Randy Mootooveran
Sci, Fantasy, Horror Lit
March 22, 2018
Sci, Fantasy, Horror Lit
March 22, 2018
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and Blade Runner: Two Halves of a Full Story
After finishing what is arguably Philip K. Dicks most celebrated work, a casual viewer could look at Ridley Scott's 1982 cyberpunk opus and call it a "Hollywood adaptation" of his original story. By that, I mean a dumbed down version that highlights the more visceral aspects while ignoring the main points of environmentalism and society. The biggest change is undoubtedly the portrayal of the androids (or replicants as Blade Runner calls them) and their place in the story. Philip K. Dick made it cleat in various interviews that androids are the "automated reflex machine", beings who may resemble them in appearance, but could not be human because they lack all empathy and concern for other humans. In his mind, he was recreating the Nazi officers who recounted their time in concentration camps comparing the screams of Jewish children to the flies that kept them awake at night. Meanwhile, Ridley Scott chose to portray the replicants as the most emotional characters in the film, whose motivation turns protagonist Rick Deckard into the heartless killing machine. In his eyes, they were comparable with Superman learning he only had four years to live.
The story in both is largely the same: Deckard is sent to retire a group of androids on Earth. The differences mainly center around character names, the capabilities of the androids, and a hallucination sequence involving a frog in the radiated wastes outside Los Angeles. Where the movie diverts from the source material is through showing the various races intermingling on the streets, the exploration of humanity in both Deckard and the replicants, and the famous question of whether Deckard himself is a replicant. So why should both the book and movie be considered two parts f one story.? For one thing, Dick himself loved the aesthetic of the film, saying it was exactly how he imagined the world. While Blade Runner doesn't go into detail about the nuclear wars or the scarcity of living animals, they 're both still presented through visual storytelling. In many ways, the film paints a broad picture of this world while the book details how it came to be. The replicants may behave differently from the androids, but both interpretations can easily exist in the same world due to the fact that both parties depict them as lost souls capable of terrible things with the intention of finding their own identity. They yearn to live, resorting to desperate measures in order to preserve their existence. Their creator Tyrell put it best when he referred to Roy Batty as a son. With only four years to live, why wouldn't they want more time to live just like their creators?
Identity still plays a strong part in both regarding Deckard as well. By the end of both, he's regained his sense of humanity through his interactions with the replicants ironically after being driven to their status because of them. To me, there is no question that Deckard is human in both the book and every version of the movie. Putting aside the fact he gets beaten into submission by almost every replicant in the film, everyone from Tyrell to the entire police department would have to be in on it. If that were the case, then what was the reason behind creating a n alcoholic replicant that quits their job? There's also the fact that screenwriters David People and Hampton Fancher along with Harrison Ford himself insist Deckard is human. Anyway, both versions show Deckard coming to understand them in different ways. The film shows his compassion for Rachel while tin the book, Rachel shows him what he ought to appreciate in life through murdering his sheep. At the end of the day, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and Blade Runner deliver different takes on how we should view the future as well as the people around us. On their own, they tell the same plot in the same world. Putting them together brings this future to life not just visually, but contextually as well through the worlds design, the characters dialogue, terms from the book, and what the conclusion means for the protagonist. Both go hand in hand with one another and provide a cohesive vision by the end.
The story in both is largely the same: Deckard is sent to retire a group of androids on Earth. The differences mainly center around character names, the capabilities of the androids, and a hallucination sequence involving a frog in the radiated wastes outside Los Angeles. Where the movie diverts from the source material is through showing the various races intermingling on the streets, the exploration of humanity in both Deckard and the replicants, and the famous question of whether Deckard himself is a replicant. So why should both the book and movie be considered two parts f one story.? For one thing, Dick himself loved the aesthetic of the film, saying it was exactly how he imagined the world. While Blade Runner doesn't go into detail about the nuclear wars or the scarcity of living animals, they 're both still presented through visual storytelling. In many ways, the film paints a broad picture of this world while the book details how it came to be. The replicants may behave differently from the androids, but both interpretations can easily exist in the same world due to the fact that both parties depict them as lost souls capable of terrible things with the intention of finding their own identity. They yearn to live, resorting to desperate measures in order to preserve their existence. Their creator Tyrell put it best when he referred to Roy Batty as a son. With only four years to live, why wouldn't they want more time to live just like their creators?
Identity still plays a strong part in both regarding Deckard as well. By the end of both, he's regained his sense of humanity through his interactions with the replicants ironically after being driven to their status because of them. To me, there is no question that Deckard is human in both the book and every version of the movie. Putting aside the fact he gets beaten into submission by almost every replicant in the film, everyone from Tyrell to the entire police department would have to be in on it. If that were the case, then what was the reason behind creating a n alcoholic replicant that quits their job? There's also the fact that screenwriters David People and Hampton Fancher along with Harrison Ford himself insist Deckard is human. Anyway, both versions show Deckard coming to understand them in different ways. The film shows his compassion for Rachel while tin the book, Rachel shows him what he ought to appreciate in life through murdering his sheep. At the end of the day, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and Blade Runner deliver different takes on how we should view the future as well as the people around us. On their own, they tell the same plot in the same world. Putting them together brings this future to life not just visually, but contextually as well through the worlds design, the characters dialogue, terms from the book, and what the conclusion means for the protagonist. Both go hand in hand with one another and provide a cohesive vision by the end.
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