Replicants rule
The Times is currently showing its listing of the fifty greatest movie robots (of the making of many lists there is no end). Its choices and ratings are somewhat odd, and have given rise to a number of comments. The most bizarre omission, however, is Blade Runner, and its many replicants, the most dangerous of which Roy Baty (played by Rutger Hauer) is pictured here.
I saw this with a friend when it first came out, and we were both raving about it afterwards. We were very surprised when most reviewers disagreed with us, and it took a long time for the film to be critically appreciated as we were sure it should be.
Apart from the wonderfully realised dystopian vision, and a very good script, (enhanced, in my view, by the voiceovers of the original) the film used the idea of replicants to explore ideas of humanity in dramatic ways. Surely this tends to be why some of the best robot fiction and film really fascinates us: it probes what we understand ourselves to be. How then, could it be omitted from any list of robot films, when it does this better than any other film in the market?