The recurring use of odd lighting to
highlight replicant eyes in the movie is meant to draw attention to
their non-human state. Since so much of our communication as a
species is through nonverbal facial cues, especially around the eye
area, we have come to associate human eyes with human-ness and
individual personality. Reading the intent, mood, and health of
another individual by taking in details about their eyes
unconsciously is a fundamental part of how we operate and associate
identity. Because the eyes are highlighted ominously, we are told
that the character isn't normal in an instinctual way.
However, I don't think that the replicants' non-human state is part of a non-human nature. The movie explicitly states that they have all the fundamentals and complexities of human emotion and thought, but without the life experience to shape these things or give them context for the individual. The crux of the movie is Tyrell Corporation's attempt to ensure that replicants don't develop past reactionary programming; they are edging onto the border of being human, and society wants them to stay on that side of the border. The “monster” of Otherness and uncanniness is to them less terrifying and less of a physical threat than awakened humanity; love dolls and factory machines don't suddenly rise up, but people do.
There is an unspoken ethical streak through the movie that reflects a side of this. When “real” animals are mentioned, as in the replicant tests, humans are expected to have compassion and not harm them. There may be an in-the-movie-world understanding that a replicant is only a replicant as long as it stays on that other side of the human divide, and once they become people the whole basis of their exploitation crumbles.
The strange eyes aren't eerie because they belong to something inhuman, but because they belong to something becoming human. As long as that something remains a something and not a someone, however uncanny the may be the world can still manage them. An identity, a wholeness of self, is expressed by the familiar human-ness of their eyes; and that difference is what sets Deckard and Batty apart from the other replicants.
However, I don't think that the replicants' non-human state is part of a non-human nature. The movie explicitly states that they have all the fundamentals and complexities of human emotion and thought, but without the life experience to shape these things or give them context for the individual. The crux of the movie is Tyrell Corporation's attempt to ensure that replicants don't develop past reactionary programming; they are edging onto the border of being human, and society wants them to stay on that side of the border. The “monster” of Otherness and uncanniness is to them less terrifying and less of a physical threat than awakened humanity; love dolls and factory machines don't suddenly rise up, but people do.
There is an unspoken ethical streak through the movie that reflects a side of this. When “real” animals are mentioned, as in the replicant tests, humans are expected to have compassion and not harm them. There may be an in-the-movie-world understanding that a replicant is only a replicant as long as it stays on that other side of the human divide, and once they become people the whole basis of their exploitation crumbles.
The strange eyes aren't eerie because they belong to something inhuman, but because they belong to something becoming human. As long as that something remains a something and not a someone, however uncanny the may be the world can still manage them. An identity, a wholeness of self, is expressed by the familiar human-ness of their eyes; and that difference is what sets Deckard and Batty apart from the other replicants.
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