Esteban Brena Staged Images, Identity, and Truth In Blade Runner and Minority Report The history of The

Falling Soldier by Robert Capa, depicting -allegedly- the death of Federico Borrell Garca during the Spanish Civil War, might be useful to introduce some of the major concerns of this essay. As early as the 1970s the veracity of this photo has been challenged a number of times. This brings into light the conflict between the concept of photography, and more specifically photojournalism, as a document that is inherently verisimilar, and the ever lingering possibility that this memento could very well be a forgery. It casts a certain amount of doubt about this murder, and it makes the viewer of The Falling Soldier wary of associating the still image with truthfulness. Moreover, whether we choose to believe or not what Capas photograph is showing, carries certain political implications about the nature of justice and denunciation. At the same time, it puts into question the judgment of those authorities in charge of viewing and, later, disseminating these images, and their ability to interpret them. There is a great emphasis on this problem of photography as a legal document, and as a token of memory, that can be altered or staged, in Ridley Scotts Blade Runner (1982) and Steven Spielbergs Minority Report (2002), both of which are based of on works by Philip K. Dick1. However, the fact that both films share the same authorial source does not explain these concerns with images and their problematic relation with reality, which are largely absent in the two works by Dick2. Moreover, the relationship

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968) and the short story The Minority Report One could perhaps trace some parallels between the manipulation of images and their

(1956).
2

relationship to Truth in Scotts Film, and the artificial animals in Dicks Novel. Early on in 1

between Blade Runner and Minority Report is further stressed, or concentrated, in their main characters, Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) and John Anderton (Tom Cruise), respectively. These two characters are futuristic detectives, modeled somewhat on the aesthetics of those in noir films, who are in charge of capturing criminals. In Deckards case, he is portrayed as a retired Blade Runner that used to hunt for escaped replicants, androids that physically and mentally3 resemble human beings used for different kinds of work in the off-Earth colonies in the film. On the other hand, John Anderton is the chief of the PreCrime police force, which captures murderers before they commit their crimes, by using a trio of PreCogs and their visions of the future to predict those crimes and stop them. Apart from their profession, another thing that ties the characters of Anderton and Deckard is the methods through which they work and search for evidence, as they both examine and manipulate images to find their criminals. In the case of Minority Report, Anderton has to skim through the rather chaotic set of images given by the PreCogs in order to find those would-be murderers. This is such an essential part of his work that the very first time this character is presented in the film, he is shown in this act of making sense of the images. Anderton is shown editing and scrubbing through the chaotic visions in front of two judges, in order to find the location of the future Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? there is a dialogue between Deckard and his neighbor where it is stated that for some people, not taking care of an animal is considered immoral and anti-empathic (Dick 442). Animals, whether they are real or artificial, serve to reinforce the notion of humanity for the remaining habitants of the post-apocalyptic earth of the novel. This appears to be analogous to the way the androids in the film cherish their photographs as marks of identity.
3

With the notable exception of emotions, the key element that, at the beginning of the

movie, seems to distinguish them from human beings (a notion that will be challenged repeatedly throughout the film, and much more explicitly in Dicks novel). 2

murderer. As Joanne Clarke Dillman states in Minority Report: Narrative, Images and Dead Women, John Andertons actions mirror those of a film director, and of an orchestral director, and argues that the framing motif is foregrounded here by the layers of screens that predominate: the rear wall is white, blank, and rectangular, suggesting a film screen; the two judges are framed in video screens watching the action; another image plane is the transparent screen on which the images are read and scrubbed (233). In a sense, what Anderton is doing, according to Dillman, i s giving a context to these images and creating a narrative out of them which will prove to the judges that the man in the visions is about to kill his wife. But even though this scene portrays a judicial system based on observation, one should keep in mind that while Anderton might appear to be merely interpreting the images in front of him, he is also constructing and manipulating the evidences of the very crime he is trying to prevent, and this gives way to the possibility of misreading, as Mark Garrett Cooper argues, this situation makes accusation indistinct from evidence and defines the accused as a murderer in advance of a judgement (31). In the world of Minority Report, there is no trial for the would-be murderers, or if there is one, it is highly subjective, as it occurs in the absence of the defendant and as such, he/she has no opportunity to defend him/herself. Rick Deckards interactions with photographic evidences, while less overtly manipulative, are still problematic. Around the middle of the film, he is shown inspecting one of the photos that Leon, the first Nexus-6 that appears in the film, took of himself and that he left unwillingly- on the apartment where the androids where hiding. With the aid of a computer, Rick Deckard is able to zoom in and pan around Leons photograph. In contrast to the relation of Anderton to the PreCogs visions, Rick is unsure of what he is searching, and he spends the first half of this scene inspecting

various segments of the photograph. However, Harrison Fords character soon focuses his attention on the mirror on one corner of the picture. He orders the computer to zoom in more and more until he sees a shawl reflected in the mirror, and then instructs the computer to change the angle of the picture, thus revealing Zhora lying in the bathtub, one of the female androids he is chasing. In a sense, the machine is giving information to Deckard that was not there in the original picture by extrapolating the information in a two-dimensional image into a three-dimensional one. In a similar manner as Andertons, Rick Deckard, with the aid of the Esper machine, is constructing his evidence4. But even if Rick Deckard and john Anderton are consciously manipulating the images although they might not be aware of the consequences of these acts- in order to attain some knowledge of the other they are prosecuting, they and some of the other characters in the films- relay heavily on photographs and video to reassure themselves of their identity. In the first half of Minority Report, a guilt-ridden Anderton compulsively watches three-dimensional recordings of his ex-wife and missing son., while consuming Clarity, a vision-enhancing drug. Although certainly efficient at work, Andertons private life is portrayed in the film as that of an addict: his house is a mess, there is food lying around, and there is very little lighting. But even if the film stresses the relation between Andertons ingestion of Clarity, and his sessions of family movies, he

Nevertheless, one should keep in mind that the relation between Anderton and the

visions and Deckard and the photograph differs in the degree of authorship that they possess. Anderton is, as it has been already argued, taking the place of a film director, constructing a narrative, while the position of Rick Deckard, he is sitting in front of the screen as would someone watching television, and his interactions with the Esper machine would put him more in the area of active spectatorship, with less control over the raw materials he is analyzing. 4

appears to be much more addicted to the images. He interacts with the recording of his son trying to run, by repeating the lines he was saying at the moment of the recording. In a way, it could be argued that in this scene John Andertons relation to th e image is the opposite of the first scene, as here he plays the part of an actor repeating his lines from memory. This insistence on Andertons addiction to the remnants of his past is portrayed as illusory, and given the connection between drugs and memory, unhealthy. These three-dimensional recordings are depicted only as a simulacrum of life, as they give the appearance of a body with contours and volume, but behind this projection there is only an obscured space, or shadow, where Andertons son should be. While the veracity of the projections of Andertons previous family life are not challenged through the film, or not as explicitly, in Blade Runner there is a strong emphasis on the Nexus-6 androids and their obsession with family photographs, as if they tried to grasp for any tangible symbols of their identity they could find. In the case of Rachel, the photographs she tries to hold on to as proof of her humanity are in fact only pictures of Tyrells real niece (which significantly never appears in the film). After Rick applies the Voight-Kampff test to her, Tyrell confesses to Deckard that he has given Rachel memories of his niece in order to create a cushion or a pillow for her emotions. Her childhood photographs are, if not fake, the reminder of someone elses past. Later on, she goes to Deckards apartment, yielding the photographs as proof of her not being a replicant, but Rick corrects her, saying that they are, Implants. Those arent your memories, theyre someone elses. The conflict here is that even if Rachels memories

are implanted, she still has them and they correspond to the images she possesses. In a way, even though they are a construction, these images are still hers 5. On the other hand, Leon, fully aware that he is an android, takes pictures of himself, not as representations of his past, but as symbols that prove his existence in the present. In these photos, he is undistinguishable from a human, highlighting that, if there is any difference between the androids and human beings, it lies not on the physical realm. There is a certain irony in the fact that the very proofs of his existence in the world are later on used by Deckard to hunt him and Zhora down, thus ending their lives. Then there is the matter of Deckards own set of family portraits, which, in some readings, would align him with the replicants, making him one of them. However, my concern here is not with whether Harrison Fords character is a covert replicant or not, but how this accumulation of photographs highlight that this preoccupation with memory and photography is shared by androids and humans alike. The family portraits of Rick, composed largely of pictures of women, loom in the background of his house and they are not as foregrounded as those of Rachel or Leon. Further off, and although this seems rather obvious, Deckards photos are not of himself but of previous generations of his family. These pictures are evidence of a past, but a different kind of those of Rachel and Leon, as Deckards family images bind him to a past beyond his own existence; they give him a heritage. When Rachel sees these photographs, she lets her hair down imitating the women in the pictures. The fact that this act on the part of Rachel incites Deckards sexual desire towards her can be read on Oedipal terms, as he is, in a way, attracted to a woman replicating the style and image of his mother. But what

There is a correlation between these memory implants and the mood-organ of Dicks

novel. Even though the memories and the feelings proceed from an exterior source, they are still shaping the reality of the receiving individual. 6

is most intriguing is Rachels very act of imitation, which I can only interpret as an attempt on her part to be aligned to humanity by copying the images of those women of the past. If Rachels likeness to the pictures in his piano acts as a catalyzer for Rick Deckards primal urges, then the orgy of evidence that Anderton finds in the hotel room of Leo Crow are expected, at least by Lamar, to enact a similar reaction on the part of Anderton, propelling him to kill Crow. And that seems to be the logical conclusion, until after a moment of hesitation Anderton learns that the whole scene was staged and that Leo Crow was paid to pretend to be his sons kidnapper. The photographs showing Leo Crow and Andertons son are forgeries, and from this point on in Minority Report, even if it had been hinted in the previous scenes, the conception that the Image carries an inherent truth with them is challenged. The Image is always subject to interpretation, and as this staged set of photographs suggests, there is the possibility of someone elsein this case Lamar- arranging them in order to point at a preferred reading of the images. Up to this scene, Anderton has followed this equation of Image as equal to truth, and though he challenges the veracity of the PreCogs prediction that he will kill Leo Crow, he nonetheless behaves as if he was already guilty, running away from the cops and following the chain of events that will lead him to this killing. But at this point Anderton seems to recognize the problems of this logic, and choses not to kill Crow as it was predicted, even though Crow himself shots himself, or forces Anderton to do so, out of desperation. Now that the relationship between Image and Truth is challenged, it is possible to move on to the murder of Anne Lively and the manipulation of events on the part of Lamar Burgess, the director of PreCrime. Lamar disguises the actual killing of Anne Lively as only an echo of her attempted murder on the hands of a stranger that he had hired, and, aware of the workings of the

PreCrime system, he knows that the technicians will overlook this mirror crime. He commits a murder in order to prevent more from happening. But through the insistence of Agathas returning once and again to the murder of her mother, Anderton finally discovers Lamars crime and exposes him during a ball in his honor. But in this concluding scene, the discrepancy between images and truth that had been established through the essay is contradicted. Anderton, with the help of one of his loyal co-workers, projects onto the partys walls the raw feed of Agathas visions of the murder of Anne Lively. In the ending of Minority Report there is a reversal of the first scene of the movie, with Anderton alone watching and editing the visions of the PreCogs. Now the vision itself, without editing, is presented to a jury of Lamars peers, who after seeing the evidence, agree that Lamar is guilty. But in translating the processes of justice from the realm of the private, with only Anderton as judge and jury, to that of the public, this scene unknowingly reestablishes the conception of Image as truth. PreCrimes method of judging and prosecuting a would-be criminal might be wrong and might lead to a misreading of the visions, but what Spielbergs film ends up implying is that there is indeed some truth attainable through the participation of the community in the observance and judgment of these crimes. Moreover, it displaces the failure of PreCrime from the system itself to that of the individual. Nonetheless, at the end of Minority Report, this metaphysical judicial system is replaced with the earlier one of AngloAmerican jurisprudence (Cooper 31). On the other hand, the ending of Blade Runner offers an opposite view on the Image as Truth. Roy Batty, who Unlike Deckard, Rachel, and Leon,[] does not collect photos by way of securing his identity challenges the validity of photographs as testimony of ones past, and not only do we not see him with any pictures of his own, but he also seems to treat the photo collecting of others with ironic irreverence (Pope

85). He knows that those photographs to which Leon clings are nothing but forgeries, and will not help him preserve his self, or the memory of his life. In the final scene, just as his life is coming to a pre-programmed end, Roy delivers a monologue to Rick about all these moments [that] will be lost in time after he is gone. As Pope argues, through this [] Roy is effectively taking control of his environment, which is the same thing, at this moment, as saying that he re-enables the Symbolic [a concept Pope takes from iek] through testimony (86). Roy discards photography as a means to be

remembered, and tries to disseminate his memory to Deckard and the audiencethrough the oral, uncertain of whether he will succeed or not. The question that both films seem to posit is how to make sense of reality and identity. In Minority Report, the collective, not the individual, is the only one that can establish a common truth trough observation and differing accounts of reality. Only the collective can judge Lamar and assign him the identity of a criminal. On the other hand, Scotts film seems to point is that the only way to preserve ones memory and identity after death is through the act of testimony from person to person, a more discreet operation that nonetheless implies a collective. The point of convergence of both discourses lies in the importance given to the relationship between being perceived and the construction of ones identity. But this relation between being perceived and ones identity is problematic for figures such as the nexus-6, who strive to be considered something more than machines while the judicial system of Earth considers them nothing more and hunts them, and for the PreCogs themselves, who in order to attain a certain independence from the PreCrime system that exploited them, they must be as far removed from the Gaze of Minority Reports future.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Aichele, George. The Possibility of Error: Minority Report and the Gospel of Mark; Biblical interpretation: A Journal of Contemporary Approaches, 14 (1-2), 2006. pp. 143-57 (MLA international Bibliography). Cooper, Mark Garrett. The Contradictions of Minority Report. Film Criticism 28 (2), 2004. Pp. 24-41 (MLA International Bibliography). Dick, Philip K. Four Novels of the 1960s. Ed. Jonathan Lethem. New York: Library Of America, 2007. --- The Minority Report. The Philip K. Dick Reader. New York: Citadel Press 1987. pp. 323-354. Dillman, Joanne Clarke. Minority Report: Narrative, Images, and Dead Women. Womens Studies. An Interdisciplinary Journal, June, 36 (4), 2007. pp. 229-49 (MLA International Bibliography). Pope, Richard. Affects of the Gaze: Post-Oedipal Desire and the Traversal of Fantasy in Blade Runner. Camera Obscura 73, vol. 25 (1). 2010. pp. 69-95 (MLA International Bibliography). Scott, Ridley. Blade Runner. United States: Warner Bros, 1982 (DVD). Spielberg, Steven. Minority Report. United States: 20th Century Fox, 2002 (DVD). Sutton, Brian. Sophocless Oedipus the King and Spielbergs Minority Report. Explicator, 63 (4), 2005. pp. 194-97 (MLA International Bibliography).

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