Blade Runner was a powerful film. It was also portrayed in an interesting
light, much different from the book. One
part of the film that contributed to its effectiveness was the voiceover
track. I think it’s interesting how a
voiceover can actually have a big impact on the audience while watching the
film.
The purpose of voiceovers in general is to tell a story from
a different view. It is almost like
having access to the inside of what someone is thinking or some type of
exclusive information. Voiceovers tend
to create a separate story log in itself because it is something that is needed
for the film. Voiceovers do not work in
every film, but it worked effectively in Blade Runner.
The purpose of the voiceover in Blade Runner is to give the
audience an inside view of what Deckard is thinking. We can see his actions, but it makes it even
better when we know his thoughts. Knowing
his thoughts and seeing his actions helps the audience put the whole story
together in a better way.
Imagine Blade Runner without a voiceover track. It can be possible to understand the movie,
but the audience would miss underlying meanings. The audience would be left to guess how
Deckard feels at a certain point. Some points
would be unclear if it were not for the voiceover. Without the voiceover, there would appear to
be missing parts in the film.
The voiceover is effective in conveying thematic messages
throughout the film because it touches on parts that just pictures could not
convey. It gives the audience the sense
that they have the inside scoop or all around access to some of the thoughts in
the movie. Knowing what is going on in
someone’s mind is like a cheat sheet because it sheds light on other scenes
throughout the movie.
It was especially helpful towards the end because various
conclusions could have been drawn from the end, but because we know what was in
Deckard’s thoughts at the time, the audience was better able to understand the
situation and Deckard himself.
Smith – Comment
ReplyDeleteYour point of view on the effect of the voice over in the movie was one that was new to me. As we had discussed in class, the voice over was not able to give us anything new that the movie alone gave us. I think that the voice over was not necessarily needed because of the good acting unaided being enough to make our own rational inferences about what his feeling are and what he is thinking about at the end. I think that if people needed a voice over, they were not paying a close attention to the movie as a whole and in turn picking up on the underlying themes.
I like how you are trying to take the movie and put it in a new light, however, I do not completely agree with your analysis. Both the directors and Harrison Ford hated the idea of a voice over and you can almost hear the disdain in his voice. I think that it does help with making it easier for people to all come to the same conclusion, but it also infers that the producers believed that their audience was dumb. No one wants to think of himself or herself as dumb. I think we will see how effective the movie is without the voice over next week in the directors cut and can decide then if the voice over was necessary.
I have to disagree with your assessment of the voice over. While I agree that they do give us insight as to what Deckard (Harrison Ford) is thinking, I tend think that the audience would be able to figure these things out themselves. I think that movies that leave a little bit of mystery happen to be more entertaining in a lot of ways. It keeps the audience thinking about the film after its over and it allows them to take the film whatever way they want to. The voice-overs in Blade Runner just tell us exactly how we should feel and they don’t leave anything open for interpretation.
ReplyDeleteI do happen to agree that in the beginning the voice-overs help to explain things in the movie. Since the movie is very different from reality some may need the voice-overs in order to be able to follow the movie. I just don’t like the ending scene when Deckard is speaking about how he feels about Rachael through the voice over. I think it is very corny and it pretty much ruins the entire voice over for me. In addition to that, Deckard’s tone through the voice-overs is very dull in my opinion. I can also feel Ford’s dissatisfaction with the voice-overs through his voice.
I just think that the film could have been perfectly fine without the voice-over. It may have left some people to be confused a bit in the beginning but I think throughout the film they would have been able to catch on. The creators should have just trusted that the audience was smart enough to catch on and not dumb the movie down with a corny voice-over.
When i began typing this there was no comment on this blog. Sorry!
ReplyDeleteYunuen Cacique-Borja,
ReplyDeleteI agree that the voice over was helpful, especially to someone who had not read the book or knew the background of the story. At the same time, Harrison Ford could have made the voice over a little more interesting. His voice was out of place in this futuristic film. His voice appeared out of a bad detective movie, giving the movie a mixed theme feeling. Also his choice of words could have been better picked and could have been inserted at better places. Instead I found his comments rather random at times and quite self-explanatory. (I also read in another blog that the people writing the voice-over script did not carefully design the script making the comments appear sloppy). To me the movie was a let down from the theme to the voice over. I definitely think that the producers should have paid attention to the small details of the book because even without the electric sheep and mercer they could have made the movie into a blockbuster. You can tell that finances and self-interest got in the way of making this film fantastic. A book uses words to paint a picture and thus a good movie does not need voice over because the visuals aid in the creation of the theme.