‘Blade Runner’ and race
by guest contributor Manish, originally published at Ultrabrown
In Blade Runner: The Final Cut, the 25th anniversary edition of that seminal film, little-known indie director Ridley Scott (A Good Year, Black Rain) uses yellow panic to convey a dystopian future. Impenetrable Chinese and kanji ideographs and Arabic vocals from the Brian Eno track ‘Quran’ signify a future where Earth is crumbling, most have moved off-world, and the seedy neighborhoods left behind are non-European. In Blade Runner, white flight means leaving for the sub-orbs.
In one scene, Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) chases a replicant down a crowded street, pushing his way through a group of Hare Krishnas. The world may be run by spinners, androids, implants and megacorps, but like cockroaches, Krishnas and Chinese noodles survive. Make way, make way; Deckard locates and blasts Joanna Cassidy, in a scene reshot with the aging actress specifically for the final cut.
Deckard later tracks down a clue, decorative scales from an artificial snake. The music switches to tabla and desi vocals as he shakes down the Muslim proprietor. Paul Oakenfold sampled other parts of the soundtrack in ‘Goa Mix’ (’94). Artless though it is, Blade Runner’s multiculti melange is even today far ahead of ultrawhite sci-fi/fantasy films like E.T. (which crushed Blade Runner on their head-to-head opening weekend), Star Wars, and the modern-day Lord of the Rings. The only sci-fi films I’ve seen recently which were as multiculti were Serenity and Sunshine.
* * * * *
Blade Runner has held up remarkably well over time. It’s still gripping and panoramic and ambitious in a way not often attempted in sci-fi these days. Its atmospherics were remarkable. It was the Half-Life 2 of its time in terms of immersive, spooky audio and visuals; today, PC games are the new Blade Runner. The film’s models look great, non-CGI-fakey. With physical models, getting the lighting and physics right is pretty much automatic.
Later movies freely pinched from key scenes in Blade Runner. Silas in The Da Vinci Code was ripped from Rutger Hauer’s white-haired Jesus figure, complete with crucifixion reference. Daryl Hannah’s leotarded replicant crushes Ford’s neck between her thighs. The scene was gleefully echoed by Famke Janssen as Xenia Onatopp in Goldeneye.
The ghostly, omnipresent advertising blimp showed up later as the floating zeppelin in Æon Flux. Hide-and-seek with living toys and assassins with calling cards have become fright flick staples. ‘Time to die,’ uttered twice in different contexts, is now a survival horror catchphrase. Blade Runner’s even got its very own ‘Han shot first‘ fanböi squabble, the unicorn scene.
Ford’s antihero, a moper who’s overmatched by his adversaries, was an extension of his Han Solo routine, coming five years after the success of Star Wars. Little since has been as grand. The younger Ford was handsome, Tom Cruise as a wiseass with a crooked smile.
But there are a few glaring anachronisms 25 years on. The computer screens, small, dim CRTs with underpowered raster engines, look laughable these days, almost like the purposeful pneumatic throwbacks in Brazil. Hauer’s sneering villain in a black leather greatcoat is like the cheesy baddies from Rocky IV and Superman II, and they come with lines just as stale.
Most strikingly, Hauer’s eyes, bucktooth and ‘Oriental’ lisp as he’s threatening Methuselah Man, and Ford’s effete, gay accent as he pretends to be a theater activist, would not fly today as broadly as they’re played here. Sadly, eye geneticist James Hong has made an entire career out of Orientalism. He was the mystical ping pong master in Balls of Fury this past summer.
The movie itself uses androids as a metaphor for American slavery. Here’s a snippet of Deckard’s voiceover excised from the final cut:
Bryant: Come on, don’t be an asshole Deckard, I’ve got four skin jobs walking the streets.
Deckard (voiceover): Skin jobs. That’s what Bryant called replicants. In history books, he’s the kind of cop that used to call black men n–. [Link]
… Blade Runner elides ethnicity even as it seems to deal specifically with it… The replicants… function as replacements for blacks, whose absence… has made it economically desirable… to construct a new race of slaves. Only this time… we’ll get it right: we’ll program them with a four-year life span to keep them from getting uppity… a fearful white technocracy constructs its new race of slaves “better,” meaning white-skinned and blonde. [Link]
* * * * *
Scott is dealing with race with more sophistication these days. Edward James Olmos’ young wife Lymari Nadal plays the wife in American Gangster, Scott’s latest, and there are only offhand references to her character’s Puerto Rican heritage. Denzel Washington plays a Harlem heroinista like an MBA with a gun.
But the scenes set in Vietnam may make you wince again. Ric Young’s Chinese general has the impenetrable stillness of Hannibal Lecter.
Here’s the Final Cut trailer:
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of
brad wrote:
Hi. You’re wrong about most people having left Earth for other planets. To emigrate to other planets, only people with no genetic abnormalities could leave.
In terms of multi-culti sci-fi, no movie supersedes “The Matrix” and its sequels. I also have to disagree with you about “Serenity,” although there were three African-descended people in major roles, the film, which is set in a future dominated by Chinese culture, has no Chinese people!
Posted 08 Nov 2007 at 9:45 am ¶
brad wrote:
I have to disagree with you about Ric Young’s performance. He seemed like a cautious and ruthless general. To be honest, it would be inauthentic if the Young’s character were a brash American-like Patton.
Posted 08 Nov 2007 at 9:52 am ¶
Brian wrote:
Don’t forget too that Blade Runner was co-produced by famed Hong Kong studio Shaw Brothers. Having Asian producers, of course, doesn’t excuse the questionable representations. In fact, I’m afraid it in many ways enables it. I wonder if Media Asia’s involvement on The Departed also led Scorsese and co. to feel legitimized to insult the Chinese on screen. Co-production, it seems, is no guarantee for better images.
Posted 08 Nov 2007 at 10:21 am ¶
dnA wrote:
The Fifth Element also manages to avoid the trap of “a future without minorities”.
Posted 08 Nov 2007 at 10:52 am ¶
Gregory A. Butler wrote:
Actually, I preferred the original cut of Blade Runner, with Harrison Ford’s narration.
I recently saw Ridley Scott’s ‘final cut’ and, I have to tell you, if I hadn’t seen the original version, I wouldn’t have been able to figure out the language the people were speaking was a dialect of English, German and Japanese called “Citispeak” if I hadn’t seen the original.
I would have probably figured out that “skin job” was a racial slur for replicants – but I’m not sure if everybody else would have (especially White folks and others who haven’t had first hand experience being called by a racial slur).
Other than that, it’s still a great film.
Posted 08 Nov 2007 at 10:59 am ¶
Lyonside wrote:
Interesting post – I like Blade Runner and can appreciate it as the quasi-apocalyptic 80s sci-fi that it is (but then again, I prefer the original novela “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep”)
But yes, it’s dated, and as usual with sci-fi, non-white representations are problematic at best, downright stereotypical and racist at worst. I can only hand-wave so much, as a sci-fi fan.
>most have moved off-world, and the seedy neighborhoods left behind are non-European. In Blade Runner, white flight means leaving for the sub-orbs.
Possibly, and I haven’t seen all of the final cut, but I always took the ads to “go offworld” as a way to deal with overpopulation, and I got the sense that off-world work was no paradise, and probably a fronteir-style death-sentence. Of course the replicants got the worst work, but i never though that humans were living it up.
I also thought that the dominant culture was American/Chinese/Japanese, similar to Joss Wheadon’s later take for Firefly/Serenity. This would fall in line with 80s paranoia about Japanese “taking over,” and would explain the commercials, etc.
If we don’t see Asians in the film, another way to interpret it is not that whites are the only ones left, but rather than they are the underclass, and we’re seeing things from that POV.
You could arguably see Wheadon’s Serenity/Firefly in the same way – no overtly Chinese characters because we’re following a bunch of outsiders who are the social underclass. But I hope that if Wheadon had had another season or 2 of Serenity, he’d have invluded more diversity.
Posted 08 Nov 2007 at 1:34 pm ¶
Brian wrote:
Gregory A. Butler
Actually, I preferred the original cut of Blade Runner, with Harrison Ford’s narration.
To each their own. For my taste its’ a better movie without the narration and without the happy ending.
It is not the narration so much as the way Ford read it.
I would have probably figured out that “skin job” was a racial slur for replicants – but I’m not sure if everybody else would have (especially White folks and others who haven’t had first hand experience being called by a racial slur).
I did – it’s not that hard to puzzle out.
Brad
To emigrate to other planets, only people with no genetic abnormalities could leave.
That was clear in the original story – but I don’t recall it being in the movie?
Posted 08 Nov 2007 at 1:39 pm ¶
Geny wrote:
ooh dna, I’m not so sure about the 5th element…i mean since all the monsters were black and the only good black guy was chris tucker…nothing against chris tucker..but really….he was wearing an off the shoulder top LOL…anywayz..I guess we POC never made it past 2020… except of course in the Matrix..woohoo!(one of my alltime faves)
Posted 08 Nov 2007 at 1:43 pm ¶
Andrea wrote:
I actually saw the original cut for the first time a few weeks ago. It’s a good movie, as far as I’m concerned. Did Edward James Olmos’ character count as a person of color?
What I liked about The Matrix and The Fifth Element is that they didn’t make race an issue but it also wasn’t something that was ignored.
Posted 08 Nov 2007 at 2:12 pm ¶
Carmen Van Kerckhove wrote:
Yeah the only reason I enjoyed The Matrix trilogy was the treatment of race. I had absolutely no interest in staring at Keanu Reeves’ gorgeous face on a massive screen. None at all.
Posted 08 Nov 2007 at 2:31 pm ¶
jd wrote:
lyonside –
interesting point about Serenity. I don’t really buy that it was a conscious choice to not show asians because they were living it up on awesomer, dominant planets, but at least it’s an explanation that fits both what I’m told about that future and what I actually see looking at it.
Posted 08 Nov 2007 at 2:38 pm ¶
EvilAngelfish wrote:
Speaking of Edward James Olmos, Battlestar Galactica (the current version) does a fairly good job of portraying a multicultural futuristic society.
Posted 08 Nov 2007 at 4:01 pm ¶
Brian wrote:
EvilAngelfish
Battlestar Galactica (the current version) does a fairly good job of portraying a multicultural futuristic society.
Or what is left of one, at any rate.
Posted 08 Nov 2007 at 5:04 pm ¶
Colin wrote:
Keanu =/= gorgeous
Matrix trilogy = okay
Star Wars =/= ultrawhite, very white, yes, but not ultrawhite. To me, Lando Calrissian was an important character in the better trilogy.
Posted 08 Nov 2007 at 6:31 pm ¶
Jeremy Pierce wrote:
I’m curious what problems you had with The Lord of the Rings. There’s a complaint I’ve heard a lot about Tolkien himself that I think is completely unfounded given a careful reading of the text, but I didn’t know if that was the issue or if it had something to do with the actual depictions in Peter Jackson’s films.
Posted 08 Nov 2007 at 6:39 pm ¶
justin wrote:
I think that Fifth Element is less multicultural and more new-age, that is valuable too.
Babylon five and Deep Space Nine were multicultural but they are not really films.
Posted 09 Nov 2007 at 8:30 am ¶
Ike wrote:
AC – Where did you get your information that Summer is hapa?
From Wikipedia:
“Summer Glau (born July 24, 1981 in San Antonio, Texas) is an American dancer and actress, best known for her role as River Tam in the short-lived science fiction series Firefly and follow-up movie Serenity. She is of Scots-Irish and German descent.”
Doesn’t say anything about Asian heritage or changing her last name.
Posted 09 Nov 2007 at 11:40 am ¶
Ike wrote:
I should also add that the black characters in Firefly are both extremely light-skinned.
Posted 09 Nov 2007 at 11:46 am ¶
James wrote:
What happened to the blacks and latinos in Los Angeles in Blade Runner?
Posted 09 Nov 2007 at 1:58 pm ¶
sisypha wrote:
have you seen Code 46?
Posted 09 Nov 2007 at 2:37 pm ¶
JC wrote:
Ike – I read that on a firefly board long ago when it was still on TV… it made sense to me but I guess I can’t find any source to back it up. She looked hapa to me but she could very well be 100% WHITE girl. That makes the only remotely-Asian looking cast in Flyfly ANOTHER Yellowface. Woohoo! Go Joss! Gosh I just love the white nerdy directors with Asian fetish. Oh please take more Asian movies/anime/TV shows and just replace the Asians with Whites. Asians just love grabbing their ankles for the Hollywood.
James – it’s obvious that in the BR world the blacks and latinos have been wiped out by the Whites and white-looking andriods.
Posted 09 Nov 2007 at 10:29 pm ¶
Mike wrote:
The original Blade Runner was better in my opinion but that maybe for nostalgia reasons. If I had to rate it though in terms of multi-cul it would be behind the Matrix trilogy (bet you wont see one on that level for awhile) the 5th Element ( even the whites were diverse) .
Serenity sucked to bad for me to put on that list.
Posted 09 Nov 2007 at 10:39 pm ¶
Jeremy Pierce wrote:
I should also add that the black characters in Firefly are both extremely light-skinned.
I assume you mean the two black characters in the main cast. If so, then not exactly. Compared to sub-Saharan Africans, maybe, but I’d say they’re pretty typical for American blacks.
If you include the larger cast, some of the other black characters do have darker skin than even those two.
In Firefly/Serenity, it’s pretty clear that the society is run by an elite whom we don’t see, and the elite is strongly influenced by Chinese culture. That suggests that the descendants of Chinese people are part of the elite that we don’t see much of. There are a couple Asian characters here and there, though.
In Star Wars, you can’t leave out the fact that Mace Windu is one of the most important members of the Jedi council in the prequels. So it’s not just Lando. He doesn’t have a lot of screen time, but it’s an important role, and he is a good guy in a much less ambiguous way than Lando (although Lando turns out to do the right thing in the end).
Posted 10 Nov 2007 at 8:56 am ¶
Brian wrote:
In Firefly/Serenity, it’s pretty clear that the society is run by an elite whom we don’t see, and the elite is strongly influenced by Chinese culture. That suggests that the descendants of Chinese people are part of the elite that we don’t see much of. There are a couple Asian characters here and there, though.
I wonder if Whedon had plans to expand on this .. if Firefly had survived. I expect so – it’s a topic ripe for exploration in the Firefly-verse.
But we’ll never really know. Too bad – it would have been interesting.
Posted 10 Nov 2007 at 11:11 pm ¶