Bladerunner and Frankenstein

Mary Shelley and Ridley Scott present contextually relevant representations of their respective worlds. The role of nature and the natural in these worlds is depicted in many similar ways with the fundamental values of the composers overlapping. Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’ (published in 1818) develops concepts sparked by romanticist thinking and from a rejection of enlightenment thinking. Romanticists such as Shelley valued the place of nature in the world and the imperative need to preserve it. Not only did Shelley value the physicality of nature, but she also valued the personal qualities of compassion, emotion and acceptance in pertaining human nature. Shelley explores the effect of actions that reject humanity and challenges her audience to question what defines us as human or what takes us away from humanity. With the somewhat frightening discovery of galvanism on the front of science at the time, there is an emphasis on the dangers of continued scientific development and its dehumanising effects. Shelley tells a gothic/horror cautionary didactic tale, warning enlighteners in particular. Similarly, in Ridley Scott’s ‘Bladerunner-Director’s cut’ (Released first in 1982, then the director’s cut in 1992) contextually relevant issues such as the arise of the theory of Global Warming and an oil spill at the time played major roles in influencing the values that Scott represents. Although many of the values displayed in Frankenstein are similar to those in Bladerunner, Scott encapsulates a new response to them, more relevant to his contemporary personal context. The industrialised society of the 80s saw an urgency to preserve nature. It is constantly dark in the film and Scott challenges us to think of how ‘enlightened’ we actually are. Scott depicts the effects of continuing scientific development and the detrimental effects of the effects technological age on nature and humanity. Both composers explore the effects of pushing past the natural limitations and the...