| On the Matter of Owls - an essay
on Blade Runner
May 2002
As in the case of many books being
made into films we find variation for a number of reasons, asides
the more obvious points of time constraints. Philip K. Dick’s
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and the inspired Ridley
Scott film Blade Runner are no exception. Over time social conditions
and concerns, political issues, governments, technology and any
number of other issues can influence these adaptive changes. Second
Variety by Dick was also made into a film.
Called Screamers, the film
rendition serves as a good example, also exploring the contemplation
of what is human, and the machine evolving and gaining human traits.
In the book, the American bloc on the moon faces off against the
Russians. When it was no longer politically correct to hold the
Russians in such disregard, the film finds the two factions who
face off becoming a nondescript Alliance of miners and their nemesis
the overbearing New Economic Block (NEB). The Cold War over, the
scene is set on a distant planet called Sirus 6B rather than the
moon. For literary works of Dick’s era it is quite common
to see such changes occurring when placed upon celluloid.
Within the film Blade Runner there
is definitely greater use of animals than is first apparent. Without
doubt a major difference between the written and the visual forms
is, for the film, the visual sense in which animals are used. The
Owl is the most prominent of the animals utilised in the film. This
is understandable due to the vital part they play in Dick’s
novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Dick’s novel handles the use
of owls on several levels in order to manage several issues in the
narrative. Animals are an integral part overall but owls have a
special part to play symbolising many things while also reinforcing
other points within the work.
On Deckard’s first meeting with
Eldon and Rachael Rosen of the Rosen Association, the corporation
responsible for the Nexus 6 replicant android, the owl is used as
a bargaining chip. Undeniably a method of exercising control and
power to exact an advantage. It also serves to demonstrate the value
of the specific animal over other animals. The corporation is using
the owl to take care of themselves while also putting the stakes
on a personal level for Bounty Hunter Deckard. By praying on Deckard’s
vulnerability in the search for the status which possession of such
an animal would bring Dick emphasises social factors and personal
desire.
Rachael kills the goat, an animal used
in satanic ritual. This is an act of revenge but can also be taken
as a symbol of the evil being killed. Revenge is something which
only humans act on, whereas animals act on instinct, thus this act
is a means to express the machine becoming (or at least attempting
to be) human.
While some animals tend to hold a singular
significance or relevant detail the owl conveys numerous points
to ponder. They are the first animals to die as a result of the
war. From their nocturnal nature, rarely seen by humans, they suddenly
begin falling out of the sky. They quickly become extinct and are
of the highest prize when replicant technology allows their recreation.
While android replicants are perceived
as a sociological threat by the establishment, animal replicants
are of great significance and worth, most especially owls as they
were the first to die.
In many ways animals, replicant but
most especially live animals, have surpassed humanity with regards
respect and social value. After the chaos and resulting aftermath
of war at the hands of mankind it is not surprising.
Ridley Scott’s film Blade Runner
has managed to collect a massive audience, the novel upon which
it is based, as popular as it is within the genre and genre fans,
has a relatively limited exposure. It can not be discounted either,
that the film has led many to the book. But without the story the
film would not be what it has become, a virtual cult within the
genre of Science Fiction, Cyberpunk and the dark future. As a result
of the medium there is much the respective artists must adapt within
the confines of their chosen fields. Though one of these is the
use of owls, to discount the general theme of animals or suggest
their presence in the film hold less significance is to miss much
of the point of the work.
In the neo-Asian world of Blade Runner
boiled dog is mentioned, as it is in the book. A common food within
these cultures, this not only seeks to reinforce the value and rarity
of animals in the time but also how such laws and social conditions
must effect something as essential as food consumption. At the beginning
of the film a neon sign displays a serpent. Another neon sign in
the film says ‘Yucon’, a wilderness renowned for its
wildlife. The character Zhora (Luba Luft) has a tattoo of a snake
and also possesses a replicant snake from which Deckard is able
to track her down by way of finding one of its scales.
The profoundness of Deckard’s
dream featuring the unicorn, a symbol of wisdom, healing and purity,
and the final origami made by Gaff has a desiring audience wondering
Deckard’s true nature. Again, the unicorn has Asian connections
found in Japanese, Chinese and Indian mythology. Powerful symbology
is presented in the finale where Roy howls as a wolf, as an Alpha
male of a wolf pack showing dominance and superiority. The dove
Roy releases is one of the strongest Christian symbols there is,
denoting peace. An opposite and balancing force behind the snake
/ serpent semblance.
Visual conveyance of a message is the
major advantage of film and this is used expertly in Blade Runner.
The eyes are the gateway to the soul. Although the film makes no
reference to this, it is in a visual sense something difficult to
overlook. Even after having seen the film many times, to read the
book upon which the work is based gives a great deal of additional
meaning, and possible insight, as the interpretation of the film.
The eyes are the most pressing features of an owl. Roy kills Tyrell
by a crushing of the skull and a pressure through the eyes. Leon,
in his final moments attempts to kill Deckard by penetrating his
eyes with outstretched fingers. Rachael saves the Bounty Hunter
at this critical moment by shooting the android with Deckard’s
own weapon.
The presence of eyes’ is acute
in the sense that they are present in many forms throughout the
film. The owl provides a biological, or rather, animated definition
to them. Chew and his eye manufacture, the eye shown at the beginning
of the film, and the constant idea that someone, or something is
always looking at you which is given forth in the advertising blimps
when one can’t help but think ‘big brother is watching
you’.
In the first example presented of the
owl in the film it is shown flying and landing on a perch. This
suggests well the freedom of the animal and also the space afforded
to it and its owner Tyrell (Rosen) as compared the cramped, choking
and unclean world outside. The animal is also, without relation
back to the novel, an example of purity. Not only does it have great
monetary value but also unlike biological animals in the outside
world the owl is free of any disease or mutation, which is so rife
on the streets due to the environment and thickset pollution.
As a witness to the death of its maker
the owl presents a dilemma. Upon its perch it watches the scene
and turns its head to the side. As a replicant one could wonder
does it side with Roy Batty? Or does it see the human; its very
creator as he dies, and find some form of manufactured sorrow for
his passing? As a symbol of wisdom the owl watches on, seeing that
regardless the amount of knowledge Tyrell has, he can not save himself
from his own mortality.
The effect of these two great works, the book and the film, have
gone on to influence the minds of many, including William Gibson,
regarded as the father of Cyberpunk whose book Neuromancer won the
Philip K. Dick Award. It can not be understated just how much these
works will influence the future of the genres and sub-genres they
personify.
By Leon T. Harrison for ENGL 130, Otago
University, Dunedin
Works Cited
Dick, Philip K. Do Androids Dream of
Electric Sheep? Great Britain. Millennium, 1999.
Dick, Philip K. Second Variety. The
Collected Stories. Great Britain. Millennium, 1999.
Gibson, William. Virtual Light. United
States and Canada. Bantam Books, 1994.
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