The gothic romanticism of Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein highlights concepts that are also present within Ridley Scott’s tech noir film Blade Runner – Directors Cut. Scientific advancement, without adequate moral grounding, is a joint concern for both composers, the appeal to ‘play god’ and a disregard for natural creation is present within each context, yet motivated by different value systems.
Frankenstein, a Chinese box narrative, emerged for the first time in 1818; its main underlying focus being mans usurpation on the creator role, in reaction to experimentation conducted by Galvani and Aldini using electrical currents to reanimate the deceased. This directly paralleled in the novel through Shelley’s metaphor, the ‘dazzling light’ of sciences enhancement at the time, turning an oak into ‘nothing… but a blasted stump’, symbolic of the consequences of moral inadequacies.
The role of creator is played by Victor Frankenstein, obsession stirring him to ‘pursue nature to her hiding places’ and encouraging the eventual replication of life. This obsession is seen in the anaphora of ‘one thought, one conception, one purpose’, it highlighting the scientific drive of the time period. Constant reference to scientific fundamentals like the ability to ‘infuse a spark of being’ is turned to a gothic-like horror, Frankenstein keeping a ‘workshop of filthy creation’ indicates a definite warning from Shelley about this advancement of science. Isolating Frankenstein in a ‘solitary chamber’ corresponds its atmosphere and work ethics to that of the current industrial revolution, its small work spaces and productivity dramatically heightened during this time.
Compared to this isolated working of Frankenstein, which was purely for personal glory, the low angle shot of the Tyrell Corporation building allows Scott to stress the financial ambitions and power of Blade Runner’s replicant producer. Its 1980’s context brought with it a surge of economic greed, encouraged by the early 80s recession, and greater economic inequality. The use of the Voight Kampff test indicates the striking level in which science had progressed, it giving the ability to qualified Blade Runners, like Deckhart (Harrison Ford), to tell whether a being was human or replicant through observation of the eye. The created being had also developed significantly during the century between each texts production, a belief in physiognomy developing from the Frankenstein context where appearance reflected personality. The ‘perfect[ion]’ of the replicants in Blade Runner indicates not only the progression of our views on physiognomy, but gives an illusion to the IVF technology that was being developed at the time. This technology allowed scientists to assist in the reproductive process, like Tyrell can almost completely replicate life within the film, the replicants ironically being ‘more human than human’.
This scientific advancement created opportunity for scientists to interfere with natural reproduction in order to create their own artificial life, this usurpation of power allowing them to reach a god-like status. Within Frankenstein, an allusion is made to the Prometheus myth, likening Victor’s ability to reanimate life to Prometheus’ stealing of Zeus’ fire. Yet this artificial creation doesn’t allow a parental bond to form between creator and created, the hostile relations between Victor and the being eventuating to his destruction. Victor experiences immediate repulsion as the being takes life, symbolic of the period’s romantic’s repulsion of the effects of the industrial revolution, and the filial tie is immediately disconnected. Shelley represents within Frankenstein’s flee from his being, that man is incapable of recreating natural reproduction as man is ethically incapable of addressing the parental responsibility. The allusion to Paradise Lost on the novels title page, ‘Did I request thee, Maker, … to mould me man?’, shows the beings lament for his condition, the alliteration of ‘cursed, cursed creator’ again emphasising this unresolved pain between him and his maker. Paradise lost made a significant effect on Shelley as she wrote this book, having participated in several discussions with the author before Frankenstein’s publishing date. A great contrast is created between Victor and his being, through the use of natural, romantic imagery. The seasons linking with the emotions felt by the being, romantics of Shelley’s era would have associated and sympathised with the being, rather than Victor who initially took little pleasure in natural beauty, his obsession blinding him to the ‘ ’.
Unlike the romanticism of nature within Frankenstein, Blade Runner is almost completely devoid of nature and weather, its setting in constant rain, and the tech noir of its office atmosphere emphasising the darkness and artificiality of the community. A close up of Tyrell’s eye shows a reflection of the overpopulation, density and pollution of the city that he has created as a result of his scientific immorality. The basing of this city in Los Angeles in 2019 allows for this environmental destruction warning of Scott’s to have more impact, the time in which the audience is given to act on the issues addressed being minimal. Scott makes biblical illusions within the confrontation scene between Tyrell and the replicant Roy, naming him the ‘prodigal son’. The kiss before Roy’s murder of his maker also parallels the Judas kiss of betrayal from the Bible, highlighting the failed relationship between artificial child and parent. An irony is founded in both texts, the being and replicant both doing ‘questionable things’, yet draw more sympathy from the audiences, and in the case of Blade Runner the replicants experiencing more emotion than their human counterparts, a close up of Roy’s pain being shown whilst killing Tyrell instead of the actual murder taking place in front of the camera.
Both texts, Frankenstein and Blade Runner, effectively seek to resolve common issues that developed in their context as a result of unchecked scientific progress. The lack of moral guidance within each creators process allowed for their scientific research to go their beyond control, and led to the eventual death of both Tyrell and Frankenstein. Both of these texts indicate a severe warning from their composers to their audience, both of different contexts yet on a definite joint campaign.
No comments:
Post a Comment