If only you could see the things I've seen with your eyes
In case you didn't already know, Blade Runner is one of my favorite movies, and I just scored the edition you see above. Why get excited about a movie i've seen many, many times, and already own on VHS, and DVD?
Because it's frickin' BLADE RUNNER!!
But, it's kinda like the caucus they just had in Iowa (which looks to be a Huckabee/Obama victory. Congrats to them). It took a long, and complicated route to get to where I want things. Just as in Iowa, they're trying to balance the needs and desires of the minority (a small state, and those without a winning candidate) with the needs and desires of the majority (the rest of the election, and those with a winning candidate) I can see both interpretations of Blade Runner.
In case you don't geek out for it like me, here's the debate in a nutshell: Is Deckard (Harrison Ford, aka the Protagonist) human?
On one side, you've got those who believe that Deckard is human. For this side, the story becomes a tale of man vs. machine, with the subtext being that even the machines yearn for what we already have: human imperfection, affection, and infection. The downside of this, though, is that it reduces the love story to a tale of a man and his plaything, as Rachel (Sean Young) is unquestionably a robot. It puts too much power into the hands of Deckard to make their connection anything better than a perversion.
On the other side, you've got those who believe that Deckard is a robot.For this side, the story becomes a tale of self-discovery, where through conflict, even Robots get a soul, with the subtext being that experience helps shape us, and lets us understand the world, but only through our actions are we ourselves. The downside of this, though, is that it reduces the conflict between Deckard and Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) to a kind of mental exercise, where Roy is more the hero than Deckard, and the audience is played for a chump, trying to empathize with the little Deckard puppet, who's just the plaything of the cops, and other forces of capital C "control".
So, you really need multiple tellings of the story so that each side can weigh in with their relative merits. The end result perfects the story: Deckard is both Human, and robot. He is both discovering what it means for him to love, to hate, to hope and to fear, and he is struggling with non-humans who are more human than he is. It makes everyone, and everything more important.
See, that's a lesson that i really hope we all can learn: to see the things that others see, and learn how that improves our lives as well as theirs. It doesn't always have to be a dichotomy. Sometimes, it can be a dialectic.
