Decay & Decrepitude in Motion Picture
Decrepitude >>>TAKE4
view of Tyrell Corporation - a decrepit feel to cityscape in 'Blade Runner'
Decrepitude in motion picture arises from a few underlying principles. Most important is the clear presence of denomination of hierarchical levels both in social and physical structure of the world presented in dystopic films. It can be best described in terms of layering of ancient Rome, where the historical presence of the city fragments still remain and coexist with the current structures built on top. This analysis of cityscapes is also reminiscent to current New York, where modern skyscrapers are built amidst almost non-existent Baroque and Victorian structures. In movies, the decrepit factor of old buildings amongst superstructures has almost an existential meaning. This was successfully illustrated in Sci-Fi films of today, where the presentation of the future is futile compared to the current physical scenario. Another underlying principle that pertains to the decrepitude factor is the concept of ‘hyper real’, a manifestation of real versus unreal or substitution of ‘virtual’ for ‘real’, where the media-constructed images and spectacles replace actual objects in the real world. This process can be so omnipresent as to obliterate the distinction between what is real and what is in its distorted representation (Boggs and Pollard, 81). One film that particularly pays a special attention to this ‘layering’ of social and physical structure and articulation of real against virtual is Scott Ridley’s ‘Blade Runner’. This film reminds us that cinema, science fiction and modern urbanism were interwoven products of the same industrial revolution. The city as a monumental form has been mapped and remapped in science fiction, as both utopia and dystopia. While utopias were focused on agrarianism, the city was captured as a negative space (Bukatman, 42). In Blade Runner, this negative space refers to deteriorating city as a set backdrop for presentation of dystopia. The buildings themselves appeared sleek, made of bronze steel, always shot in the dark and rainy night sets, which made them feel omnipotent and overpowering over the people which inhabit them. This effect adds to the intimidation factor in the viewers of the film, further improving the quality of the dystopic nature. The articulation of different levels in quality of living space played an important role to accent on the ‘layering’ effect of the social structure. Detective Deckard, the main character, was living in a high-rise far above the ground at which the commoners lived. The non-human or replicants often did not have a place to live at all. The owner of the Tyrell Corporation lived in a pyramid like superstructure which was soaring high above the rest of the buildings. This constant play between the architecture of the environment and the characters which inhabit it made the set more in tune with the story, presenting a clear denomination of hierarchical levels. It clearly showed the decrepitude factor, where the lower stratum of the city was obliterated by the sleek fabric of hyper architecture built on top. The question of ‘real’ versus ‘virtual’ falls into category of undistinguishable fact between real people and replicants. The decrepit factor here is then the idea of replacing human for the machine, or furthermore, replacing real space for the sake of artificial ‘cyberspace’. Cyberspace is the term used to refer to ‘space’ constituted by information technologies, whether presented as an actual physical space or a metaphorical sense of space, like an extended, immersive computer interface. The concept took on value just as topos of the traditional city had been superseded. A ‘new conception of the urban’ had arisen that was ‘no longer synonymous with locale’, but was defined by the invisible circulation of information permitted by telecommunication technologies (Bukatman, 46). In Blade Runner, there is a clear evidence of this effect. The urban space in the film was clearly affected as it moves toward the condition of cyberspace. The ‘useless’ manpower was then given up for the spectacle of the ‘machine’. Cyberspace exaggerated the disorienting vertigo of the city, but it also summoned a powerful controlling gaze (Bukatman, 48). This machine-controlled world was unmerciful, emphasizing its dystopian cityscapes and determined substitution of urban for electronic. It is this cybertonic effect of the city that makes it sterile, enhancing our theory of decrepitude in motion picture. The notion of hyper reality and spectacle of its excess is successfully presented in Terry Gilliam’s ‘Brazil’. The mutation of technocracy into our lives has now risen to the uncontrollable levels, amplifying the notion of decrepitude conducted by the presence of the ‘machine’. Because of this fact, people have lost confidence in everything that once seemed real, everything that was once presumed culturally moral. Tony Williams states: ‘Brazil is a product of historical movement presenting an apocalyptic scenario of catastrophic proportions in which the crisis situation is impossible to recuperate’ (Sharrett, 204). If he is right then our civilization may not hold up as one, this so called ‘civilization’ as we know it may metamorphose into an infantile power of hyper realism where civilization is measured in terms of endless mathematical codes of explicit equations rather than in progress of cultural ethics and knowledge. Sam Lowry, a main character in the story, is caught in this model of decrepit society and finds himself struggling to rationalize his identity within it. Indulging in masochistic romantic fantasies and desiring the unobtainable object, he exists within a hyper real world of his own imagination (Sharrett, 205). His desire to exist is the only thing real to him and consciously revolts against the brutal society of a microscopic apocalyptic world that surrounds him. Film’s vision to illustrate this phenomenon is immeasurable. In both style and content, the film presents an audience with spectacular desire for illusion. It attempts transcendence of the main narrative’s pessimistic conclusion by offering a dream as an escape from everyday realities (Harrett, 207). Sam confronts his degenerate society by using dreamlike fictional thoughts in attempt to temporarily escape from the world. It is in this escapism from realities that decrepit factor of our society forms in.
Brazil can in a way summarize our attempt to inexplicably explain decay and decrepitude in motion picture. From our moralities to our transgression, there is a lapse of time, a time that has in itself transformed and redefined our intentions as a progressing society. If we feel entrapped by our own intuitions, we shall redefine our morals and rewrite their intended impacts. The machine has taken over our life and we are reduced to nothing but a slave that serves it. In contemplation with this fact, we are left to do nothing but to fantasize about the better world. Rosemary Jackson in ‘Crisis Cinema’ states:
‘A literature of the uncanny, by permitting as articulation of taboo subjects which are otherwise silenced, threatens to transgress social norms. Fantasies are not, however, countercultural merely through this thematic transgression. On the contrary, they frequently serve to re-confirm institutional order by supplying a vicarious fulfillment of desire and neutralizing an urge towards transgression. A more subtle and subversive use of the fantastic appears with works which threaten to disrupt or eat away at the ‘syntax’ or structure by which the order is made’.
artist Syd Mead's sketch of city streetscape in 'Blade Runner'