Sunday, April 29, 2018

Curation: Blade Runner and It's Legacy

To talk about Blade Runner (1982) we have to talk about its origins, then we'll discuss its successors that were influenced by it. I would argue Metropolis in 1927 was one of the first pieces to talk about what it means to be human and class struggles, core themes in Blade Runner. It used Art Deco design in a futuristic fashion, discussed themes inspired by religion, and industrialization. To time jump, then came Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? in 1968. This was the source novel for the first Blade Runner, it really begged the question of what it means to be human and if it even matters (in that universe.) In the novel, humans take care of animals, a lot of animals are synthetic in this alternate future, to cling on to humanity and keep whatever species they have left. Androids are made to be slaves, and eventually rise up and kill their masters. This introduces not only the humanity theme, but the struggles between different classes. Androids, or replicants, have become the "untouchables" or the poor in this universe. Not only are they sought to be destroyed in Blade Runner, by blade runners, they are treated poorly and struggle to keep living, against their expiry date.

At the time Blade Runner came out, my parents tell me it was not well-received. My dad loves it and it's now regarded as a cult classic. From the noir visual direction seen in Syd Mead's concept work to the deep, inhuman, jazzy soundtrack, Blade Runner's world had established a certain theme that media has not been able to shake. Blade Runner's juxtaposition of bluesy tunes and brutalistic architecture is a parallel still seen in many shows/movies/etc. One of my friends once said, upon watching it for the first time, "This is where sci-fi got brutalism from," and he was right. I find that a lot of the great classic sci-fi animes and movies definitely fed off of Blade Runner. Neo Tokyo (1987) and Akira (1988) may have already been in production when Blade Runner came out, as they are painstakingly hand animated wonderful films, but no one can deny the similarities between the three films. Akira is about lights, fast-paced action but also emotion. Neo Tokyo also focuses on emotion and passion, something I would say was foreign to sci-fi until Blade Runner. These movies also had fantastic soundtracks; Akira still stands out today for its vocalizing in its music, the movie even has its own legacy.

 Ghost in The Shell, the movie in 1995 and the original series in 2002 also had striking soundtracks with shrill vocals, enhanced by cyber punk visuals. Along with this came Cowboy Bebop in 1998. This is, without a doubt, my favorite anime. It's soundtrack ranges from the punchy to the somber. So does it's subject matter, all placed in a brutalistic world of bounty hunting. I truly believe that Cowboy Bebop got it's popular paralleling of jazz music with dissonant visuals, from Blade Runner. It is after I finished Cowboy Bebop for the first time since I was 12, about 5 months ago, that I really began to question Blade Runner's legacy.

Also, I'm grouping Syd Mead, Moebius, John Harris, and John Berkey into "My Favorite Sci-Fi Artists Superfecta", a fictional category made by me. Artists of a similar era are harder to categorize as far as their inspirations go, but all 4 of them make/made excellent art. Moebius had a different take on sci-fi and humanity with his strange Dali-esque landscapes and pen work. John Berkey and John Harris make fantastic gauche paintings of space ships, space scenes, and foreign landscapes. Syd Mead was a great concept artist that also worked on Blade Runner. Just throwing these guys out there, check below, I've linked my favorite works by them. (Also, John Berkey has totally influenced the likes of the great Sparth and Pascal Blanché, modern game artists that really express an other-worldly creativity.)   

Lastly, I don't want to include 2001: A Space Odyssey in this curation, only because that has also influenced a multitude of mediums and works from its inception, even more than Blade Runner. It would just be a lot to cover. The same can be said for Alien. Actually, the same can be said for the majority of the media listed below, but it's important to take note of where they all began, Blade Runner 1982. 

Below I have linked either iconic scenes, images, or good synopses of what I've talked about. There are some that I did not talk about, but are still applicable to this subject. Especially Blade Runner 2017, which was a fantastic spiritual sequel to the original.

M=movie, B=book, A=artist, & G=game.

List of the Legacy
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