Blade Runner

The Film: In my opinion, one of the greatest science-fiction films ever made. It was released in 1982 and to this day nothing comes close; visually, aurally, and maybe even emotionally. The cast and crew put their blood, sweat, and tears into this and it shows in every frame. In spite of all this, you'll either love it or hate it, but give it at least two viewings before you decide, there are a lot of subtleties to pick up on. This is not an action film, it's a noir and also a bit on the artsy side (and it pains me to use this word, I don't consider myself to be an artsy person). The first time I watched it my thoughts were along the line of "...Okay?", I went back to it a year later and it all just suddenly clicked. I now place it among my top favorite films and I've seen it at least six times in the few years since. Everything about it is just flawless, the writing, the acting, the sets and lighting, the music etc. all come together to create a stunning whole (I could praise the sets and music until I'm blue in the face, amazing). When you watch it, be sure and do it right; watch it late at night, lights out, without any distractions (in fact, this is one of the few movies that I prefer to watch alone), it's the only way to do it. This is not a daytime, friends over and chatting movie, you'll ruin it for yourself. Again, give it at least two tries before you make up your mind on it. Many, many people dislike it at first glance (probably in part because it's so different from the mainstream and what we are accustomed to) but it often grows on them upon subsequent viewings. The Final Cut Edition: Gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous. I don't have a Blu-Ray player or the latest greatest television, but even on DVD on my 32" 720p LCD it looks fantastic. Beautifully remastered picture and sound, and the scene extensions, while all short, are a welcome addition. They also did a really great job digitally adding Zhora's real face back in, to where it no longer looks like a stuntwoman with an afro-wig. It truly is seamless now. Fear not however, this is not a George Lucas style re-release and it is not wildly altered, it is absolutely the original Blade Runner film that everyone knows and loves, only it has now been brought to perfection. The big issue that will divide some viewers is the voice-over narration, or rather, the lack thereof. Personally, I prefer it without the narration (I just thought it sounded really cheesy and poorly done and detracted from the greatness of the film), the lack of narration only makes me enjoy the Final Cut even more, but I know that some people prefer it with the narration and if you really have to have it then look elsewhere, it is entirely absent here. The cheesy tacked-on ending (the one that included landscape footage from the shooting of "The Shining") was also axed and now we get a good one that better fits the nature of the film (again, my opinion). There is also a few hours worth of documentary on the second disc that I enjoyed. All-in-all, a must-own. Yes, it's true, you might not like it, but you owe it to yourself to give it a chance (two chances). It may just end up becoming a favorite and drawing you deep into its beautifully bleak world as it did with me. Highly, highly recommended, this is a masterpiece in every sense.

This is a fantastic movie in its own right, even if it's not necessarily a faithful adaptation of Philip K. Dick's novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?"

Without question or doubt, this film; more specifically, this version of this film, is now a genuine masterpiece. I remember seeing this film in the theatre back in 82. I was not impressed -- not in the slightest. That voice-over -- good god -- what a horrible idea that was. And all the silly, blatant goofs: Not just the dove ascending into a perfectly blue sky after having established that it is night, heavily overcast and raining. The cheap, cheesy wig Zhora's stunt double wears while being killed. These are the most glaring. The mismatched dialogue when Deckart is speaking to the snake salesman -- just awful; and blindingly obvious. That moronic, stupid "happy" ending, that has nothing to do with the rest of the film, parts of which were lifted from the outtakes made by Kubrick for The Shining. There are others, but these goofs are the ones that really stand out, really call attention to themselves; more like SCREAM attention to themselves. But now, this film moves along seamlessly, beautifully, flawlessly, beginning to end. Each shot could be lifted from the film and mounted on the wall as a masterpiece of photography. It all simply took my breath away. Mostly due to the masterful restoration. Gorgeous! There's one other aspect of this film that I noticed this time: When I saw it in the theatre back in the 80s, it seemed to crawl along. But now, I didn't even notice the passage of time. I started the film; and before I knew it, the end credits were rolling. I was not bored or distracted; not even for a moment. And as far as I'm concerned, the two crimes a film can commit which I consider unforgivable is 1) not making me care about the characters, and 2) being boring. A film that bores me or fails to make me care for the characters heads for the garbage. But Blade Runner, the Final Cut is perfect, compelling and gripping, and I actually cared about what was happening, mostly to the hero: Roy Batty. Just as an aside: Deckart is NOT the hero. He is the villain. Roy Batty is the one being threatened with death, unjustly, unfairly. Deckart is the assassin. And Tyrell is the Supreme Evil One; the Darth Vader; the Satan who creates and then destroys life. Roy actually manages to kill the Supreme Evil One and escape; but ultimately, he cannot escape the evil Tyrell designed into him. So when Batty dies in the end, and Deckart escapes with the girl, it is a twist on the usual plot resolution. It flips the usual resolution, because in this case, the villain gets the girl and the hero dies. The film, therefore, is a TRAGEDY. It is a tragedy in the classical sense. Again, I must point out that I never give 5 stars to any film, unless it proves to be a work of cinematic art, perfect in every respect. So far, I've given 5 stars to no film that I've yet reviewed. This will be the first that earns from me 5 stars -- and well deserved.

Seldom does a movie come around that is as popular or more popular than it was decades ago. Blade Runner was a Box Office flop when it originally debuted in 1982. Although the film quickly gained a cultish following of hardcore fans that enjoyed it as an epic Sci-fi classic. Now in 2007 the movie can once again be enjoyed by it's masses. A newly remastered collection of five discs has made it's way to hi-def world. So how does it look and play all these years later. Extremely well. I am probably one of the few to buy this movie who has actually only watched it once before. I was a child when this movie first came out and it was hard to understand how good of a movie this is until now as an adult. The story takes place in a futuristic world set in 2017. From the first moment on you can realize the epic scale this movie was put on. A corporation has created these cyber humans called replicants. Nearly identical to real people they were created to do slave labor. Although the replicants are very human like and that causes problems. Thus brings in Blade Runners. These bounty hunters go searching for rogue replicants. The replicants have been banned from Earth which means the Blade Runner must find any that find there way here. Harrison Ford plays one of the Blade Runner by the name of Rick Deckard. Fresh from his first Indiana Jones movie he shows why he is a action/sci-fi star. Four replicants free themselves from a planet and have come to Earth to search for their maker. From the first moment on this movie begins to raise philosophical questions. Right or wrong and should all replicants be retired(killed) for just being a replicant. Especially when these replicants become so human like. This becomes evident in the character played by Sean Young named Rachael. So human like and yet created by science. Most of the movie appears dark in many scenes, night seems to be when people live in this futuristic world. Despite the darkness much of the color is illuminated in a light blue color which is fascinating to the eyes. The music sets the tone thru the movie in which it can be rather pleasant to sometimes eery. The Blu-ray version of this film is quite a feat. The sheer beauty of it in high definition is the clear vision that Ridley Scott intended. From the first scene to the last you can tell this movie went thru more than a once over. The sound is excellent and really brings out the film. Blade Runner is without a doubt another classic. Although a sci-fi movie the story delves much deeper than that. This is a movie that should be seen by everyone. Any fan of sci-fi or just a good plot will love this movie. Age has only made it better. Without a doubt this is one collection that should be in any Blu-ray movie owners collection.

Blade Runner is a 10/10 A+ movie for me. My review is not of the movie itself but rather of the 4K Disc. I am only giving this movie 4/5 stars because the 4K transfer could have been better. There is an overall uneven quality to the remaster in certain places. If you know the movie, up until Deckard uses the Esper machine the scenes are beautifully clean, moody, and fantastic. Case in point: Sean Young looks absolutely stunningly statuesque and beautiful in 4k and the street scenes look amazing. Once the Esper machine scene takes place, it's like the image starts looking flickery and grainy. And I mean to the point that it's distracting. Once he is done and goes to Animoid Row in the next scene, all the color, cleanliness, and depth comes back. Considering Ridley Scott supposedly oversaw this transfer (or so he says in the optional introduction on the disc) I can't understand if that scene was missed or they just said nah that looks good enough there. It's shame because the rest of the movie is great, and the sound has never been better. I would still recommend getting the disc if you are a super duper BR fan like me and/or you don't already have a 4k version regardless.

When the five disc Complete Collector's Edition of Blade Runner was released in December it was a cause for rejoicing among the many Blade Runner fans who made Ridley Scott's 1982 film a cult hit. The film, based upon Phillip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? was a critical failure when it was released but with constant tweaking by the director has reached cult status. The presentation offered in this package is probably the must complete coolection of edits and variations of any film on the market today and Warner Brothers must be commended for the effort put forth here. The package opens with the 2007 Final Cut of the film. Introduced by Scott as his perferred cut the film features added materials (albeit one short scene) resynched dialogue in a few scenes and a face replacement that was long overdue in another critical scene. The Final Cut is essentially the Director's Cut of the 1982 International Version without the voice over. The Final Cut features three commentaries: by Scott;by writers Hampton Fancher and David Peeples with added comments by Producer Michael Deeley and Production Executive Katherine Haber; and by the films design team including Syd Mead, Laurence Paull, David Snyder, Douglas Trumball and others. The Second Disc features the 3.5 hour making of feature Dangerous Days. This film interviews all of the surviving member of the cast and crew and presents possibly the most in depth making of feature I have ever seen. Disc Three is the film archive and presents the three versions of the film that have been seen in theatres up to now. This was one of the reasons that I bought the set. It is here that the casual viewer finally gets the long unavailable Theatrical Cut from 1982. This is the version with the voice over narration that Ridley Scott is so critical of. This version has many fans and there have been complaints over the years about its lack of availability. In my own view this is the version that I perfer the best having only been able to see the "Director's Cut" in the late 1990's. The International Theatrical Cut (1982)is presented next with its few seconds of added violence. This version also contains the voice over narration. The 1992 Director's Cut minus voice over and with the infamous added unicorn scene rounds out the disc. Disc Four is titled Enhancement Files and contains a plethora of bonus features divided into three catagories: Inception, Fabrication and Longevity. These may be played all together or separately. If played together make sure that you go back and listen to the audio only interview clips with writer Phillip K. Dick for his unique insight on the production. There are also three separate features on the importance of the poster design, a discussion of whether Harrison Ford's character is really a replicant and a discussion on the film's influence on other filmakers. Disc Five contains the rarely seen Workprint Version of the film. This version with some 70 plus variations from the released versions is closer in spirit to the Final Cut. Do not miss the commentary on this version by author Paul Sammon. Sammon wrote Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner and his commentary is probably the best of the four commentaries presented. Also on this dis is the featurette All Our Future Varients detailing the differences between the versions and the Final Cut. All in all this is a detailed set which may be too much for the more casual fan but it does give a complete look into the making of the film and is highly recommended.

True classic. Great plot that follows the original book extremely well.

Answer: This movie, appearing on every list of not only the greatest science-fiction films of all time, but the best movies ever made. "Blade Runner" is a movie that you have to not only see, but own, because it's one of the few monumental American classics, along with "Casablanca", "It's a Wonderful Life", "The Third Man", "Vertigo" and "The Godfather", that gets better by age. Like most of these movies, "Blade Runner" was a critical and commercial bomb, ludicrously dismissed as style over substance, for lacking a coherent story and for its one-dimensional human characters. Seen today, in a time of economic recession, class division and the state's utter disregard to come in human terms, "Blade Runner" feels more modern and relevant than ever. Why is "Blade Runner" one of the greatest movies of all time? I could write a lengthy review describing the movie's greatness, but I'll do the movie greater service by listing the reasons: 1.) It's a simple story, brilliantly told, tightly paced and superbly directed. A retired police officer is forced by the police state to hunt down (or "retire") a group of bio-engineered cyborgs called Replicants. Under Ridley Scott's tight direction, the movie is a gripping experience as we see the main character struggle to fulfill his obligations and survive. The opening sequence where Leon is interrogated as rather or not he's a Replicant and the scenes where Deckard is pursuing Pris in a room cluttered with mannequins are as suspenseful as the best of Hitchcock. 2.) The acting is utterly terrific. Harrison Ford probably gave the greatest performance of his career as the replicant hunter Deckard. Ford hated the movie and called it a miserable experience, yet in some ways, this helped add greater depth to his character, as we see Deckard's anguish, frustration and anger simmering throughout the movie. Sean Young is outstanding as the Replicant assistant Rachael and her scenes with Deckard, where he tries to teach her about love in his apartment, have an emotional intensity barely found in other sci-fi movies. Darryl Hannah made a huge impression as the lonely and tragic Pris and Edward James Olmos provides comic relief as the officer Gaff, who raises an ambiguous question at the end that still resonates to this day. But the highest acting honor, of course, belongs to Rutger Hauer, as Roy Batty, the movie's main antagonist. Subtle yet dangerous, a menace to society yet one with tragic grandeur, Hauer's Batty may rank as one of the greatest and most memorable villains in movie history. 3.) "Blade Runner" successfully continues the tradition that has defined science-fiction movies in decades, in that it presents the central theme that the most humane characters are in the fact the most inhuman. Despite their supposed lack of humanity, Roy Batty and Pris are arguably the most sympathetic characters in movie, primarily because they are outcasts who refuse to blend in to an oppressive society (see below). In fact, the general complaint about "Blade Runner" when it was released was that the replicants were more interesting than the hero, when that was precisely the point. There's a disturbing sequence where Deckard is hunting down a female replicant and instead of having the audience root for him, the movie defies conventions and has us hoping that the replicant escapes (there's even a hint in the movie's finale that Deckard himself may be a replicant). At the end, when Batty chooses his fate, you feel a great sense of sadness for this inhuman yet paradoxically humane character. 4.) No other movie, not even "2001" or "Metropolis", captures the feeling of being displaced, oppressed and and dehumanized in an oppressive society. One of the biggest reasons for the movie's initial failure was that it presented such a dark vision of a world where privacy is lacking, noise is abundant and commercialism runs rampant throughout the city. The sets, outfits, the insufferable rain and the cluttering masses on the street create a feeling of powerlessness, a feeling that prevents people from having the free will to be themselves. Deckard is a perfect example of that, as he is powerless towards a quasi-fascist police state that determines his fate or he will be part of the "little people". The movie is, for all its futuristic technology, is an expressive drama. 5.) "Blade Runner" has one of the best musical scores ever made. Composed by "Chariots of Fire" conductor Vangelis, the music is a groundbreaking merge of futuristic synthesizers, organic compositions and even an element of jazz, as seen in the beloved "Love Theme", with its beautiful saxophone solo. You can listen to this music without seeing the film and imagine the whole movie in your head. 6.) "Blade Runner" seems more relevant and prophetic today than it was released in 1982. Critics and moviegoers were taken back by seeing such dark, dreary vision, a vision where the rich care so little about the poor that they form a hostile, miserable ghetto. Yet walk down the inner slums of any city, from Los Angeles in early 1990s and Moscow to Tokyo and that vision is there before our eyes. Technology, which was supposedly man's gift to preserve humanity, has slowly overtaken our human traits, making us cold, mechanical and increasingly dependent on machinery. And yet... 7.) The movie, despite its darkness, ends with a suggestion of hope. When Batty spares Deckard's life and delivers that immortal monologue which has earned its place in cinema, this scene suggests a promising hope in the future: that machines and human, instead of striving to dominate the other, can live side-by-side in harmony. This is not a hippie message, but a heartfelt plea for everyone in diverse groups to coexist and accept one another. "Blade Runner" is one of the American cinema's most towering achievements and an institution for every science-fiction entity that has come afterwards, from "The Matrix" and "Dark City" to "Ghost in the Shell" and "Cowboy Bebop", from the fantastical adventures by Hayao Miyazaki, to the grim, political fables by Guillermo Del Toro and Alfonso Cuaron. Even "The Fifth Element", in some ways, plays like a sunny, cartoony alternative to this grim classic. It is essential that you watch "Blade Runner", even if you don't like it (which is highly doubtful). If you even think of starting a Blu-Ray/DVD collection without it, then you are simply just one of the "little people". Strongest recommendation to steal at all costs. P.S. Like many great movies, "Blade Runner" has come out in a variety of editions, each of them a worthy purchase. There was a five-disc ultimate collector's edition that came out on both DVD and Blu-Ray. That is currently out of print. In its place, there was 30th anniversary edition released in two box sets: a multi-format version (with that memorable Asian face on the front cover) and a three-disc set released with only Blu-Rays (that's the one with the unicorn on the front cover). Either version you watch is fine, but if you just want the Blu-Rays in an affordable set, go with the three-disc set. Besides nearly a dozen hours of supplements, the picture and audio qualities are excellent. Since "Blade Runner" is an intensely visual experience, it is highly recommended that you watch it on a big screen and with big speakers. As the saying goes, the bigger, the better...in everything.