Blade Runner is a Hybrid Genre of Film Noir and Science Fiction.Which Elements Does it Take From Each Genre?
...' uses is the use of characters. Firstly the anti hero, the idea that the hero is not all good and is in someway conflicted fits perfectly to the 'Blade Runner' character Deckard; who is seen as moody, insecure and seems to be a bit of a loner. He is given an element of mystery and is not perfect, he is a man against society, and these are basically the same characteristics that a film noir hero would have. The next character that is taken from the film noir genre is the idea of the femme fatal, the woman who leads the hero into bad things, in this case it could be said that the main femme fatal is Rachel as she leads Deckard astray from his work. Other elements taken from the film noir genre is the location and camera effects and angles, the interior locations in film noir films were often dark claustrophobic rooms, with low-key lighting and a key element is the Venetian-blinded windows. The rooms were often smoky and had a gloomy appearance. The exterior locations were often urban night scenes where there were harsh neon lights, rain slicked streets, dimly lit apartments that were all set in deep shadows. These types of locations are seen throughout 'Blade Runner'. Film noir films were all about expressive lighting and low-key simple camera movements, chiaroscuro lighting was a key element to show the effect of darkness and light and caused the shadowing effect which was used continuously in 'Blade Runner' to show the corruption and darkness of what was happening. The camera movements may have mostly been simple and low key in film noir films but the camera angles were often unnatural and usually filmed vertical or diagonal compared to the usual horizontal, it gave the impression that things were abnormal, these techniques have been incorporated also into 'Blade Runner'. Finally the last key element that 'Blade Runner' takes from the film noir genre is the idea of there being no happy ending and having the film finish on a sense of compromise. However in the domestic cut of 'Blade Runner' the director chose to have a voice over from the character Deckard which is another element of film noir and also chose to have a happy ending but in Ridley Scott’s directors cut he decided to take both of these out and have no voice over and no happy ending. 'Blade Runner' might take on elements of the film noir genre but it also takes on many elements from the science fiction genre of films, they may be slightly more obvious than that of the subtle elements from the film noir genre of film but they are still key to 'Blade Runner'. The most obvious element is that it is set in the future which most sci-fi films are and has technology that someone has imagined that there will be in the future such as flying cars, the idea of replicants etc. A key convention that is taken from the sci-fi films is the idea of science versus nature, this seems to be incorporated into 'Blade Runner' by the fact that it is replicants (which have been created and are man made) against the human race that is seen as part of nature. In the science fiction genre of films sometimes the characters involved are not even human, but are imagined aliens or other products of Earth evolution, this occurs in 'Blade Runner' with the idea of the replicants. Science fiction films are basically about the impact of imagined science and technology upon society or individuals, this is basically what 'Blade Runner' is all about, the idea of how the creation of replicants has effected society and some might even sa...