# Blade Runner---and other insanely over-rated movies ...

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blade-runner-and-other-insanely-over-rated-movies/105739>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [April 26, 2002, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blade-runner-and-other-insanely-over-rated-movies/105739 "2002-04-26T10:02:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 6

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**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\
**Post date:** [May 8, 2002, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blade-runner-and-other-insanely-over-rated-movies/105739/101 "2002-05-08T16:29:18Z")

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Well, alls I can says is, I ain’t no Phillistine. Believe it or not, I do have the ability to appreciate and analyze intellectual art, but when I read “Moby Dick”, I don’t waste a lot of time wondering if the whale is a Republican.

P.S. I don’t need entitlement to speak with mockery.

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**Author:** ![Yondan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/278dde/32.png) [@Yondan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yondan)\
**Post date:** [May 8, 2002, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/blade-runner-and-other-insanely-over-rated-movies/105739/102 "2002-05-08T17:11:26Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> “what is human?” If Deckard is a Replicant, I don’t think he is a machine. Replicants are exceptionally accurate simulacra of humans; indeed, the whole point is that they are almost indistinguishable from the real thing, and then only experts can tell the difference based on observation of minutiae.

Good points, but I see the issue in a different way. Ok, grant that both human and replicant can both have souls, the distinction between the two is still profound. While I could feel for and sympathize with a replicant’s plight, I would never be able to really identify with it. It would still be very important for me that the story retain a human as one of its major characters because the central dilemma is a human one, “what is a human?” not, “what is a simulated human?”

I can think of one way that replicants fail in comparison as biological that is by no means minute: they cannot procreate. (Speaking hypothetically) Replicants are not a race. The film is not just examing the experiences of one man, but of the human _race_. So, in order for the story to retain the integrity of its central question, a _human_ must play a central role.

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