Blog #5 Blade Runner

So the primary text I have chosen for my research paper is the film Blade Runner: The Final Cut. Originally released in 1982 in theatres The Final Cut version of the film was released in 2007 and was introduced by the director himself, Ridley Scott, as his favorite and preferred version of the movie. It takes in 2019 in futuristic yet rundown looking Los Angeles and tells the story of Rick Deckard (played by Harrison Ford), a Blade Runner, whose job is to hunt down Replicants that make it onto Earth. Replicants are bio-engineered beings developed by the Tyrell Corporation, their motto being "more human than human", that are meant to look and act human and made for slave labor in outer space, however after an incident involving the death of humans Replicants were banned from setting foot on earth, thus the Blade Runners were established. In the movie Rick is called back onto the force by his old boss to hunt down four Nexus 6 model Replicants that have made it earth-side in an attempt to try and extend their lives, given their four year lifespan. The reason for the four year lifespan is due to the fact that the Nexus 6 models are almost so human they begin to develop their own emotions, so the limited lifespan acts as a fail-safe. I figured the best ways to study this movie would be through Feminism and Psychological criticism, given the way the movie looks at humanity and has some morally ambiguous plot points involving female characters. Not only that but the way the Replicants almost seem more in touch with their emotions than the actual humans, the overall state of the world, the god complex present in the idea of humans making beings in their own image that are better than them, morality issues, the questioning of humanity, the use of Replicants for slave labor and how poor the living conditions are and maybe other stuff that I might have missed or forgotten regarding similar topics. Another cool concept is the Voight-Kampff machine, an interrogation tool used to determine if someone is a Replicant. The test involves asking the subject emotionally provocative questions and measures the subjects reactions such as respiration, blush-response, heart rate, and eye movement. It's basically a very advanced version of a lie detector. These are just some of the ideas of come up with so far and I'm sure after I've watched the movie six or seven more times I'm bound  to develop more.