Key

*important notes

Auteur Signature Film Form 

• heavy  shadows – German Expressionism*
• low key lighting and high contrast
• Baroque Style – elaborate set*
• Use of colour (blue and orange ) – in the back of the corridor ?
• rain dripping sound down wall – close sonic perspective – tension*
• beautiful cinematography in the finger braking scene (close sonic perspective as well)*
• Genre shifts – science fiction, horror, Western (gun)*
• beams of light from behind the window
• blue tinted lighting
• neon lights in the background when climbing out of the window*
• Close up of his hand when pulling himself up – like in Alien*
• the search light has no narrative logic – they are fighting but nothing happens when they are seen by the search light. Suggesting whoever is in control of the search light doesn’t care about violence.*
• blue harsh theatre lighting
• close sonic perspective*
• neon TDK sign*

New Hollywood Film Form

• ‘aren’t you the good man?’ – protagonist isn’t good and moral ambiguity of protagonist – directly questioning*
• ‘that’s the spirit’ response to being attack by Deckard, possibly saying that he has the power of a replicant but Deckard doesn’t know yet?*
• ‘that hurt’, ‘where are you going?’ and calling Deckard’s actions ‘irrational’ suggests a humanness to Roy and suggests that Deckard is a replicant*
• non-diegetic sound like bees
• howling – supernatural like*
• contrasting aesthetic of the building to the neon world
• representation of LA – raining*
• lack of clothing – symbol of natural state and understanding who he is?
• bell chiming
• thunder and lightning?
• fans – industrial feel
• futuristic non-diegetic sounds*
• violence – French influence e.g. Roy touches Pris’s wound, braking fingers etc*
• ‘that’s what it is to be a slave’ – non-diegetic choir like note*
• Japanese theatre like music – oriental theme, east meets west like the mise en scene throughout the film – cold war*
• hero saved by an unexpected person*
• nemesis has a loss, trauma, scene – Roy is a child in an adults body trying to come to terms with mortality and the death of Pris*
• shift in protagonist – Roy is a more heroic figure*
• parallel action of Roy and Deckard*
• Parallel of them both trying to fix their hands (both have damaged hands)  – replicants, same values, life value, just as much good or bad as people*
• mechanical old sound – adds to the  coldness*
• dramatic, tense and a lot about narrative*
• nail in hand – stigmata – religious symbol, sacrificing himself ?, child of God?, a sense of some innocence?. Plus, Roy previously said ‘6,7, go to hell or go to heaven’*
• symbolic that it is raining
• Gaff shows up when everyone is dead
• day time when he looks for Rachel
• tracking shot of room focusing in on body under the sheet – symbolic of death*
• mechanical sounds and blueness on TV – coldness
• robot making poetry
• narrative flip – hunter becomes the hunted – narrative was centred around Deckard finding and killing replicants*
• choir singing when he lands – nail in hand – miraculous and religious link
• hanging off building – narrative device and possibly a metaphor*
• Roy is in silhouette and low angle shot  – dangerous*
• Roy picks Deckard up with the nail hand
• dove and nail – inner conflict ? – dove – freedom and peace symbol*
• action reaction shots – highest tension of the movie – climax of the narrative*
• living in fear is ‘what it is like to be a slave’*
• change in tone – more high key lighting, music more major key*
• slow motion footage – Roy looking down in the rain
• ‘time to die’ is Roy’s last words – links humans and replicants, significance of life, acceptance of mortality*
• day time shot of letting the dove go – found freedom/peace in death, symbolic of replicants having souls?*
• cross fade of Roy and Deckard that acts as an action reaction shot- creates a connection between them (both scared of mortality?) – Roy is dead and Deckard is looking at him – feels united with him?, both replicants, both feel the same way etc*

Production Context 

• W.B. Burbank set*
• inspired by/a reference to metropolis (outside the building)*
• matte painting – background?*

Themes and Motifs 

• search light – surveillance*
• unicorn SILVER origami – suggests that Deckard  is a replicant because it implies that Gaff new about the dream that Deckard had previously, suggesting it was an implanted memory. It also shows that Gaff knew Rachel was there, yet spared her. There is a voice over of Gaff in this moment of earlier on when he said ‘too bad she won’t live, but then again who does?’ (ironic) this paired with Deckard’s nod suggesting his awareness of being a replicant gives the idea that being a replicant doesn’t matter, you’re still mortal and feel the same feelings (pr maybe even less) as a human*
• Japanese theatre like music – oriental theme, east meets west like the mise en scene throughout the film – cold war*
• environmentalism – fans – energy resource ?*
• humans underestimating technology ?
• existentialism and the value of being alive*

Representation 

• ‘this is for Zora’ and ‘this is for Pris’  – women are avenged be men, men are left to fight. Plus, he doesn’t mention Leon*
• man cries – good representation*
• Rachel has been made passive throughout the whole movie*
• he needs to help Rachel be safe*
• children – performance is like a game of hide and seek*
• Roy is a child in an adults body trying to come to terms with mortality and the death of Pris*
• children – Roy’s nursery rhyme esque speech – ‘6,7, go to hell or go to heaven’*
• replicants are represented as/are the representation of children, ‘that hurt’ – raw emotion, highly refined sense of right and wrong*
• she loves him and trust him but why? – fugitive on the run and he owes her so she trusts him?*

Political Context 

• Japanese theatre like music – oriental theme, east meets west like the mise en scene throughout the film – cold war*

More 

• Speech that Howard wrote – machine which accepts its mortality*
• co-operations in charge, no government?*
• maths doesn’t add up of the number of replicants (said near the beginning of the film) unless Deckard is one of them?