Victor's overindulgence in science takes away his humanity, and he is left with the consequences of these actions without having reasoned out the reality that his experiments may not have the desired effects. Blade Runner is no different, with Scott’s reflection of the explosion of technological progress during the 1980’s, including the rise of computing giants IBM and Microsoft, highlighting the dangers of unrestrained progress. Most notable is the opening panoramic shot of blazing smokestacks which, together with the haunting synthetic pulses of the Vangelis soundtrack, gives the viewer a kind of technological overload, adding further to the film’s nightmarish dystopian tones. Scott’s portrayal of a decaying environment also reflects the growing ecological awareness of the 1980’s, which, whilst different to Shelley’s Romantic values, is similarly employed to highlight the destruction of mankind due to technology. Ridley scott creates the tyrell corporation as a representation of Hubris as it or the biggest building with skyword pointing lights and the blue glimmer.
This film represents a political and cultural parody of Cold War rhetoric and anxiety. Stanley Kubrick responds to the fear of nuclear annihilation and Cold War paranoia through black humour, using exaggerated stereotypes of characters such as Jack Ripper and Buck Turgidson. He conveys the concept of ‘strategic deterrence’ in the extreme form of the doomsday device and makes light of the nuclear arms race. Kubrick uses sexual connotations to satirise Cold War figures, attitudes and mindsets. Stanley Kubrick’s film deals comically with the fear that the opposing sides had of nuclear annihilation and their strategic deterrence as a direct consequence of this fear.
SCIENCE AS GOD The film’s religious imagery foregrounds the Promethean dangers of man playing God. The synthetic replacement of what is natural has morally compromised and tainted humanity. Scientific progress has violated human existence, resulting in mass dehumanisation and desensitisation. Freedom has been replaced by subservience; mankind reduced to a commercial commodity whose main purpose is to produce and consume advertised goods. Society is barren, family life and personal relationships replaced by stultifying uniformity and oppression.
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, is a black comedy film that satirizes the nuclear arms race between the USSR and the United States. As for Stanley Kubrick’s view of American foreign policy, I believe that this film it is a realist point of view. The reason being is that the satire highlights the Cold War attitudes felt at the time. There was a focus on the missile gap between the USSR and the US. But most notably, it is the “doomsday device” that is the primary focus of the film’s satire.
This is demonstrated through the questionable policies such as Brinkmanship, Massive retaliation, and how the culture of paranoia and secrecy caused both sides to constantly create more nuclear weapons to feel protected against the other side. The role of each side reacting to the other during the nuclear arms race proved to be a threat to world peace. One crucial feature of the race was the difference between what each side perceived of the other, and what the actual reality was. It is clear that mutual over estimation of each side’s capabilities led to an environment in which the usual mood was to increase their own arsenal, based on the assumption that the opposing side was superior. This resulted in a reaction from the other side on the assumption that the opposing side was building up to gain a measure of superiority.
Dark, dim lighting is used to show how baron this world is. It reinforces the fact that ‘humans scorched the sky’ in an effort to control the machines. It is a grim reminder that humans once held power and status in this once lively world, but now they are nothing, a pathetic being. Dark colours are used for back lighting, which gives a dank, unorganised setting of chaos. In contrast to this, the fake world inside ‘the matrix’ that humans are lead to believe is real uses very different lighting techniques.
Explain how Scott presents a bleak vision of a bleak world. Blade Runner (Director’s Cut) directed by Ridley Scott, 1992, is a science fiction film presenting the consequences of allowing the creation of artificial life-forms with characteristics of a human being. With the world in an unnatural disturbance, the film displays a bleak vision of a bleak world showing the dark consequences of man’s hubris on scientific development. The absence of sunlight and religion are conveyed to show the output of a bleak world that consequently forms after messing with the natural order and religious values of man’s immoral conduct of playing ‘God’. In a long shot, Tyrell's corporate pyramid is shown with an orange gradient, cloudy sky behind it.
Dark City (1998)- Alex Proyas Genre- Dark City, directed by Alex Proyas is a dystopian Sci-fi film, whilst also venturing into neo-noir where it portrays a world without God and ultimately without light, where the connotations warmth, love and comfort is derived from. A convention of a dystopian sci-fi film will include a form of fear that could endanger the future and ruin humanity. In this film, there is a fear of science and technology being too powerful and have the potential to take over humanity and the world, as the aliens are virtually controlling the characters. Every aspect of their lives are manipulated to change their memories, raising the question whether living a life with no recollection of who you truly are is the same as not having lived at all in a metaphorical sense, as memories are the fundamental makeup of identity. This also implies that the characters do not have a real future, as your past, in other words memories are what your future is based upon.
The consequences of not being human and the questioning of the nature of humanity is explored in the gothic novel Frankenstein written by Mary Shelley (1818) and the futuristic novel Blade Runner directed by Ridley Scott (1982). These two texts explore the consequences of isolation, abandonment and rejection by their creators and society on the creations and the nature of humanity is also questioned as the creations portrayed by both composers show more human qualities and emotions than their creators as the society in Blade Runner focus solely on the commercialism, technology and science to help recreate the artificial nature they have lost. These ideas are put forward through the use of visuals, written imagery, film noir techniques, character contrasts and the gothic & romantic styles and views. The consequences isolation, rejection and abandonment the creation experiences as a result of being non human are life changing. The monster’s selflessness, compassionless and human qualities are lost as he is filled with hatred and revenge towards his creator and all mankind.
The film takes place in Britain in the year 2027, describing the devastation of the world due to nuclear and environment destruction, whereby women have become infertile. Through detailed use of the film’s mise-en-scene to the intertextual referencing present, ‘Children of Men’ reveals the dystopian conventions of oppressive governments, and the loss of hope and faith, leading to a truly unsettling reflection of modern society. The oppression of a society by its existing political system is an unsettling reflection that dystopia provides us as the desire to gain control of others will lead to a world becoming immoral. Today, we are frequently reminded of the overflow of refugees and the suppressive measures governments take to filter and refuse entry of refugees. Such a notion is deeply