Film Techniques In Blade Runner

Analysis of Image as Text Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane was a smashing success at the box office and is hailed as one of the greatest movies of all time. Though it did not win best picture, it has shown to be one of the strongest movies both in content and visual quality. In contrast, Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner did not rise to fame until after it was on cable. However, there is a strong link between the two films. Citizen Kane utilizes camera angles to symbolize power and weakness. The power struggle of Citizen Kane is shown in the plot and through symbolic upward and downward facing shots. Blade Runner gives viewers an unsteady camera view of an unsteady dystopian future. This unsteadiness reveals a theme of confusion in a technological …show more content…
When Deckard is chasing a replicant through the streets of dystopian Los Angeles, the camera follows the action of the two characters. However, when switching between Deckard and the replicant, the camera struggles to find both characters. Often, there are people walking through the shot and the camera is not fixed on a certain point. The camera is trying just as hard as Deckard to spot the replicant, and it jerks back and forth to highlight the anxiousness that Deckard is experiencing. This provides a gateway for viewers to empathize with the plight of humanity to rid the Earth of replicants. It humanizes the protagonist and makes him more relatable on a personal level. Later in the movie, Deckard faces the most intelligent replicant, Batty. In this scene, the camera switches to multiple camera angles to show the showdown in all its glory. The ending is particularly cathartic. After multiple minutes of attacks and quick camera switches, Batty decides to give up and accept his human fate of death. The camera locks onto Batty for an uncommon amount of time relative to the quick camera switches and action of before. The camera usage illuminates a theme that is vital to Blade Runner. The jerky camera usage and final acceptance of death shows that a in technologically dependent society where nearly anything is possible, the only thing someone can be stable in is the belief that death is inevitable. Batty searches the whole movie for a technological cure to his 4-year lifespan, but in the end only discovers that breaking from technology is the only way to stabilize one’s life. The camera transitioning from jerky camera shots to a final uncommonly long shot illuminates this theme that arches over the entire