Blade Runner Analysis

Blade Runner Analysis

Blade Runner is a science fiction neo-noir thriller set in a futuristic dystopian Los Angeles in the year 2019. The film tells the story of how a corporation known as the Tyrell Corporation built humanoid slaves called Replicants. After a mutiny by Replicants in an off-world colony, Replicants were officially banned from living on Earth. Police officers known as Blade Runners were ordered to shoot and kill any Replicant found tresspassing on Earth. It's referred to as "retiring" rather than "killing" in an attempt to rationalize their actions. The film is told from the point of view of a retired Blade Runner named Rick Deckard who is forced to return to his job when four Replicants sneak onto Earth.

When it was first released in 1982, Blade Runner received mixed reviews from critics. Many were expecting a straightforward, simple action film. Others felt that the story took a backseat to the special effects. A few felt that the movie would stand the test of time. Today, Blade Runner is ranked #134 on the IMDb top 250 and has a 91% positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Edward James Olmos as Gaff

A recurring motif in Blade Runner is its eye imagery. When the character of Gaff is introduced, one of his most notable physical features is his icy blue eyes. Gaff is a Blade Runner. As established above, that means he tracks down and kills bioengineered beings known as Replicants for a living. While we never see Gaff actually do his job, it's established that he's very good at it and Gaff's icy blue eyes show how being a Blade Runner has made him a cold and calculating man. Ironically, it also makes him seem less human.

 The first eye we see is presumed to be a Blade Runner named Holden as he gazes at the landscape that introduces us into the film's mysterious world. We then see the Voight Kampf test, which determines an individual's emotional responses by measuring the reflex action in their eye, thus showing how eyes can define one's humanity. The Replicants seem to think highly of their eyes. When Replicants Roy and Kowalski interrogate a man named Chew, who designed eyes for the Tyrell Corporation, and thus designed their eyes, Roy remarks "If only you could see what I've seen with your eyes". Roy knows that he is a Replicant but seems to have a small sense of inner peace with his eyes.

Indeed the idea of what defines a human is another key theme in Blade Runner. The Replicants look identical to humans so one cannot tell who is who simply by a glance. The idea of showing humanity is a phrase usually used when referring to someone who has shown kindness or decency. Deckard is the main Blade Runner of the story but is not exactly full of emotion and tends to lack qualities that are normally considered "human". Gaff is like a more extreme version of Deckard, coming off as a machine designed to kill. Contrasting that is the Replicants, particularly Roy Batty, who chooses to save Deckards life even though Deckard was trying to "retire" him. Have humans lost their humanity? Have machines become the more honest species? A common interpretation of the film is that Deckard is a Replicant himself, because in the director's cut, he has a dream involving a unicorn and Gaff later leaves an origami unicorn in his apartment. Since Deckard never told anyone about the dream, the only way Gaff could have known would be if someone planted that dream into him, which is exactly what happens to Replicants. This would imply that a reason for Deckard's lack of emotions is due to him not knowing (and thus not accepting) what he really is.

Harrison Ford as Rick Deckard 

Blade Runner is also noted for its similarities to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Both stories are about humans being destroyed by their own creations. The film has messages from both the perspectives of the humans and the Replicants. The humans learn (or rather need to learn) that all actions have consequences and progress will not be made if mistakes are simply swept under the rug. From the Replicants' point of view, similar to Frankenstein, there could be a message about challenging God and God's will. Both Frankenstein's monster and the Replicants challenge their creators and while all four Replicants are dead by the end of the film, their moral superiority to humanity is made apparent. In addition, humanity (the creators) are shown to be living in a rather unpleasant society as a result of their own lack of responsibility, showing that being a creator doesn't make somebody superior.

Today Blade Runner is seen as one of the most complex science fictions films ever made with its many themes being analyzed by film scholars and film buffs alike. Arguably Ridley Scott's most personal film, 32 years later, Blade Runner has stood the test of time.

Road to Perdition Analysis

In the hands of a different director, Road to Perdition could have been a run of the mill action film. In the hands of Academy Award Winner Sam Mendes (American Beauty), Road to Perdition is instead a morally complicated film about the effect violence has on society and the relationships between fathers and sons.

Michael Sullivan (Tom Hanks) is working as an enforcer for Irish-American gangster John Rooney (Paul Newman) in Rock Island, Illinois. Although he is willing to use violence when necessary, Michael is also a fairly affable guy. He's a good husband and a kind father to his two sons who are unaware of his criminal activities. However, Sullivan's older son, Michael Jr. decides to sneak into Sullivan's car to see what he does for a living. He witnesses Sullivan and Connor Rooney (John Rooney's son) interrogate a disgruntled associate. This ends with Connor impulsively murdering the associate fully in Michael's view. After realizing that Michael witnessed the murder, it is decided that the entire Sullivan family is a liability so Rooney reluctantly orders their murders. Sullivan and Michael Jr. manage to escape and end up trying to protect each other while also looking for the men who murdered their family.

Water is a major motif seen throughout the movie. Water is associated with death in almost every scene it appears. We first see water dripping into a bucket near a coffin at a funeral. Later, we see several gangsters brutally shot during a heavy rainstorm and another man is executed while sitting in a bathtub. At the end of the film, people are killed at the shore of Lake Michigan. Associating water with death shows how death is something natural, even when it happens at unexpected times. Death, like water, is not something that can just go away. In fact, it's simply part of the world and there would be no world without it. As we witness the death of (SPOILER ALERT) gangster John Rooney during a heavy rainstorm, he is calm and not afraid. He accepts that he is going to die and is shown to be more at peace with himself than most of the other characters who die.

Tom Hanks was praised for his performance as the sympathetic gangster Michael Sullivan

The title of the film has a double meaning. On a literal scale, it refers to the town that Sullivan and Michael Jr. are heading to after they go on the run. However, it means a lot more if you know the meaning of the word "perdition. In Christian theology, perdition is "a state of eternal punishment and damnation into which a sinful and unpenitent person passes after death". In other words, it's another term for hell. Sullivan has arguably already taken a road to hell but he is determined to not let his son take the road to perdition as well. Sullivan wants his son to know that he has choices and is not simply a product of his environment. Even though he and his son are now on the run and surviving gun fights, Sullivan wants to ensure that his son sees no glamorization in this. Sullivan feels that he is too late for personal redemption but hopes to  have some form of redemption by having his son be a better man than he is.

Tyler Hoechlin as Michael Sullivan Jr.

Although remembered as a Tom Hanks film, Road to Perdition is mainly told from the perspective of his son, Michael Sullivan Jr. The loss of innocence is perhaps the most clear cut theme in the film. Michael Jr. is young and naive at the beginning of the film. He is ultimately devastated after learning what his father does for a living and his innocence seems to be mostly lost. However, this doesn't stop his father from trying to cling onto what innocence is still left. He teaches his son how to drive and to be kind to other people (they give money to an elderly couple on a farm who shelters them). However, the most important scene occurs at the end of the film. Michael Sullivan Sr. prevents his son from killing a man by shooting him himself. This man was a murderer with the intentions of killing both of them which would make the killing a clear case of self defense. Regardless, Sullivan knew that his son killing a man, even justifiably, would haunt him forever and change the person he would ultimately be. Sullivan ultimately gains some form of redemption at the end, not only by saving his son's life, but by saving what little innocence he had left.


Road to Perdition is remembered more as a film about the bond of the two Michael Sullivans than a simple mob story. Through the complex themes brought by director Sam Mendes, screenwriter David Self, and the performances of its cast, Road to Perdition has had a lasting effect for many viewers.

themovieblog.com review

The Movie Blog is a very large site with a large variety of features for movie lovers to enjoy.

The film includes discussion of movie news and trailers. However, if there is any problem that I have, some of the posts seem too short. There are great ideas, but due to the short length, things seem to be only dissected at the surface. For example, a post by Bud Boomer about Ben Stiller's the Secret Life of Walter Mitty, praises the film. Boomer calls it inspiring and compliments the complexity of the main character, but fails to dig into the details of why Walter Mitty is complicated, thus leaving readers feeling a bit unsure how to feel after reading the post.

If there's anything to appreciate about The Movie Blog, it's that its vague title allows a lot of movie related topics to be discussed. This includes reviews, new trailers, new posters, discussion of strong promotion vs. weak promotion, and movie lists.

Like some of the movies they criticize, the website can be inconsistent in terms of quality. This is likely due to the site being run by dozens of different people, some more experienced at writing blog posts than others. In contrast to the Secret Life of Walter Mitty review, the Saving Mr. Banks review is a far more fascinating read. The film's review is mixed, one noted criticism aimed towards the simplicity of the Walt Disney character played by Academy Award Winner Tom Hanks, while also praising the complexity of P.L. Travers played by Academy Award Winner Emma Thompson. The most interesting part of the review is when the theme of redemption is discussed and how it shapes the characters and the overall tone of the movie.

Another interesting part of the site is the sporadic interviews, a recent example being Leonardo Dicaprio and Martin Scorcese discusssing their new film, The Wolf of Wall Street. Questions asked include the obvious like why Dicaprio wanted to be in the film, but other questions are more unusual such as the purpose of some of the more outrageous sex and drug scenes in the film as well as how the film compares in terms of themes to Scorcese's 1990 gangster classic, Goodfellas.


All in all, The Movie Blog is not the movie site on the internet. Some posts are boring or too short, but when they're good, they're really good and the site is worth visiting for the good posts, even if you have to weed through the lesser ones to find them.