Having watched Blade Runner twice now, I still find that I have no real interest in the plot or the romantic subplot between the characters Rachel and Deckard, and certainly still abhor the sci-fi backdrop. The reasons are very simple; the plot is confusing and over-complicated; the romance comes across as forced and pretentious and the synthetic world in Blade Runner bears almost no resemblance to my life.
That all said, the 'tears in rain' scene moved me deeply the first time I saw it and I have gone onto Youtube time and time again to watch just that. The film's theme of humanity is expressed best here for so many reasons. Whilst keeping the characters in visual context (neon lights are still aplenty and the colours remain dark and grimy) the audience are given a new insight through the script and the cinematography. Both give Roy Batty – the biggest and meanest Replicant – his saving grace as he finally accepts his own mortality. His humanity has just been proved as he saves Deckard from a fatal fall - with the same hand he had stabbed a rusting nail through minutes before, in efforts to stay alive – even though he is no stranger to killing with his bare hands. The moments he describes:
“I watched C-beams...glitter in the dark near the Tannhรคuser Gate.”
he says, will all be 'lost..in time..like..tears in rain.' The recognition of how those moments are what made him human: the ability to appreciate the horror and the beauty of them – proves that humanity is not something you're born with – it can be learned. The camera work lends the scene a lucid grace that emphasises his acceptance with death ultimately when the dove is let go to fly up against the dark, polluted sky which is heavy with rain. The odd angle of this shot draws special attention to it and the meaning of it is – the world stays the same: there is still a dark world with evil and twisted morals below them but he is now free because he is human.
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