.  While this is a violent moment, it fits with Deckard's character: he is a silent, brooding character that like Rachel, does not tend to show emotion; it makes sense that an outburst like this would occur as his emotions rise, and finally snap.  





We see an interesting look come across Rachel's face...scared, but also overwhelmed, and a sort of pleading look she gives Deckard that seems to almost beg of him, "Show me I have real, human traits...show me I can be more than a machine.  Bring my emotion, my sexuality out of me, I can't do it by myself."  Deckard does so, gently loosening his grip on her shoulders, and then finally kissing her passionately.  Rachel only half reciprocates, and in one of the more unique lines in a sexually tense moment in film, she explains to Deckard that she doesn't know how to kiss.  Ford, masculinity in full force, proceeds to show her.  

The whole last part of this sequence is full of a kind of carnal, passionate, and near-violent sexuality, which works on three levels.  The first is that they may both be Androids, and possibly don't know how to physically express their sexual desire.  The second works on the metaphorical level: this embrace of carnal lust completes the circle of transformation in this scene...that of the film noir-ish, Android-like emotionless exterior shedding intellect and emotional armor in order to let deep human emotion take place.  Third, as with Rachel playing the piano, both characters can be seen as so desperate to know that they have a sense of true humanity, that they feel the need to experience carnal, animal-like emotions take hold completely, perhaps unconsciously thinking, "How can we only be Androids if we can experience emotion as fully as this?"  The sequence ends by witnessing both characters, but particularly Rachel, lose herself in the emotional rapture of the moment before Scott crossfades into the next scene.





This scene is nothing short of grade A+ level filmmaking.  Ridley Scott has used the visuals of Rachel's exterior dress, physical movement, objects in the room and piano music/soundtrack music to visually show viewers that a deep transformation is taking place, firmly attaching Rachel's shedding of her emotionless nature with the themes and questions the movie asks as a whole.  The dialogue is sparse and completely minimalistic, allowing the viewer to fill in the gaps and figure out for themselves what is taking place during the silent moments.  Harrison Ford (Deckard) and Sean Young (Rachel) are both pitch perfect in this scene, bringing to life the complex emotions and chemistry this scene calls for.  Ridley Scott's framing of each shot, use of dark, shadowy colors of the apartment, and masterful cuts between shots also round out this exceptional scene.  

Most importantly, the tone remains ambiguous throughout, which is a constant in this movie.  The viewer is never allowed to take true delight in this moment of rapture between Rachel and Deckard.  The electrical, "robotic" soundtrack is still ever-present, reminding us that these are still Androids.   The film noir-ish light from the window casts bars of shadow across both Deckard's and Rachel's faces, one of film's classic visual symbols of showing characters still locked in an inner prison.  The cross-fade into a kind of dream sequence of sky and clouds capstones the scene with a feeling of fantasy, something that is wished to be real, but is not.  These reasons are compounded by the fact that on rewatches, we view this scene knowing that Deckard himself is likely not a human being.  This ratchets up the complexity to even higher levels, as instead of this sequence being about a human acting as the catalyst for an Android revealing a new depth of human-like emotions, it is seen as not one, but two lonely, emotionally walled up Android souls desperately seeking some sort of understanding and shared connection about how genuine, and real, the emotions they feel actually are.    
« Last Edit: February 22, 2011, 10:41:38 PM by DarkCrystal »

DarkCrystal

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Re: Blade Runner - My favorite scene
« Reply #1 on: October 28, 2010, 03:34:20 PM »
Just added some images into the above analysis, hopefully making it a lot easier to read so people don't have to slog through a bunch of text!

Also, here is a youtube clip of the scene I'm breaking down.  Unfortunately, the only version of the scene I could find was one with music from the soundtrack playing over it.  The clip shows the visuals from the scene, but the actual sounds, silences and dialogue from the movie are covered up by the soundtrack:


Blade Runner-Love Theme-Full version
« Last Edit: October 28, 2010, 08:43:59 PM by DarkCrystal »

joker

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Re: Blade Runner - My favorite scene
« Reply #2 on: October 28, 2010, 06:52:21 PM »
I would have to say Blue.
"This movie made me laugh so hard, I had mild headaches. So I went to the doctor to get checked out, I'm currently awaiting results"
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verbALs

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Re: Blade Runner - My favorite scene
« Reply #3 on: October 29, 2010, 12:31:14 PM »
That is a remarkable, insightful piece you have put together there. I am watching the sequence and I will edit in a response but she goes into the scene knowing she is a replicant, not doubting it. I may be misinterpreting your comments but you say she comes to realise it but in the previous scene she says to Deckard 'I am the Business' ie Tyrell Corps business. EDIT:So another way to interpret the scene is that she is fighting her robot origins and emphasising her humanity (piano playing, letting her hair down), but when Deckard gets all hot and horny she can't react with human lust and gets scared. There is a limit to her humanity.

What I have never quite understood is the inference that Deckard is a replicant himself. I haven't picked up that reference whenever I watch it and it seems to be a muddle over whether you watch a voiceover version or not, which is the epitome of ambiguity to me. The book and film are a million miles apart but Deckard as replicant isn't a part of that (from a dim distant memory). Any comment?

As far as favourite scenes are concerned. The line: 'If you could see what I have seen through your eyes', is masterful; but Deckard hanging from the building and the 'Seabeams' scene, if a bit obvious is my favourite. The replicants are programmed with incept dates to stop them living forever potentially. While it makes them less than human it also stops them from becoming immortal gods. What the replicants go through and have experienced makes them more than man, and man strikes them down (sneakily). Roy saves Deckard proving he is his superior in strength and even morally (since Deckard would have capped him without blinking). Deckard is terrified of all the replicants and shows throughout that he is a lesser being as a result.
« Last Edit: October 29, 2010, 12:59:04 PM by verbALs »
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DarkCrystal

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Re: Blade Runner - My favorite scene
« Reply #4 on: November 02, 2010, 06:15:07 PM »
That is a remarkable, insightful piece you have put together there.

Thanks Verbals!


I am watching the sequence and I will edit in a response but she goes into the scene knowing she is a replicant, not doubting it. I may be misinterpreting your comments but you say she comes to realise it but in the previous scene she says to Deckard 'I am the Business' ie Tyrell Corps business. EDIT:So another way to interpret the scene is that she is fighting her robot origins and emphasising her humanity (piano playing, letting her hair down)

What you said after "edit" is along the lines of what I was going for Verbals.  I didn't mean to imply that she was actually becoming aware for the first time that she is a replicant.  I meant that it's about her struggle with this understanding, and how she's trying to come to grips with it.  


but when Deckard gets all hot and horny she can't react with human lust and gets scared. There is a limit to her humanity.

Exactly!  Or more precisely, that's one of the many takes that we can have on this nuanced scene, which is why I love it so much.  I find the ambiguity fascinating: the idea that since finding out she is a replicant, she is extremely self aware over all her actions and emotions she feels.  She can feel emotions, and has the awareness to witness herself feeling them, but then questions whether the very emotions she feels are legitimate or not.  Whether her actions are exaggerated attempts to act human in order to convince both herself and/or Deckard...or the opposite...that she acts on pure emotion, and then hesitates or gets fearful because she realizes there is a possible falseness about her actions...is left up to the viewer to decide.  And then the question comes in of, "Isn't her vulnerability expressed over this entire situation an incredibly human trait in of itself?", etc.  That the majority of this is accomplished through gorgeously framed shots, perfect editing, and great facial acting rather than dialogue is impressive.  


As far as favourite scenes are concerned. The line: 'If you could see what I have seen through your eyes', is masterful; but Deckard hanging from the building and the 'Seabeams' scene, if a bit obvious is my favourite. The replicants are programmed with incept dates to stop them living forever potentially. While it makes them less than human it also stops them from becoming immortal gods. What the replicants go through and have experienced makes them more than man, and man strikes them down (sneakily). Roy saves Deckard proving he is his superior in strength and even morally (since Deckard would have capped him without blinking). Deckard is terrified of all the replicants and shows throughout that he is a lesser being as a result.

Those are fabulous scenes, and I totally agree with what you're saying.  It's just a fabulously rich, complex movie that is a great example of how sci-fi settings can ask poignant questions about our own reality.  
« Last Edit: November 02, 2010, 06:21:50 PM by DarkCrystal »

rambler

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Re: Blade Runner - My favorite scene
« Reply #5 on: January 09, 2011, 02:55:42 PM »
great essay
"It's Subjective": an experiment in why we like what we like
http://www.filmspotting.net/forum/index.php?topic=9585.msg558331#msg558331

gerryburns

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Re: Blade Runner - My favorite scene
« Reply #6 on: February 22, 2011, 05:44:04 PM »

Believe it or not.  I have just watched Blade Runner for the first time!  I didn't think I'd like it, but lately I've been immersed in science fiction and Blade Runner was a highly recommended film.

Good analysis of the love scene.  When Rachel comes to Deckard the second time, she has accepted her status of replicant but she wants to be more.  Her attraction to Deckard seems to be one that she doesn't fully understand. 

About Deckard's own status as human or replicant.  I picked up the notion that he was a replicant given several comments throughout the film.  Rachel asks him "if he's ever taken that test?"  If he's not a replicant, he certainly has the traits.  That collection of photos on his piano resembled those of Leo's, provided to him to give him memories or background. 

I'll have to watch again.  In some spots the sound quality was poor, nearly inaudible.  Question:  I read that the Director's Cut has a different ending to the film.  Does anyone know what it is.
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Rothwyn

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Re: Blade Runner - My favorite scene
« Reply #7 on: February 22, 2011, 09:36:16 PM »
The Director's Cut (and the more recent Final Cut) doesn't have the tacked-on happy ending, as well as a few more hints that Deckard might not be human.

Both are better films in most ways, but I find the Theatrical Cut to have merit regardless - if nothing else, it's got slightly better pacing and is more approachable. I actually showed the film to a lot of first-timers a few weeks ago and I wish I'd gone with the Theatrical version as opposed to the Final Cut.

DarkCrystal

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Re: Blade Runner - My favorite scene
« Reply #8 on: February 22, 2011, 10:32:08 PM »

Gerryburns - The other big difference is that the theatrical version has a narration from Deckard running throughout the movie, whereas the Director's Cut does not.  If I'm remembering right, I think the studio exec's wanted something tangible that the audience could latch onto, both to follow the plot better, as well as to more easily understand Deckard's character (aka: classic not trusting the audience to connect the dots).  

The Director's Cut snipped out the narration, leaving the scenes to simply speak for themselves, and often leaving a more ambiguous tone to the movie as a whole.  I've found that most Blade Runner fans prefer the lack of narration, but I've heard people argue that they feel the narration adds a certain texture to the movie as well.  


Rambler - Thanks!


gerryburns

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Re: Blade Runner - My favorite scene
« Reply #9 on: February 23, 2011, 09:58:41 PM »

Thanks, Dark Crystal.  By the way, I read with great interest your analysis of the Rachael/Deckard love scene.  I wonder if you can answer another question?  When Bryant gives Deckard his assignment, he tells him to go over to the Tyrell Co. and put the machine on a replicant there.  Deckard responds with the wisecrack-- "what if the machine doesn't work?"  I can't understand Bryant's response -- he looks befuddled.  Why?

Also...anyone seen Dark City?  I'm watching it tonight.
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