| differences.
To begin with the most obvious, the novel
is set in the year 1992 (a
year which itself is
now enshrined in the minds of the
films
devotees) in San Francisco, not 2019 Los
Angeles. In the
novel's world, San Francisco is
underpopulated, disinhabited,
which
diametrically places the population problem of
Philip Dick's
world against that of Ridley
Scott's. Plus, the character of Deckard is
also
dissimilar; in the novel he is portrayed as
being a henpecked
"petty bureaucrat" (Future
Noir, p. 17), whereas in the film he is
a
brooding, burned-out detective. Also, to fully
explain the
scarcity of animals within the
fictional world of the film would have
given the
text more of an ecologically informed sub-text.
Such
‘eco-films’ were not accepted as part of
the mainstream popular culture
at the time of
Blade Runner’s original release, and therefore
would
have jeopardised its commercial success.
The exclusion of Mercerism within the film
can also be placed at the
door of commercialism. |
Mercerism was a religion, a counter religion to
the
dominant one - Christianity. The Christian
symbolism (Batty and his
comrades representing
fallen angels, Tyrell representing God,
and
Batty also representing the Christ figure, and
so on...) was
utilised because it is simply the
dominant religion, something that
almost
everyone, at least in the western world, can
easily
recognise; it’s readily identifiable.
Mercerism, as a religion, would
be completely
alien to an audience, it would need to be
explained to
them in full; the origins of
Mercerism, and the hold that it had over
the
general public, as well as the use of “mood
organs” and “empathy
box’s” would be very
difficult to concisely and coherently explain
in
the film as well as keeping all the other story
elements moving.
The scene in the novel where Deckard gets
taken to the ‘replicant
precinct’ was probably
dropped to its somewhat surreal nature. It
also
carried the theme of ‘what is real?’ and ‘what
is not?’ which,
although a recurring theme in
the novels of P.K.D., was not carried
over to |