This video-essay analyzes Ridley Scott’s early masterpiece, Blade Runner. Already one of the most closely discussed films of the last few decades, this investigation places it within the context of Ridley Scott’s personal life as well as that of the author, Philip K. Dick from whose novel the film is adapted. Extending from that base, it traces the influence of such films as Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane, Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal, Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow-Up (which took the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 1966), Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Conformist, and Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now (which also won the Palme d’Or in 1979). It also shows how Ridley Scott, drawing on his studies at London’s Royal College of Art used the works of Hieronymus Bosch, Jan Van Eyck and architect Frank Lloyd Wright as sources of both visual inspiration and thematic reference.
This video-essay is part of a series I am uploading for education purposes and is protected under the Fair Use copyright laws of the United States.
This is an excellent bio-ethnographical (merging biography and auto-ethnography) analysis of the magnificent film “Blade Runner” by filmmaker Ridley Scott and the writer Philip K. Dick.
With an indeph look on the real life-experiences of the filmmaker and the writer and their high professional image-references search to paint this film this filmanalysis makes realy sense.
As an gentleman researcher (independent researcher) I prepare a PhDs in auto-ethnography / ethnomethodology concerning Pictorialist Photographers § Silent Filmmakers and Slow Film-makers : biographies, memoirs and biopicts about visual artists (especially filmmakers) in close relationship with their artistic works are one of my main research-foci. It’s all about artistic research, filmmakers practise based and practise-led research…
I will view and review all your analyses very carefully.
Well done, Steven!
Werner
Hasselt, Belgium
Hello Werner,
Many thanks for your very kind words on the essay. I send you my best wishes for your PhD and hope you enjoy my other essays.