Harrison Ford plays Rick Deckard, in the most underrated and overlooked performance of his carreer to date. An ex-Blade Runner, a kind of bounty hunter, forced out of retirement by his manipulative ex-boss. Deckard is beautifully portrayed by Ford in a role that does not necessarily garner our sympathy. He performs his duty of "retiring" replicants with seemingly little emotion. Even less than the replicants themselves.

Harrison Ford was chosen by director Ridley Scott and productor Michael Deeley because they thought he was the perfect man who could show Deckard's main traits: cinical bureaucracy and emerging sensitivity. Ridley Scott still remembers the first time he met Ford: "Harrison signed for Blade Runner at the end of october 1980, but I met him for the first time on the set, it was late night. He came to London by car, and I suppose he was wearing the same Indiana Jones' hat. I thought 'Oh, shit!'. Till that moment we had always imagined Deckard with the same hat. The same kind the actors were used to wear in the old noir movies. Thus we decided to remove Deckard's hat. If the hat doesn't exist anymore, why not making out a new hair cut? And so Deckard and his crewcut were born.

When Ford was asked about the character feature he liked most, he aswered: "One of Deckard's main qualities lies in the clash between his fears and his own job, that forces him to kill. Thus, even if he could be a good Blade Runner, Deckard is reluctant to work his task out. This conflict and this ambiguity, make the character interesting. Furthermore, he is always teased and beaten!". And we know that Ford does not worry about the physical side of his work. Ford is well known and admired throughout the film community because he is himself used to shoot almost every dangerous scene. He likes to get involved in his job on the physical aspect too. Regarding Scott, he felt that Ford personified the true essence of the movie, a union between the noir genre from the '40s and contemporary sensibilty. The main character, Deckard, is a detective, a guy like Sam Spade or Philip Marlowe, who follows a perception till the end. His problem arises from the fact that he has started to identify himself as his own preys, the replicants. Harrison owns something of Bogey's laconic sadness, but he is more ambivalent, more human. Almost an anti-hero.

Deckard's Description

Harrison Ford & Rick Deckard

Deckard a Rep

Deckard not a Rep

Ridley Scott: "Deckard is a Rep"