Man and Machine

Technology has completely changed the way people live. Instead of waiting for weeks or months at a time to receive a letter from someone, people can call each other no matter how far away they are from each other. Years ago this would have just been science fiction, but now it is just an everyday occurrence just like waking up. Man’s relationship with technology is one of the most important issues in Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner. Although technology has improved people’s lives, they have become too dependent on it as seen in Blade Runner.

The film’s protagonist, Deckard, is an ex Blade Runner who is forced into service again. A Blade Runner’s job is to hunt down fugitive replicants on Earth. The only way to determine if someone is a replicant or fully human is to conduct a certain test. This test asks a series of questions that are meant to trigger an emotional response. However, to perform the test Blade Runners need a specific machine. This machine focuses on the eye of the subject and notices any slight changes during the course of the questioning. The irony in this test is that Deckard is using a machine to figure out if the person he is questioning is a machine as well. Throughout the course of the movie, Deckard has multiple confrontations with replicants. The only reason he survives these encounters is because of the gun that he is carrying on him. Without this machine, he would have surely died. However, during his confrontation with Roy, Deckard is not saved by his pistol. Roy is the one that catches him as he begins to fall from the top of a building. Yet again, Deckard has been saved by a machine. Except this time it is the very same machine he was trying to destroy.

Besides Deckard, there are other characters who illustrate this dependency on technology. The people that dance with the snakes use artificial snakes in order to complete their job. This is the only way that they can make a living, and it shows how important technology has become in this futuristic world.  It seems like there is no way for people to live in this world without technology affecting them in some way.

Square in a Circle?

Travis, the protagonist of Taxi Driver, is just trying to live in the world like everyone else. Just like everyone else he has his own idea of how the world should be. After serving in the Marine Corps during the Vietnam War, Travis returns to New York City. However the city he returns to is not the city that he had left. The landscape and demographic is unrecognizable to him. This is visually noticeable during the opening scene of the film. As the taxi is driving around, the images outside the windows are blurred and indistinguishable.

Travis struggles to understand the way of life in the city but continually fails in various situations. The first time occurs during a visit to an adult movie theater. Travis attempts to casually speak to the cashier, and she threatens to call the manager. By treating her as a person instead of just a cashier he has broken one of the unwritten rules of this society. People are no longer treated as people but are treated according to their occupation. The most blatantly obvious incident is when Travis takes Betsy out on a date to an adult movie theater. He claims that a lot of couples go to movies like this; therefore he thinks it is appropriate as a dating activity. The couples he witnesses going into these theaters are not all heterosexual, and those that are heterosexual are not healthy functioning couples.

After struggling to fit into this strange society, Travis is eventually told flat out that he is a square. He cannot fit into society and does not have a purpose being a part of it. His purpose according to a fellow taxi driver is his job. Although he is currently employed as a taxi driver, his original occupation was a soldier. As a soldier his purpose is to kill enemies of the state. This is all he has known during his time in the Marine Corps. To fulfill this purpose, he ends up killing a pimp, the pimp’s boss, and the time keeper of the room used for prostitution. These are the enemies of his ideal state and world.

Taxi Driver illustrates the struggles that soldiers returning from war may encounter as they attempt to reintegrate into society. Although it follows Travis, other characters such as Iris illustrate how difficult it is for people to find their way in society. People must either give up and take part in a society that exploits them or be alone and disgusted by this society.

The Temptress

Bree Daniels of Alan J. Pakula’s Klute is a call girl more out of necessity than out of choice. She has made attempts to leave this way of life behind and become a model. However, she is unsuccessful in her endeavors. Is her failure due to her own lack of determination or willpower? Or has her old way of life become a prison instead of a life?

Throughout the film Pakula suggests that Bree lacks the ability to change her life. Although she has tried, she always reverts back to being a call girl. This could be due to the fact that she is no longer pure enough to resist the temptation of being a call girl. She is not evil or amoral, but the city has corrupted her in some way. This is confirmed after her first sexual encounter with Klute when she states that everyone loses their virtue at some point. The impure and imperfect quality of her life is illustrated during the scenes at the nightclub. Pakula uses the presence of homosexuals, pimps, prostitutes, and narcotics to cement this idea.

The possibility that this way of life has become a prison for Bree is conveyed through the misé-en-scene and cinematography as seen in shots such as the following.

 

The first shot seems to be very tight and just manages to fit all of Bree. The shot is also taken very close to the bars of the bedframe, which exaggerates this idea that Bree is trapped. The second shot uses the narrowness of the stairway to illustrate the limited amount of freedom Bree has to make her own way.

The only way Bree is able to get away from her life as a call girl and make a change is with the help of Klute. Although he may have lost his virtue according to Bree, he is still pure enough to resist the temptation of her old lifestyle and guide her from it. However, Bree claims that she may return to the city and in doing so probably return to her old way of life. Only time with tell if she is truly liberated from her dark past.

Kiss Me Lightly

The main mystery in Robert Aldrich’s Kiss Me Deadly is the contents of the black box. It must be something extremely important, dangerous, or valuable because multiple characters meet their untimely end in order to keep it a secret. When Mike Hammer first finds the box, he states that it is hot and gets a burn on his arm from touching it.

As he attempts to peek inside the box, a blinding light is the only thing visible to the audience. The contents of the box have not been divulged at this point. When Lieutenant Pat Murphy mentions the words Manhattan Project to Mike, it is revealed that the contents of the box pertain to the nuclear bomb. Although the mystery of the box has been solved, it symbolic importance must still be discussed.

When Doctor G.E. Soberin speaks about the box, he refers to Medusa from Greek mythology. He claims that her head is what is inside the box. Even though he is referring to Greek mythology, this introduces the idea of religious symbolism. The box could represent God’s knowledge. Since no human being has the capability to fully understand God, it had to be locked away.

In the scene shown above, Carver is killed after she opens the box. Being mere reflections of God, humans cannot possibly grasp God’s omniscience. Also keeping in mind the Greek mythology mentioned by Dr Soberin, this image references the story of Icarus. Icarus flew too close to the Sun during his flight and was killed because his wings were burnt. This scene also brings up the concept of lumen versus lux. Lumen is the divine light of the universe, and lux is its reflection on Earth. This easily ties in with the idea of God and humans being made in God’s image. Just as lux is lumen’s reflection on Earth, human beings are the reflection of God’s image on Earth.

People must remember that in the end everyone is mortal. Warnings and myths were created to keep us safe and ignoring them can have fatal consequences