Lam: Blade Runner and the Voiceover

Blade Runner (1982) and the Role of the Voiceover

                In Blade Runner (1982), I feel that the voice over played almost no purpose. However, the producer severely underestimated the audience and almost insults the audience by essentially telling them that they need a narrator to tell them the story or else they would never understand the film. The director, actor Harrison Ford, and original creator expressed that they did not want a voice over (Pfeiffer 120). Therefore, Harrison Ford narrated the part poorly in an attempt to sway the producer from using the narrative. However, the producer intended the purpose of the voiceover to inform the audience on background information that supposedly could not be attained via the context of the film.

                Viewers do learn a few facts in the beginning of the film, but one can argue that these facts are almost erroneous and not exactly needed. One scene in particular where a voiceover was employed was during a panning of the settings of the city. Harrison Ford's character narrated during this pan and enlightened the audience about the language that was being spoken. He explained that the language was the language of the little people and was a mish-mash of Spanish, French, Japanese, and several other languages. One could argue that this fact is erroneous because all of the dialogue in the film was in English. Also, the settings definitely indicated a Japanese area using signs, but even if the audience could not distinguish Japanese from other Asian languages, which is often the case, audience members could still most likely recognize that the language was of Asian descent. The narrative at the end of the film also felt rather unnecessary as the audience does not learn anything new. The last narrative was basically a repetition of what Roy said at his time of death. If the producer was worried that the audience would not understand that Deckard also finally understood Roy's final words, then putting the ending in would help. The voiceover made the final scene just ridiculous and almost unreal and unnecessary.

                The thematic messages of the film were portrayed very well without the need for a voiceover. All of the thematic messages could have been understood via the settings, the dialogue, or the actions of the actors and actresses. Having a voiceover convey thematic messages would be terribly underwhelming to the audience because if the audience learns everything via a voiceover, then the audience does not even get the chance to become invested into the film and organically learn through the film about its thematic messages. Again, a film contains so many other aspects that could do the same job as a voiceover does. Even in the beginning of the film during the on-screen text, if the producer really doubted the audience's intelligence, this would have been a better place to provide more information-- not via a very badly done and lackasadical voiceover.