Blade Runner

I.          Introduction

·       Blade Runner is a film that takes place in the year 2019 in L.A. where the main protagonist Deckard (Harrison Ford) is a Blade Runner. His job is to find four outlaw replicants and retire them. This job starts out just like every other retirement job he’s had in the past until he is given a reason to question his own existence.

 

 

II.          Characteristics and Conventions of the film that link Blade Runner to classic film noir.

A.    Cinematic and Landscape. 

1.     Almost all of the movie is shot at night with it raining most of the time.

2.     Inside shots are with cigarette smoke and angled lighting.

      a. when Holden is interviewing Leon the room is filled with cigarette with celling fans    slowly turning over head and the lighting is angled though a window showing the shadows, like something you would see the classic Marlow style film.

3.     Architecture has buildings that were present back in the days of old school noir like the Bradbury building. With the classic 4^th st tunnel in L.A. being one of the road ways.

B.    Protagonist Deckard

1.     Deckard throughout the movie is more like the Philip Marlow style detective from the movie The Big Sleep. He is a retired lowly detective that has been brought back to life because of his ruthless style of work, he also was not the first choice to do this job like in The Big Sleep. He is for the most part a drunk and when confronted by the bad guys he gets beaten up and ends up only shooting woman replicants.

2.     Deckard’s attire is the black dirty trench coat style who is just the average looking sort, nothing to write home about. The kind of looks you see when you look at Humphrey Bogart.

3.     Deckard’s meeting with Zhora in her dressing room where he plays a nerdy rights activist couldn’t have come any closer then when boogie is playing the nerdy type book collector at the bookstore/porn outlet.

C.    Femme Fatale

1.     Rachel’s femme fatale looks date right out of the 40s her hair is folded like you would see on Barbara Stanwick from double indemnity

2.     Although Rachel’s femme fatale is short lived as a traditional noir bad girl her appearance in the interview with Deckard is classic noir as they trade shots back and forth. “Is this a test to see if I’m lesbian or a replicant” is classic boogie and Lauren Bacall.

III.          Elements of the film that Deviate from the Classic Film Noir and link it to Neo Noir

A.    Cinematic and Landscape and deferent cultures and not human.

1.     Even though Scott keeps with a mostly classic style atmosphere he intertwines it with flying cars and a city that bellows fire from the industrial towers that surround the city.

2.     The film is shot in color instead of black and white.

3.     Throughout the film we see a mixture of deferent races and even main character’s that are not human.

B.    Protagonist

1.     Deckard transform’s into a detective who is in question of his own being. After finding out that memories can be installed into their DNA make up. And as the clues build up, like being able to play the piano and dreaming of unicorns. He fights with the reality that he may be hunting and killing replicants and that he may be one of them. 

C.    Femme fatale

1.     Rachel is transformed into a woman who then realizes she is a replicant and only kill’s to protect the man she is following in love with. Not by greed or ambition but as necessity.

IV.           Dual Protagonist

A.    Roy is the leader of the outlaw replicants and my opinion is the second protagonist. He also displays traits as being a detective on a mission to find the man who made him.

1.     Roy’s reference to the man who made him as father as if he were talking to god. And this relates to the protagonist trying to find himself through a religious venue. This keeps with past Neo Noir.

2.     Roy show more human traits then Deckard as he save the man who is trying kill him. Transforming villain into victim. 

 Quotes from outside sources to implicate references to Classic and Neo Noir.

Sammon, Paul. Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner. New York: HarperPrism, 1996. Print.

        In his book Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner. Paul Sammon really puts the visual elements of the classic noir detective in words as he states “Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), the films protagonist, a cynical, world-weary ex-cop, Deckard exhibits all the familiar icons of the burned-out detective; he wears a trench coat, and drinks too much” (4). Blade Runner set the pace for how to make a future sci-fi movie. Still contain the classic Noir feel. Combining the classic look of Philip Marlow along with the self-destructive tendencies that we all know to be classic boogie. Even in the future we cannot escape the look and feel that we have been here before. And that the still iconic look and feel of classic noir is alive and well in the future.

 

Abrams, Jerold J.  Space, Time, and Subjectivity in Neo-Noir Cinema (2007): 1-14. Ebscohost. Web. 19 Nov. 2013.

        When it comes to the true essence of the Neo-Noir character conflict. Jerold Abrams really connects the meaning of this in his article Space, Time, and Subjectivity in Neo-Noir Cinema. In whereas he states “rather than looking for a criminal in the city that surrounds him, now the detective’s search is for himself, for his own identity and how he may have lost it.” (1). Blade Runner takes that’s who am I really and goes that one step further by asking the question am I even human? In neo noir we know that there may be some kind of amnesia element that the protagonist is trying to solve but Ridley Scott takes that one step further and shocks us with the reality of is this all a dream? Humanity has evolved into machines that look and feel like the real thing with memories of the past that are someone else’s. And even if they are not human they still have the overall same problems as humans and that is they want to live, feel, and love.

 

Film Clip

        The film clip is from the interview between Deckard and Rachael and is being done at the Tyrel building. The film clip display’s classic Noir shadows and low lighting, along with showing the classic noir dress and attire of both Deckard and Rachael. The interview is being done by the way of a machine called a Voight-Kampff test; this tester resembles the modern day lie detector test as thus leads into present day noir. Deckard discovers during this test that Rachael is a replicant and at the same time by the reaction that is given by Deckard, Rachael now has suspicions about her own humanity.  After the test is given Deckard asks Tyrel the question that starts the whole ball rolling “how can it not know what it is.”  This clip transform’s not only Deckard but also Rachael from the traditional style Noir protagonist and femme fatale to the Neo Noir divided detective trying to figure out who or what he is. 20:20 to 22:27

Blog 7

        The blog I want to talk about is in the stories “The Kidnapper Bell” and “City of Commerce” in the collection Los Angeles Noir. And how these two stories depict the iconic Los Angeles area as being defined in the stories and how they give the reader the impression on, Let’s stop right there. I’m really trying to make this blog sound imaginative with words that I rarely use in casual conversation. And let’s face it this is my blog not a composition paper, so what I really meant to say was. I want to compare these two short stories and the way they describe Los Angeles and how if a reader wasn’t a native to Los Angeles they could still get a mental image of the location that they are describing the stories. And also I would like to touch on how we, as being locals to the area see there description as being accurate. I really liked these two stories and in the first story “The Kidnappers Bell” I do have some knowledge of the location and on the second story “City of Commerce” I really don’t have much memory of this location which is perfect for my blog.

        In the” The Kidnapper Bell” the setting is around the Los Angeles river and china town, and really the writer Jim Pascoe doesn’t give a whole lot of detail on china town its self just the type of people and setting that there is in this one bar. Which it pretty much the setting in most bars. But as far as their locations to the Los Angeles he dose mention that is west of china town. In the story the main character Jim describes the river in not a bad way but I would have liked to have seen more definitive description on how the river looks. In my mind when you hear the word river I automatically think of sand covered banks with a rushing wall of water surging by, with trees on both banks. And in some parts there are trees and some resemblance of this but not in the area that he is describing. He does try and  describe it in a sort of a way as when he states ‘crest of cement lining the deep, empty river basin’ but this description should have included the general size of this mammoth part of the river which is huge and that this river has been used in famous movies like ‘Grease’ during the car race. As to give the reader the (I know what that place looks like now) affect. But one part I remember quite well and his description is what is only seen in Los Angeles as a land mark and is quite old in fact. And that is when he describes the storm drains that are painted like the faces of cats. You can see these if I’m not mistaken from the I5 freeway. But I’m not sure because it’s been a long time since I’ve been by their but I remember those from when I was much younger and when I use to travel that route and that is distinctive to L.A.

        In the story “City of Commerce” by Neal Pollack the description is good I suppose but I’m not a real authority on this city because I really don’t remember this city too much and have not been to the casino he is describing in the story. As far as I’m concerned he does not point out anything real distinctive as to give the reader something to relate to on the L.A. seen. Except the location of the freeways that he travels to get to the City of Commerce and the casino. There really isn’t that much mention of land marks to give the reader the visual image of where he is in location reference to L.A. but the description of the casino was excellent. All in all I thought the stories were for the most part really good and did enjoy them.

Blog 6

        “Space, Time, and Subjectivity in Neo-Noir Cinema” by Jerold Abrams.  Wow there is a lot to think about in this article. Especially about the neo noir protagonist and the classic noir protagonist. I really wish I had enough time to see the movies that where discussed in the article to give you better examples but the ones that I did see were so long ago that I don’t remember the contents of them. But I really enjoyed the article and how Abrams put the examples together. The best way I can think of to compare the differences of the classic noir protagonist and neo noir protagonist in the article is simply put. The classic role is about a character trying to find out about crime and in the processes he is challenged about his own character. In neo noir the protagonist is much more complex, he is for the most part trying to solve a crime but in the underlining process trying to find himself and who he really is. This most of the time results in his own demise. What I found more interesting in this article is the loss of the femme fatal. There might be one but in most of the movies that Abrams mention that I have some memory on I really don’t remember a femme fatal changing or altering the main characters choices in life. Most of the time that’s handled by an outside source.

        Like in the description of the movie angle hart with De Niro and Rourke in which case is classified as past noir, is about the protagonist also being the villain along with the devil kind of taking the place of the femme fatale. The examples of neo noir the past, present and future that abrams gives in the article was in mind really good. I like that he gave movie examples to go by and that’s a big help in making my decision for what kind of movie I want to do my report on. The future noir is what intrigues me the most. I like how they take the frustration of classic noir and transformed into the future by adding the elements of sci-fi. In this I mean you still have the traditional some body done somebody wrong but now you have some aliens involve or maybe even android’s. It really brings in the third element, could you imagine Bogart chasing down E.T. lol. With present day noir I think most of this involves conflict from with in, and I really think Abram’s open my eyes to a new kind of noir with the Bourne saga. I would have never thought of Jason Bourne as the classic noir protagonist but after reading how they use and illness as say may amnesia to bring that whole crime era back it now makes perfect sense. After reading this article it really has me thinking on what movies I have enjoyed over the years that can be classified as noir.

blog 5

After reading the article that Brian Gallagher wrote called I love you to: sexual warfare & homoeroticism in Billy wilder’s double indemnity I think he was spot on with a lot of his theories except on the bromance. I really think he put a lot of thought on all of the subliminal messages that accrued in the movie. But I really think Brains gaydar is off a little. Yes I get it that homosexuality has been alive and kicking for a while but the actors that Billy put in this film are not what I would call on the light side of man hood. So after the discussions we had in class and dissecting every bit off Brian’s article I did some research on Billy and I have to admit I may have been wrong on this one and maybe my gaydar may be off a little. Let me explain what I found. Billy said in an interview after the making of double indemnity that he wanted to create a love story between two men when he made double indemnity. In this article by QScribe, Billy wilder: My Gay Icon. Who says in the article that “he said he didn’t know why the abundantly heterosexual wilder should have been drawn to queer subject matter time and again” looking into the mind of wilder some more it is said that most of his movie held some content of gay relationships in them and that he did like to tap into the taboo. But I have to say coming from a heterosexual male that I just couldn’t see it. What saw were two guys that were friends and that had worked together for a long time. Keys being older then Walter and also at the time he is his friend and mentor. Both men don’t have kids or wives, I saw this as maybe a possible father and son type of relationship or maybe even keys playing the part of Walters big brother image. But I guess that’s what Billy wanted to project. And he did a good job of doing that, because I never realized this homosexual relationship in the movie was being displayed through subliminal contexts. But if I was gay I might have picked up on it and I think that was Billy intentions. I do have to give Billy kudos on doing this because he did a brilliant job on disguising the content. On another note if I wrote double indemnity I think at first I would be upset with wilder for changing the content but after thinking about it for while I think a brilliant job on combining film noir and this ever controversial subject. I really hope that I could shed a different light on this subject.

Blog 4

        My first response is to question 1. Discuss the contrast between the endings of the novel and the movie and which one seems more appropriate for film noir and why. Well the hard part is keeping your personal opinion off of which ending you really liked and keeping your thoughts on how they keep with film noir. Both endings in my opinion are very good ending to this story. In the novel I think James Cain took more time in presenting a proper mystery ending then in the movie and by this I mean more elaborate. The whole bit about where Keyes is talking to Walter in the hospital and telling him the low down on how Phyllis is a cold blooded murder and that she was most likely the one responsible for the death of children and MR.Nirdlingers wife. And that Sachetti was really investigating Phyllis. Also that whole scene where they both end up on the boat feeling that everybody knew who they were and that there only escape was to dive for shore hoping that they didn’t get eaten by a shark that was following the boat was classic film noir. And by this I mean in keeping with film noir both the femme fatale and good guy turn bad get what they deserve. Now don’t get me wrong the movie ending was good and it also kept in with the tradition of film noir as where the femme fatale and the good guy turn bad get the shaft at the end they just didn’t do it with as much class. Mainly in my opinion because of budget or location, the whole bit about her loving Walter so much that she couldn’t pull the trigger again and him shooting her instead. And then going to the office, well that just seems like there trying to end the story too soon.

        My response to question 4. Discuss the appropriateness of Fred Murray and Barbra Stanwyck for their roles in the movie and how do these actors measure up to the image the book gives us. And do these actors exemplify qualities that are consistent with the description of the protagonist and femme fatale in film noir. I think they did a real good job on picking the right actors for this roll. At first when I saw who were playing the parts I thought Barbra was a good choice but Fred Murray was a bit off. But he pulled it off playing the dull every day guy with a desire to break bad, not to good looking and a little tarnished. And they matched what I imagined in the novel. Barbra was an excellent choice as she displayed every bit of the femme fatal with her whole character being that of a double crossing, tough, and extremely manipulative woman who in the story was too much for Walter to handle. As you can see that through most of the story she controlled most of the moves and made Walter think that he was the one who was the master mind. Now with that said lets redo the movie to present day who do you think should play the part of Walter and Phyllis? Maybe Brad and Angelina lol.

blog 3

        The night was picture perfect for pain and sorrow with the rain coming down and the night dark with clouds. As knell in front of my wife’s grave site thinking how I let her down in not convicting the bastard that killed her. But he was very well connected and had all the right people in place to make sure that if any one got close to his illegal activity’s he had a way out. Even if that meant he had to murder a cop’s wife just make a point. The case was closed and done with for about three months now and no one took my suspicions about his activities seriously. Everybody I talked to on the force chalked it up to stress brought on by my wife’s car accident, it was no accident. But it’s real hard to convict a congressman of drug trafficking charges when he owns just about everybody in key places. Even when I brought charges up on him it seems all my witnesses and discovery went missing and made me look like a fool to my superiors and completely discrediting me. Killing my wife I guess was icing on the cake.

        All of the sudden I heard or felt somebody behind me and all could think is what a hell of a place to kill me. I turned slowly around fully expecting a 9mm bullet to tear into my chest and I see a woman dressed all in what looks like a black dress. But it’s hard to see with how dark and cloudy it is. Do you want revenge and justice and if you do will you kill that son of a bitch if I give you all the information you need. I know that voice it’s his wife Kelly, what are you doing here and are you out of your mind. I’m a cop not a hit man. Kelly was about half his age a stunning red head, with a sweet smile and a body to match but you could tell she was just a trophy and she was meant to be seen and not herd. Just answer the question? She said. I didn’t know what to say I was in shock. She said that’s a good enough answer for her and she left me her phone number and told me to call her in 24hrs.

        Your dam right I called her, 22years of upholding the law and now I was going to break it in a very large way. As the weeks went by and we planned how I was going to get that bastard me and Kelly became close I guess she wanted my undivided attention and she knew just how to take advantage of a grieving man and at this point I really didn’t care. I needed a place to get him that his secretary or his legal calendar wouldn’t show his appointments like when and where he would be. Like on one of his money drops, that’s when he will be alone without his body guard. We need to make it look like the deal went bad or maybe a robbery. She gave me a time and place when he was going to be at a landing strip just outside the city. There was only one catch, she wanted to be there to see his face when it went down, at first I said no way but what the hell he had been treating her like a dog for so long that she at least deserved that.

        He was there five minutes before the plane arrived just like she said he would be and we were there five minutes before him. As he stood there facing the run way smoking a cigarette we walked up behind him quietly and as he turned around to see who the hell was out there I stuck 10 inches of fine hard steel in his stomach and then proceeded to bring it up toward his chest. His expression was priceless as he feel to the ground. And just as we turned around and I was thinking it was over I see 3 cars approach us and as we stand there I can hear people screaming for us to get on the ground. I recognized there jackets FBI, I guess I wasn’t the only one who was looking at him. Sitting in the back seat of one of the cars and looking at her in the back seat of the other car I see her smile at me.

blog 2

Frank Morgan BLOG 2

         I’m not real big on reading books in fact I don’t read books at all. Why read a book when you can go see the movie or at least that how I thought. But I have to say that James M Cain does a good job with Double Indemnity on giving you all the proper visual insight to let your imagination fill in the blanks. The question that we want the answer to is how we can read a book and get the feelings, images and story line that are displayed in film noir without actually seeing the story play out on the big screen.                                      

        Double Indemnity the book takes place in the Los Angeles area around the 1930s time frame. When the city just started its booming period with large brick building and neon lights filling the land scape and the homes had Spanish decor. Keep in mind in these days wise guys and gangsters were coming up in the world. The story is told by one of the main characters Walter Huff who is an insurance salesman who is described as a pretty straight up guy who really knows the ins and outs of the insurance business and he’s the one that can really tell who’s going to try and defraud the insurance company. In the book Walter goes to renew an insurance policy to one of his customers. When arriving at the house the man of the house who is Walters’s customer is gone but his wife (Phyllis Nirdlinger) is home and she agrees to listen to what he has to offer. She is at first is described as having a sweet face and kind of washed out look with blue pajamas on. But on their second encounter she brings on all the hotness and makes sure he notices what kind of body is under those clothes. They end up talking about accident insurance and we all know where this conversation is going? You guessed it they end up talking about how Mr. Nirdlinger may have an accident and what a horrible thing that would be “yeah right.” At first she puts on the act like it really bothers her but this woman is so cold she even had MR. Nirdlinger daughter (Lola) as a witness to the signing of the accident policy. And then ask Walter to drive Lola down to the movies knowing dam well that they are planning to murder her dad that’s one cold woman.

         For months they practice what to do and what not to do and how they might pull this off all while falling in love with each other. They need him to have an accident on a train so that they can collect double indemnity on the insurance claim. And when MR. Nirdlinger plans a trip to his reunion they see their chance to achieve there murder. Then end up pulling the murder off but a funny thing happens after the murder. Phyllis get up tight and angry and Walter gets sick to his stomach and his feeling for Phyllis start to change from love to hate. The story plays out with the head personnel at the insurance company (Walters bosses) having their own opinion that this was a murder and at this point they are trying to figure out how to go about proceeding with this claim. One executive (Keyes) wants to squeeze Phyllis into confessing and the other executive (Norton) wants to make Phyllis sue for the money and see how it plays out in court.

        From the book ESSENTIAL CINEMA by Jon Lewis Film Noir is a style characterized by deep shadows, night scenes, shady characters, and plots involving elaborate schemes and betrayals. There are many aspects to this book that lend to the style of film noir but. Let’s take this statement right here plots involving elaborate schemes and betrayals and apply it to double indemnity the book. We can see clearly how Walter and Phyllis plan and plot an elaborate way to kill MR. Nirdlinger in order to receive full profit from an accident involving a train. And the main contributor of this idea is MR. Nirdlinger own wife showing a deep betrayal of character. This story is a classic build up love, greed, murder and betrayal and of how a good man of sorts has been persuaded to do things he wouldn’t normally do by a very persuasive femme fatale.

        I would like to discuss Quentin Tarantino’s film Reservoir dogs as a modern day film noir. We won’t find rainy streets and fogy avenues or perhaps shadows bouncing off of walls like we have seen in the classics of the past. But make no mistake this film can defiantly be classified as a film noir. This film is about a diamond robbery that goes horribly wrong and how Tarantino tells the story is simply fantastic. Keep in mind Film noirs are meant to show you the dark side of life and that not every cowboy rides off into the sun set with the girl.

         In Reservoir dogs 8 guys are involved in robbing a jewelry store with two of the guys being a father and son team masterminding the robbery. Two out of the remaining six have previous working knowledge with the father a son. The other four robbers don’t have any other knowledge or history with any of the robbery team. One of the robbers “Mr. Blue” is actually an undercover cop who is trying to catch the father in the act. This all end up with a shootout at the Jewry store. With most of the robbers making back to the hide out they all start to accuse one other of being the informant. Mr. Blue was shot trying to escape the jewelry store and no one knows he’s a cop. It all comes down to a shoot off at the hide out between all of the remaining robbers and you get the impression that no one lives.

        In a lot of movies we see drama, violence, heart ache, sorrow and sometimes hero and villain. But for a lot of movie goers the promise of a happy ending or at least a message of completion is expected. With Reservoir dogs Tarantino keeps it with very dark with reality and there is no hero to speak of. The cop is presumed dead and all of the bad guys die and that’s what I think is what makes this a film noir.