tears-in-rain

Although the idea of ‘love’ between man and Replicant is explored in a different
way throughout the film. As I’ve covered countless times before Deckard only ever
directly kills female Replicants in the film. It’s an interesting little tick towards perhaps
this either rupturing Deckard’s guilt more than killing the males, or perhaps a different
tick altogether. A tick in the direction of the ‘capitalist machine’.
Sean Redmond herself comments that “Deckard kills Zhora as she runs through
a crowded shopping mall, the inner Cathedral of Capitalism.”[1] And it’s almost perfect
for her to death to take place in such a barbaric and perhaps blasphemous place.
Blasphemous to the human condition of course, where materialism takes place over life
itself.
Life as an object is explored further throughout the dialogue exchange between
Deckard and Rachael in their first meeting. Deckard comments on the owl, with glinting
eyes, that it “Must be expensive.” with Rachael replying “Very.” Perhaps as an
establishment of power? Money here seems to be worth a lot more than just the paper
it’s printed on but an establishment of power and who exactly holds it over whom.
Further still is life exacerbated as an object of worth, with the conversation about
Rachael’s fate following Leon’s death. Deckard merely says “It’s part of the business.”
and she replies “I am the business.” business. It reminds me of the ‘businesslike’
depiction of John Proctor’s death in The Crucible. Life and death are handled like
business exchanges, like facts fed into a ‘capitalist machine’. Money is the price of life,
and the Replicants seem disposable like a fridge or something.
Tyrell himself says “Commerce is our goal here at Tyrell.” Not the actual
technology. He isn’t building towards a brighter future for the populace but rather an iron
grip through economic imperialism. A truly ‘fat cat’ motivate as it were. Nowhere is this
more relevant than in today’s political sphere. A world where the ‘Wall Street
Government’ has become a newly political term, alongside that of ‘Underclass’. The
‘capitalist machine’ of today seems not that different from the machine of tomorrow, of
2019.
Beyond the monetary value of human life is the issue of weighing up both
genders. While I commented earlier about Deckard killing only female Replicants, it’s
interesting to notice just how sexism is portrayed in the feature. Deckard uses the
disguise of a weirdly flamboyant inspector trying to see if Zhrora is being “Exploited” and
Bryant himself comments on her as a “Pleasure model.” I’m not one to argue that this is
probably a touch on the wider ‘feminist’ themes of the picture but it seems rather
dehumanizing for both parties, doesn’t it? That the men who ‘use’ Zhora aren’t really
acting in love but just in primitive love, it’s rather regressive in that way. Zhora herself
carries a price-tag too, one absolutely advertised by Taffey Lewis’ bar. The snake
around her neck being the “Serpent that once corrupted man.” Perhaps the snake has
taken on a new form in the ‘capitalist machine’?