Summary Of Blade Runner And Genre: Film Noir And Science Fiction

Susan Doll and Greg Faller’s article “Blade Runner and Genre: Film Noir and Science Fiction” looks at how Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (1982) operates as a multi-generic film. The term multi-generic refers to “the mixing of genres in a particular film that precludes a simple, single, or predominant genre classification” (Doll and Faller 89). Moreover, Doll and Faller highlight the difference bewteen a multi-generic film and any film that employs mutiple genres by pointing out some “[mutli genre] films are not necessarily what we would consider multi-generic because their various stylistic and narrative characteristics seem homogenized so that only one culturally recognized genre dominates” (89). The multi-generic classification is cemented in

Doll and Faller contends “Blade Runner’s multi-generic nature offers a complicated and ambiguous presentation of morality due, in part, to the difference in the locus of morality of science fiction and film noir” (95). The morality in a film noir resides with the investigator battling against society without morals (91). Therefore, the question of morality in a film noir revolves around the changing of the individual morals rather than society. However, in a science fiction film it’s the exact opposite reflect by Doll and Faller here: “In science fiction, society as a whole questions its assumptions of morality, which, as previously mentioned, are centered on the consequences of using advanced technology”(95). Doll and Faller argue Blade Runner combines both using Rick “ to synthesize the two, focusing attention on the central question of Blade Runner: is it morally acceptable to manufacture a race of clones/slaves”(95)? Therefore, the morality of film comes from an individual, Rick satisfying the film noir side, in a search to change the morality problem of society, satisfying the science fiction side. Furthermore, Rick’s morality is reflected through his grown feelings towards replicants throughout the film. At first, the audience is confronted with a sort of hatred for the replicants reflected through the opening scene of Leon, a replicant, killing a human being in cold blood. As the movie progress, Rick starts to question if he’s doing the right thing in retiring this replicants. This questioning is most reflected in the aftermath of Zhorra’s violent death in the juxtaposition of Rick’s reaction to Bryant’s. Rick’s “visibly shaken” (95) at the violence of Zhorra’s while Bryant can’t “sympathize with Zhorra’s fate” (95) representing the beginning of Rick’s alienation from fellow humans (95). In this alienation from society, Rick begins to question