Michael TschappatPatricia StullEnglish 10211/25/96Dicks' Androids and
Scotts' Replicants Philip K. Dick has written over fifty novels, and is
considered among some of the greatest experimental writers of the 1950s
and '60s, such as; William Burroughs, J.G. Ballard, and Thomas
Pynchon.(Star 34) He has written science-fiction and regular fiction. His
fiction usually spoke of people trying to figure out who they are, or what
they are supposed to be. He is best known, however, for his work in
science-fiction, and this represents the majority of his work. He has, also,
won awards for two of his science-fiction novels. He won the Hugo
Award for best novel in 1962 for The Man in the High Castle and the John
W. Campbell Memorial Award for best novel of the year in 1974 for Flow
My Tears, The Policeman Said (Brians 1). An opera has been based on
one of P.K.D. later novels, Valis (Brians 1). One of his short stories, We
Can Build It For You, was made into a movie recently. The movie was
Screamers, starring Peter Weller. He has also had two of his novels, We
Can Remember It for You Wholesale (Total Recall), Do Androids Dream
of Electric Sheep? (Blade Runner), made into movies. Of the two, Blade
Runner (B.R.) has had the greatest impact. B.R., however, differs greatly
from Dicks' original novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
(D.A.D.O.E.S.) Blade Runner was released in 1982 under the
direction of Ridley Scott, who also made another sci-fi classic, Alien.
The film begins in the city of Los Angeles. The year is 2019. The
city of Los Angeles is overpopulated, teeming with all sorts of humans.
Japanese ADs are all over the place. The Japanese input was strictly
the director, Ridley Scot's. Scott saw the future world being controlled by
the Japanese. Philip K. Dick did not mention this. The planet is
recovering from World War III, although I'm not sure they actually say
this. In the book, the war is clearly stated and was called World War
Terminus. The effects of the radiation has mutated some people. Only
the ones who had not been disfigured or altered genetically by radiation
from the nuclear bombs could emigrate, (leave the planet earth). Some,
who were perfectly healthy chose to stay, however. They stayed
because they were stubborn and wanted to die on the planet they were
born on. The chickenheads had to stay, it was law. Chickenheads is
Dicks term for the disfigured or the genetically altered. They are also
referred to as specials. There are no chickenheads in the movie. None
of this is made clear in the movie, but this is what is explained in the
novel. The ones who do emigrate to other planets receive one free
worker to help them with their settling of a new home. The worker is not
human. It is an android. In the movie they are called replicants or
skin-jobs. These are the newest versions of androids, which were
created by the Rosen Association. They are Nexus-6. Nexus-6 mimic
humans in every way, except in one thing, they have no empathy.
Empathy is the ability to feel for another. For example, if you cared for a
puppy that was beaten, skinned, and then left to die, that care would be
empathy. Androids don't have this trait. They would watch the puppies'
skin be removed without a blink in their eyes. They can pretend to feel,
but they'd have to know first there was something disturbing about the
skinning of a puppy. The nonexistent empathy of replicants is never
discussed in the movie, but it is pretty obvious in the way they kill or try to
kill. This lack of empathy scared many humans on earth, so a law was
passed that didn't allow androids on the planet. In the novel, this
is where the bounty hunters come in. Their job is to retire (kill) the
androids, who have somehow escaped to earth or just were never
weeded out from the other humans. You might be wondering why I
said bounty hunter instead of blade runner? Well, the term blade runner
is never used in the novel. Apparently, Ridley Scott wanted a specific
name for the people who hunted down the androids. He didn't want to
just call them bounty hunters. Scott was told of a William Burroughs
book named Blade Runner: The Movie. The book was never a movie.
Burroughs just had that in the title. Scott liked the way blade runner
sounded, so he bought the rights of the Burroughs novel (Blackwood).
That is how he came up with the title and a name for the hunters of the
replicants. The way a blade runner can know if an android is a human
or not is through the Voight-Kampff test. This is shown in the movie,
although not used as much as in the novel. The test consists of the
tester setting up several scenarios and seeing the testes's responses.
The responses are measured through dilation in the eyes and the
blushing of cheeks. The blushing is recorded by a device that is placed
on your face and the dilation of the eye; by a laser that shines in your
eye. An example of something that Deckard or whoever was
administering the test would say was: "You are watching an old movie
on TV, a movie from before the war. It shows a banquet in progress; the
guests are enjoying raw oysters." "Ugh," Rachel said; the needles
swung swiftly. "The entree," he continued, "consists of boiled dog,
stuffed with rice." The needles moved less this time, less than they had
for the raw oysters. "Are raw oysters more acceptable to you than a dish
of boiled dog? Evidently not."(Dick 45) A human would react more to the
dog than raw oysters. This showed that this particular subject, Rachael
Rosen, was an android. It wouldn't just be one question though, it would
be many. All would be something along these lines, though. After, he
found out for sure; the android, ( or in the movie: replicant), would be
retired. The Voight-kampff test is only shown at the beginning of the
movie when Dave Holden is administering the test to Polokov, a replicant.
The main character of the novel and movie is Rick Deckard .
Deckard is played by Harrison Ford. He is a blade runner (bounty hunter)
that has come out of retirement. Rick is hired to track down four
androids: Roy Baty, Pris, Luba, and Polokov. The original number of
replicants had been five, but one of his colleagues, Dave Holden, had
already retired one. The name of the retired replicant is never mentioned.
The original five had killed their human masters on another planet,
stolen a ship, and illegally come to earth. In D.A.D.O.E.S., the original
number of androids is eight and Holden retires two, leaving six for
Deckard. Holden was only able to kill one; because he is paralyzed by
Polokov, while administering the Voigt-Kampff test. This, also, is what
happens in the novel: Polokov shoots a laser through Holdens' back. So,
Deckards' search begins, and the hunt for the replicants' (androids) is on.
The remaining part of the film, is Deckard tracking down and killing
the renegade replicants. When first released, B.R. was not a
commercial success.(Star 39) Some audiences members loved it, but
others didn't think it was so great. The box office showed the latter: not
very good. The film made little money. But, one thing that almost all
people did enjoy from the film was the scenery and the visionary
background. The set designs were wonderful. Roger Ebert, a critic of the
Chicago Sun-Times said, " It looks fabulous, it uses special effects to
create a new world of it's own, but it is thin in its human story" (Ebert 1)
Ebert gave it an overall rating of three stars. His opinion, though,
summed up the majority opinion of the few people who went and saw it at
the theater. The special effects and background were great, but the plot
was weak. It was just another action film, with a lot of violence; nothing
unique about it. Even though the movie did not make money at first;
over the years, it would become a cult classic. The late interest was most
likely sparked by a new version that would be released years after the
original release of the movie. The version, Blade Runner: The Director's
Cut, was what the director, Ridley Scott, originally wanted (Scott).
Apparently, the original movie that came out at theaters in 1982 had
been tainted by Hollywood producers, with editing (Berry 16). They said
the film was too confusing and didn't have a happy ending. "Preview
audiences found this ending too ambiguous and bleak" (Smith 2) You
have to have a cheesy happy ending in Hollywood. The 1982 release
has Deckard and Rachael, (a replicant that is an exact copy of the
daughter of the President of The Rosen Association; he falls in love with
her), at the end, riding off into the country. Supposedly, these scenes
were out takes from The Shining (Smith 2) The producers didn't like
Scotts ending. In Scott's ending, Deckard and Rachael enter an
elevator, and then the movie abruptly ends. Too unhappy. The
producers also thought the movie was too confusing and not clear, so
they added a voice-over; someone narrating the story (Berry 16). The
narrator was Deckard (Harrison Ford). Blade Runner: The Director's Cut,
returns the original scenes. The happy ending is gone, and there is no
more voice-over. This changed the effect of the movie. In the 1982
release it gave you the feel of an old Bogart movie. In the new version, a
new mood is brought out, and a better effect is created. The narration
was totally unnecessary. The movie becomes more enjoyable. The
followers of B.R. grows; as the sparks of interest touch them with this
improved movie. This is how the director had originally created it. B.R.
should have been released this way, originally. Proof of this is shown just
in this newfound interest. Remember, the movie originally bombed at the
box office, but now people loved it. The second director's cut,
however, would fan those sparks of interest up into flames.There had
been rumors, that in the original screenplay, it was quite obvious that
Deckard was a replicant. Deckard, the replicant hunter, was a replicant
himself! Blade Runner: The Directors Cut II confirmed this rumor.
Evidence is plentiful that Deckard was actually a replicant himself.
First, is the glowing eyes (Bitnet 22) When he(Deckard) goes to meet
The President of The Rosen Association to discuss the knowledge of any
replicants on earth, there is a replicant owl and if you watch when the
owls' head turns, you can see an orange glow in its; eyes. The glow is
also in Rachael eyes, and can be seen in Roys' when he is first
introduced in the movie. Later, if you watch closely, you can see that
same glow in Deckards eye in a scene where he is talking to Rachel of
someday someone will hunt her down. When he turns his head, you can
see the glow. You have to be watching extremely close to notice it, and it
he
. TschappatPatricia StullEnglish 10211/25/9 6Dicks& apos; Androids and
Scotts& apos; Replicants Philip K. Dick has written over fifty novels, and is
considered among some. begins, and the hunt for the replicants& apos; (androids) is on.
The remaining part of the film, is Deckard tracking down and killing
the renegade replicants.