Despite the initial appearance of an
action film,
Blade Runner operates on an unusually rich number of dramatic levels. As with much of the
cyberpunk genre, it owes a large debt to
film noir, containing and exploring such conventions as the
femme fatale, a
Chandleresque first-person narration in the Theatrical Version, and the questionable moral outlook of the
hero — extended here to include even the humanity of the hero, as well as the usual dark and shadowy
cinematography.
It is one of the most literate
science fiction films, both thematically — enfolding the
moral philosophy and
philosophy of mind implications of the increasing human mastery of
genetic engineering, within the context of
classical Greek drama and its notions of
hubris — and linguistically, drawing on the poetry of
William Blake and the
Bible. This is a theme subtly reiterated by the
chess game between J.F. Sebastian and Tyrell based on the famous
Immortal Game of 1851 symbolizing the struggle against mortality imposed by
God. The
Blade Runner FAQ offers further interpretation of the chess game, saying that it "represents the struggle of the replicants against the humans: the humans consider the replicants pawns, to be removed one by one. The individual replicants...
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