What Blade Runner Teaches Us About Society’s Relationship With A.I.

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  • Опубліковано 12 січ 2025

КОМЕНТАРІ • 49

  • @erikstevenson8508
    @erikstevenson8508 Місяць тому +10

    I'm freaking loving these Offline movie discussions, great thoughts and commentary about some really fun movies so far.

  • @Trivium54
    @Trivium54 Місяць тому +3

    I feel like a lot of this discussion would be more appropriate for Metropolis (1927), the most influential scifi film of all time. This is the film that inspired the look for BladeRunner, the design of C3PO and the name of city in Superman.

  • @islandbricks9847
    @islandbricks9847 Місяць тому +4

    Also, the eyes glowing were achieved by an old effect called the Schüfftan Process. It's a 50/50 silvered mirror in front of the camera at a 45 degree angle which allows a light to shine directly into the eyes and allows the light to then be sent directly into the lens of the camera... some great articles on line that go into detail about it.

  • @TheGreyPilgrim28
    @TheGreyPilgrim28 Місяць тому +12

    Dude. The Final Cut absolutely, positively, 100,000%, absolutely does NOT have voice-over. If what you watched did, you watched the wrong version. Also, Rutger Hauer was Roy Batty, NOT Gaff, played by Edward James Olmos.

    • @barney2165
      @barney2165 23 дні тому

      I hate to be such a boomer but these guys obviously didn’t spend their late teens or early 20s watching Bladerunner.

  • @michaelmolock
    @michaelmolock Місяць тому

    Really enjoyed your discussion of Blade Runner and our society. Being a “Runner” per se, I was through the roof. So much so I rewatched 2049. Other than having the theatrical, director cut, Final Cut and 2049, 3 shorts released on UA-cam, and a book “ The edge of human”. Will stop myself before getting to the Alien connection. Again enjoyed these OffLines.

  • @GeistreichN
    @GeistreichN Місяць тому +3

    The movie I’ve been waiting for offline to discuss 🙌🙌

  • @shadebug
    @shadebug Місяць тому

    I’m all for Dune having a voiceover. The books are told from so many different perspectives and are so thick with backstory and emotional turmoil that a film can’t hope to convey it all. The new ones try but it’s a very different experience

  • @disky01
    @disky01 Місяць тому +2

    The Final Cut does not contain the voice over. You may have the versions mixed up.

  • @mordentDA
    @mordentDA Місяць тому +10

    Enjoyed this analysis/commentary, but: Rutger’s AMAZING Character IS NAMED ROY BATTY. Just Like the PKD book.
    Gaff is the other Detective played by Edward James Olmos.

  • @coyherbert2615
    @coyherbert2615 Місяць тому

    You should do a video on Desk Set (1957). Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. Hepburn works in the research department at a major tv network. Tracy is the inventor of a computer system that threatens to replace the women of the research department. Hilarity and romance ensues, and it’s mostly set at Christmas.

  • @barney2165
    @barney2165 23 дні тому

    All we had was the voice over version for a long time. We loved it. If not, why did it become such a cult classic. It wasn’t till much later that you guys had the choice to wstch the non voice over. Both are great. I rewatch both once s year or two.

  • @timothyleemack1074
    @timothyleemack1074 Місяць тому

    Also, you got it right the first time. Hauer's character is Roy Batty. Gaff is the cop played by Eddie Almos. Otherwise, good show.

  • @userx-c4e
    @userx-c4e Місяць тому

    Very good discussion. "Brazil" (1985) would be another great movie to review and discuss in Offline...

  • @MRICCI8
    @MRICCI8 Місяць тому +1

    Sci-fi movie(s) I'd love to see: An adaptation of any book from Iain M. Banks's Culture series. Post-scarcity sci-fi at its best.

  • @Archfiend32
    @Archfiend32 Місяць тому

    Max has the name of the Rutger Hauer character (Roy Batty) confused with the Edward James Olmos character (Gaff).

  • @chrishollingsworth7413
    @chrishollingsworth7413 Місяць тому +4

    I’ve seen the Final Cut several times and don’t remember any returned voice over. Am I nuts?

    • @maxducoudray
      @maxducoudray Місяць тому +1

      Nope. I have no idea what Max watched.

    • @JCIce007
      @JCIce007 Місяць тому

      There are so many official cuts of Balde Runner maybe he jsit got confused. Or it was a fan edit.

    • @islandbricks9847
      @islandbricks9847 Місяць тому

      Some copies of the Blu-ray multi disc set had a major production error where the disc labeled as the Final Cut was actually the Theatrical Version. Mine had this... The earlier DVD set did not have this issue.

  • @maxducoudray
    @maxducoudray Місяць тому +1

    We still get pessimistic sci-fi, but it’s more the realm of prestige tv rather than films: Black Mirror, Severance, Silo, etc.
    I wouldn’t call them robots (even though the word is in the opening text crawl): they are engineered humans. It’s why the conversation about how Roy’s life can’t be extended is all about DNA encoding.
    Also, there is no voiceover in the Final Cut. Maybe it’s an option in DVD extras to turn it on? But I don’t know what version Max watched if it had VO.

  • @YUriPup
    @YUriPup Місяць тому +1

    A movie that rivals Bladerunner for setting looks, I'd say, is The Crow.

  • @disky01
    @disky01 Місяць тому +1

    "AI art is kitsch"
    I am not a proponent of AI art. I think it's very bad for creativity in general for a number of reasons. However, to discount the quality of AI generated images, especially going forward, feels like willful ignorance. AI art is getting better and better every day, especially as newer models emerge, and it will dramatically change a lot of things about how creativity and media are navigated by human beings. I feel like if we dismiss it, we do so at our own peril.

  • @MargaretPinard
    @MargaretPinard Місяць тому

    I loved the Fifth Element! 😭💖

  • @bigjennifergarner
    @bigjennifergarner Місяць тому

    I like this podcast because whenever Max is talking I feel like I'm in film class taught by Mr Van Drieson with Beavis and Butthead.

  • @willschoonover8654
    @willschoonover8654 Місяць тому

    I think Blomkamp is making the best scifi this century. I feel like they are "thinky" movies because they all ask what it means to be human, but they also have great action sequences.

  • @islandbricks9847
    @islandbricks9847 Місяць тому

    Max, you unfortunately got confused about Roy Batty played by Rutger Hauer with Gaff played by Olmos.

  • @EndlessPlaytime
    @EndlessPlaytime Місяць тому

    Some big thinking modern SciFi has been turned into series. Three Body Problem, Expanse… so that you can get the fast paced action and have enough time for the thinking concepts.

  • @Arbiter7778
    @Arbiter7778 Місяць тому

    Another question this film asks: what is a creator's responsibility to its creation? A modern day Frankenstein story. Man creates replicants as god created man.

  • @mushjul
    @mushjul Місяць тому +3

    Lynch's Dune has the VO's because they are reflecting the inner narrative of the characters, which is in keeping with the book and was intentional by Lynch, not forced on him by DeLaurentis. Some like it. For some it doesn't work.

  • @christophersmith3005
    @christophersmith3005 Місяць тому

    Please review Gattaca next time. Seems like the type of film that still has relevance.

  • @rachelmikulinsky5884
    @rachelmikulinsky5884 Місяць тому

    Some of the sci-fi moved to tv, like silo, fallout, severance, westworld...

  • @christostefan
    @christostefan Місяць тому

    46:00 they made that movie, Halle. Spielberg Kubrick collaboration AI.

  • @mortenbay
    @mortenbay Місяць тому +1

    Some good thoughts and comments in this discussion. I would add some important notes, because this is my favorite film of all time and I can't help myself:
    1. IMHO, you made a mistake when cutting out early in the clip when Rachel plays the piano. You cut out after Rachel says she remembers lessons, but she doesn't know if it is her own or Tyrell's niece's. The most important part of that scene comes right after, when Deckard responds "You play beautifully." That's the whole movie right there. As I'm sure Emily would agree given her statement about how she relates to Rachel, this is the movie's core message: Being human is not about who made you, or when, where, and how you were created, or even what your physical appearance is like. Being human is only about what you do and how you do it in the present moment. It doesn't matter how Rachel knows how to play the piano. What makes her human (even if the VK test declares her not to be) is that she plays, and does so beautifully. That scene always makes me weep like a small child for that same reason.
    2. The point in 1. also addresses the slave dehumanization narrative, which I feel is played down somewhat in your discussion. Hallie talks about the labor exploitation theme, which gets to some of it, and your overall discussion of what the movie says about being human is on point, of course. But to subordinate others to the point of slavery, they must be dehumanized. And yet, the Tyrell Corp.'s motto is 'More Human Than Human'. The Nexus 6 models, with their implanted memories, have everything they need to be considered human and have personhood. And yet, they are slaves and considered discardable without prejudice by blade runners. They have actively been dehumanized by the rest of us.
    3. I can't believe you didn't address the complete absence of mobile phones and flatscreens, which is HUGE miss on the side of the filmmakers. Both technologies had been around for years by 1982, although their widespread use only happens from 1983 onward. And yet, all the screens in the film are CRTs. They even have videochat, but Deckard has to go to a PUBLIC LANDLINE PHONE (the "Vid-Phon") to make a video call - and it happens on a CRT screen. You goddamn millennials! :)
    4. The model for L.A. 2019 in the film is not Hong Kong, but Tokyo. In 1982, everyone thought Japan was going to take over the world, just like we fear China will now. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Japanese corporations had become dominant in the auto and consumer electronics industries, so that's what was dominant. You can look for the visual parallels between BR and the "other BR" that Ridley Scott makes just seven years later, 'Black Rain', which takes place in Tokyo. But more importantly, the only Chinese corporate influence is the presence of Tsingtao beer as a brand in the film. Most of the other non-American brands in the film are Japanese, including TDK and Sony. It is a Japanese geisha character who advertises candy projected onto the side of a building in the film. Finally, besides the noodles, what does Deckard order as street food? Sushi, which is what "my ex-wife called me. Cold fish."
    5. Just a small comment about the turtles/tortoise part of the test. The VK test is, as Holden explains to Leon (and famously sampled by Sigue Sigue Sputnik for their hit 'Love Missile F1-11' four years later), "designed to provoke an emotional response". Replicants are not supposed to be able to feel empathy, so when Holden is telling Leon that the tortoise is on its back, helpless, he shouldn't be disturbed by this. He clearly is, although he doesn't know what those feelings are because he is a child, emotionally. He identifies with the need to be in a social group where someone can help "flip him over" if he is ever in a similar situation, which is one of the needs that separate humans from machines. So when he is told that he doesn't help, he does not understand why, but he understands that he is the tortoise right then and there, isolated from his friends. Isolation of the individual is, per Hannah Arendt in 'The Origins of Totalitarianism', exactly what fascist governments do to dehumanize and enslave individuals.
    Finally - no mention of the increasing evidence that the seemingly discrete Blade Runner and Alien universes are, in fact, the same?

  • @drseventrys1119
    @drseventrys1119 Місяць тому

    I just realized there's going to be a Rich Evans episode

  • @slianyong7550
    @slianyong7550 Місяць тому +2

    Math pedantry: 1968 was 56 years ago from 2024, not 80 11:31

  • @devinvagt7914
    @devinvagt7914 Місяць тому +1

    Do androids dream of electric sheep is not 80 years old if it came out in 1968

  • @danielbarrero2815
    @danielbarrero2815 Місяць тому +3

    Blade Runner & Blade Runner 2049 are 2 of the greatest films ever made.

  • @MaryWatters-g8e
    @MaryWatters-g8e Місяць тому

    The TV’s everywhere are now smartphones in every hand!

  • @Atrix83
    @Atrix83 Місяць тому

    The romance doesn't work, especially if you're watching with the idea in the back of your head that Decker is a replicant. They have no chemistry, no real reason to latch onto each other unless Rachel is just seeking some sort of protection from him which is yucky and makes their "romantic" scene feel incredibly uncomfortable. Everything else about the movie is fine, but that relationship is unequal at best

    • @JCIce007
      @JCIce007 Місяць тому

      I did like thst in 2049; K listens to the tape of their interview and immediately deduces that she likes him. Not becsuse I got that notion while watching the firsy movie, but because it *should* have been what was going on.

  • @kyotoartlife
    @kyotoartlife Місяць тому +1

    Fritz Lang's Metropolis has all this. Protaagonist confused by real Maria and robot Maria. Amazing cretion of robot mria without CGI.

  • @darkroastordeath
    @darkroastordeath Місяць тому

    How many freaking Jon Favreaus are there??

  • @TheCalicohorse
    @TheCalicohorse Місяць тому +2

    Tech becoming God = Brave New World