I saw it again last night, and I knew that I would

I saw Blade Runner at the Cinerama again last night, this time with intelligentrix. (SPOILERS ho!) We chewed it over afterwards, and she had a very interesting interpretation of the scene in which Deckard makes Rachel make love to him. I've always felt that the most charitable interpretation of what he does there is that he's telling a replicant with no real experience (and perhaps only the memories of a little girl) how to proceed, but it still always seems very coercive. Basically, a rape. However, intelligentrix thinks it also reflects Deckard's own internal struggle with his feelings about replicants (whom he needs to remain alienated from in order to do his murderous job) and his loner's lack of connection or savoir faire in personal interactions with others. In other words, he's talking himself through it too. It's certainly true that he looks completely freaked out in that scene -- pale and distraught, as though he's just seen a ghost. The ghost in the machine? The ghost of his own need for human contact?

It was great to see the movie with another enthusiast. We gabbed about it nonstop until I dropped her off in the far north.