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FILMS OFTEN REFLECT THE KEY SOCIAL VALUES of an era—as represented by the modern and postmodern movies pictured. Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times (1936, above left) satirized modern industry and the dehumanizing impact of a futuristic factory on its overwhelmed workers. Similarly, Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (1982, above right), set in futuristic Los Angeles in 2019, questioned the impact on humanity when technology overwhelms the natural world. In Pop Culture Wars, author William Romanowski suggested that Blade Runner managed to “capture some postmodern themes” that were not fully recognized at the time by “trying to balance the promise of technology with the threats of technology.”17
© Warner Bros./Photofest