From rec.arts.sf.reviews Sun Sep 20 14:53:29 1992 Xref: herkules.sssab.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:803 rec.arts.sf.reviews:126 Path: herkules.sssab.se!isy!liuida!sunic!mcsun!uknet!doc.ic.ac.uk!agate!spool.mu.edu!uunet!cis.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!linac!att!cbnewsk!cbnewsj!ecl From: frankm@microsoft.com (Frank R.A.J. Maloney) Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: BLADE RUNNER--THE DIRECTOR'S CUT Summary: r.a.m.r. #01524 Keywords: author=Maloney Message-ID: <1992Sep18.131947.22312@cbnewsj.cb.att.com> Date: 18 Sep 92 13:19:47 GMT Sender: ecl@cbnewsj.cb.att.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Reply-To: frankm@microsoft.com (Frank R.A.J. Maloney) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Organization: Microsoft Corp., Redmond WA Lines: 100 Approved: ecl@cbnewsj.att.com [Followups directed to rec.arts.sf.movies. -Moderator] BLADE RUNNER--THE DIRECTOR'S CUT A film review by Frank Maloney Copyright 1992 Frank Maloney BLADE RUNNER--THE DIRECTOR'S CUT is a film directed by Ridley Scott from a script by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples. It stars Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, with Edward James Olmos, James Turkel, Darryl Hannah, Brion James, Joanna Cassidy, and M. Emmet Walsh. Production designer is Lawrence G. Paull, art director David Snyder, consultant Sid Mead, and special-effects by Donald Trumbrull. Cinematography is by Jordan Cronenweth. Music by Vangelis. Based on the novel DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP by Philip K. Dick. Rated R, for violence. BLADE RUNNER--THE DIRECTOR'S CUT is Ridley Scott's 1992 version of what the 1982 film would have looked like if it had survived its preview screenings and a nervous studio. Gone is the Raymond-Chandler-style voice-over to explain it all to us. Gone is the sappy ending. Added is a key dream sequence (that presaged, as it turns out, Scott's 1986 fantasy LEGEND), the rest of the Vangelis score, and some additional footage to several key scenes. The director's cut makes this great cult film only greater, more impressive, more stimulating, more interesting. It is probably pointless to try to review BLADE RUNNER as one would a new film, even though there a lot of people who have never seen even the original theatrical release. (It was, lest we forget, a huge box office bomb in 1982, being completely swallowed up by the audience rush to E.T., which had opened in the same month.) Mostly, I am here now to tell you that this is one of the greatest sf films ever made. And that if you are near one of the 60-some U.S. cities that opened BLADE RUNNER this last Friday September 11, you simply must go see it. Not only is the film wonderful (for reasons I will touch on in a minute), but it is an energizing experience merely to be in the same block as a venue like Seattle's Egyptian Theater and to experience the huge crowds outside, a line endlessly snaking around the building and down the alley to the next street, another crowd of people who have just gotten out of the last showing and who obviously don't want to leave, who want to stand on the sidewalk and talk about what they have just seen. And inside to feel the excited hubbub of the audience waiting, waiting, to hear them applaud the dimming of the house lights, to hear them applaud loudly the final credits. This is what movie-going is supposed to be about: excitement, stimulation, satisfaction. I haven't felt quite the same rush of group anticipation since the original STAR WARS opened. By comparison, opening night audiences for BATMAN were bored and noncommittal. As for what makes BLADE RUNNER great, allow me to sketch out of few beginning points, without pretending to exhaust the subject. For one thing, this movie has a great theme, the greatest human theme: life, death, and their meaning. What does it mean to live, to die? Rutger Hauer's speech in the rain on what he has seen, on the memories that will die with him, is deeply moving, coming especially as it does from the ostensible villain of the piece. And that's another source of BLADE RUNNER's greatness, its ambiguity, its willingness not to explain. It shows and lets the audience put it together, on the fly, as it were; this quality was not seen in 1982 as a strength by those preview audiences who were reportedly confused by the story. It's hard for me to imagine that being a problem today; certainly, my partner Lyndol, who literally knew nothing about BLADE RUNNER except that was an sf film I wanted to go to, followed it perfectly and without the film noir narration that had Harrison Ford say such inanities as "What the hell was happening to me?" Putting it another way, BLADE RUNNER is an sf film that treats its audience as adults, intelligent adults. Another source of greatness is the look of the film. Seldom will one be exposed to such a detailed, imaginative, and intriguing design. The now famous Scott look is still fresh and effective here: the wet black streets, the steam, the chiaroscuro, the sourceless beams of light, the random craziness in the background and edges of the main action. The eye and mind are condemned to miss so much even while picking up so many delightful minutiae. They make the world of 2019 L.A., with its flying billboards, its 700-storey arcologies, its medieval street life, open markets and open sewers, the grungy soba bars, the dwarf scavengers, the open bonfires complete and whole and real. Everything about the design is rich and satisfying. For those who know the film, I have only to point to the chase scene that ends with crashes through multiple windows to find an example of the visual imagination that so mightily informs BLADE RUNNER. A third area of achievement that sets BLADE RUNNER off from almost all other sf films is its commitment to examing relationships, to allow long sequences of characters establishing their characters, establishing their relationships. These sequences are not flaccid, they do not deflate the tension of the prolonged chase that is most of BLADE RUNNER. They are themselves basic to the theme and story, basic to the adultness of the film. Of course, there are some flaws. Most especially, I object to Sebastian's toys. They are too cute, as well as too obviously Little People in fancy dress. Cuteness is out of place in this world. Even the nerdy whimsy of a Sebastian, the genetic designer, should not have been reduced to a reply to the R2D2 kind of sweetness. Go to BLADE RUNNER--THE DIRECTOR'S CUT. Pay what you must, you will get your money's worth. -- Frank Richard Aloysius Jude Maloney From rec.arts.sf.reviews Sun Sep 20 14:53:32 1992 Xref: herkules.sssab.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:804 rec.arts.sf.reviews:127 Path: herkules.sssab.se!isy!liuida!sunic!mcsun!uknet!doc.ic.ac.uk!agate!spool.mu.edu!uunet!cis.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!linac!att!cbnewsk!cbnewsj!ecl From: Sarah_M._Elkins.Wbst139@xerox.com Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: REVIEW: BLADE RUNNER--THE DIRECTOR'S CUT Summary: r.a.m.r. #01525 Keywords: author=Elkins Message-ID: <1992Sep18.132043.22434@cbnewsj.cb.att.com> Date: 18 Sep 92 13:20:43 GMT Sender: ecl@cbnewsj.cb.att.com (Evelyn C. Leeper) Reply-To: Sarah_M._Elkins.Wbst139@xerox.com Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Organization: Xerox Corp. Lines: 62 Approved: ecl@cbnewsj.att.com [Followups directed to rec.arts.sf.movies. -Moderator] BLADE RUNNER--THE DIRECTOR'S CUT A film review by Sarah M. Elkins Copyright 1992 Sarah M. Elkins BLADE RUNNER--THE DIRECTOR'S CUT: First there was David Lean's LAWRENCE OF ARABIA, then Stanley Kubrick's SPARTACUS, and now Ridley Scott's science fiction cult classic BLADE RUNNER has been restored to the director's original vision of the movie and the new version released on its own to theaters. As with the previous version, it can be taken simply as a stylish, futuristic detective/action flick, or an exploration into what it is to be human (those interested in the latter might also wish to read Philip K. Dick's DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP, on which both versions were based). Plot/kick-off: In the near future, some Nexus 6 replicants (sort of robots, difficult to tell from humans) escape and try to hide in Earth's grimy 21st-century society while their leader, Roy Batty, looks for a way to "live" past their predesigned life spans. Deckard, a retired Nexus 6 hunter, is coerced into tracking them down to kill them. Good pacing, interesting detective work: contrary to the previous version, I was able to follow the action this time, since more transition scenes were included (it didn't seem random this time) and the annoying voice-over narration was cut. I'd rather be shown than told, and this version did a much better job of that. Characters/acting: Harrison Ford plays Deckard, a beaten-down man who doesn't like his job but doesn't seem to have much of a choice, and is smart at what he does. Rutger Hauer is weird but compelling as Roy, and his last scene in the movie is amazing. Sean Young is beautiful and stiff as the beautiful and stiff Rachel, who is drawn to Deckard. Others include Darryl Hannah and other replicants, and Edward James Olmos as one of the other officers of the law. Which characters are really the more "human" ones? You decide. Cinematography/FX: This movie is worth seeing for its cinematography alone, especially on the big screen. The city is futuristic not so much through new fantastic technology (though there were aircars flying through the city, sometimes the viewers "flew" with them around buildings and giant TV billboards), but through the small changes in everyday objects. New scenes were added in of the city in the early parts of the movie, which helped give more of a "feel" to get the viewer into what was going on in the movie earlier. Score/Sound: Vangelis, synthesized, but also some sax, I liked it and it fit the movie. Violence/Gore: Bullet holes in bodies, crushed heads, finger-breaking, fights/shootings. Pretty violent, but not a gorefest, no slow-mo fights or lingering shots of gore. Language: Probably some. Skin/situations: Kissing, fairly short breast shot. Analysis: It's been at least a couple of years since I saw the previous vision, but I thought this version was great, partly because it was my first time seeing it on the big screen for either version. Some people might prefer the previous, slightly happier, version, but I think this is the superior version. I recommend it to fans of the old, and even more to those who've never seen either version. From rec.arts.sf.reviews Tue Oct 6 14:05:09 1998 Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lth.se!feed1.news.luth.se!luth.se!masternews.telia.net!news-feed.inet.tele.dk!bofh.vszbr.cz!logbridge.uoregon.edu!news.u.washington.edu!grahams From: "Dragan Antulov" Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Retrospective: Blade Runner (1982) Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.movies Date: 5 Oct 1998 05:10:09 GMT Organization: Croatian Post & Telecommunications Lines: 156 Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Message-ID: <6v9kbh$t6c$1@nntp3.u.washington.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: homer21.u.washington.edu X-Trace: nntp3.u.washington.edu 907564209 29900 (None) 140.142.17.37 X-Complaints-To: help@cac.washington.edu NNTP-Posting-User: grahams Summary: r.a.m.r. #14612 Keywords: author=antulov X-Questions-to: movie-rev-mod@www.ee.washington.edu X-Submissions-to: movie-reviews@www.ee.washington.edu Originator: grahams@homer21.u.washington.edu Xref: news.ifm.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:13815 rec.arts.sf.reviews:2119 BLADE RUNNER A Film Review Copyright Dragan Antulov 1998 Sometimes in the late 1980s "Sfera", club of science fiction aficionados from Zagreb, Croatia, asked its members to take a poll and name the ten best SF movies of all times. The results were printed in "Parsek", club's official fanzine with the accompanying article that commented each film's ranking. As many had expected, the top spot was held by BLADE RUNNER, 1982 cult classic by Ridley Scott. However, the author of the article didn't bother to give any broad explanation for its success. "BLADE RUNNER is simply movie to be seen and enjoyed", he wrote. The author of this review was faced with exactly the same problem any time he tried to give his reasons why he considered BLADE RUNNER one of the best pieces of seventh art ever made. For me, every time I watch the movie (and it happened quite a lot in the last fourteen years) it is almost like a religious experience, something that defies any rational discourse. Put that in perspective with the deluge of reviews, essays, books, studies and numerous references inspired by BLADE RUNNER in last decade and half, and you'll also see that is very hard to find anything original to say. Anyway, many times I indeed tried to find the reason why I like BLADE RUNNER so much. The closest thing to answer was somewhat sentimental nature; when I saw movie for the first time, it actually turned out to be the end of a period in my movie watching habits. BLADE RUNNER was actually the last movie that I had liked so much that I bothered to go to cinema for the second time. Never again I was so blown away by cinematic quality to buy tickets for repeated viewing. The movie wasn't just the end of an era for me personally, it was also the end of an era in history of contemporary science fiction cinema. It was based on the novel DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEPS? by Philip K. Dick, the science fiction writer who got enormous popularity with his works that depicted worlds of near future with the sharp contrast between superior technology and nightmarish state of humanity. Visions of the author (who died short before the movie premiere) were very in line with the dominating pessimistic trends of science fiction and futuristic films of the late 1970s and early 1980s, like ALIEN, OUTLAND or MAD MAX. Although probably the best of them, the movie flopped at the box-office and was abandoned by the critics, sealing the fate of mainstream science fiction cinema for next decade and turning it to mindless Spielbergian infantilism. The plot begins in Los Angeles in November 2019, decaying megalopolis drowning in Malthusian nightmare, permanent smog and acid rain. The only refuge from the hopeless reality of dying planet lies in the off-world colonies, where artificial humans known as the replicants provide slave labour for the colonists. However, following the bloody off-world revolt, replicants are permanently banished from Earth and special police force, known as the Blade Runners, is authorised to exterminate them on sight. One of their former members is world-weary Rick Deckard (Harrison) who reluctantly agrees to return to his old police job for one more time. His target is a group of new, state-of-the-art and deadly Nexus 6 generation replicants, led by Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer). While he tracks the group, he stumbles onto Rachael (Sean Young), beautiful woman that doesn't know about her own replicant identity. On the surface, the plot of the movie looks like material for cheap B-movie schlockfest. However, BLADE RUNNER actually wasn't intended to be something like that and its plot is probably the least memorable or important element of the big picture. The audience who initially expected conventional action thriller or futuristic horror was probably disappointed, but almost anyone remembered something else - characters, music, brilliant production designs, costumes; the atmosphere in general. Perfectionist care about even the most single details of futuristic world and originality of artists' ideas paid off in the end, and BLADE RUNNER is now considered to be one of the most recognisable movies of all times. The same thing can be said of musical score by Vangelis, whose melancholic tunes remain one of the composer's best works to date. After the atmosphere, the characters are strongest point of BLADE RUNNER. Most of them have few screen time, but they are made unforgettable through superb acting. One of the biggest ironies of BLADE RUNNER is its lead role; Harrison Ford played Rick Deckard so differently from his usual all-American hero image. His Deckard is cynical, unsympathetic chandleresque anti-hero who actually has to wait to the final shots in order to redeems himself. To make things even more ironic, Ford privately doesn't appreciate his most unconventional and one of the best roles. Perhaps that was due to the fact that the show was stolen from him by excellent Rutger Hauer. His portrayal of Roy Batty is not only the most remembered performance in his entire career but also his own ad-lib intervention is responsible for the monologue that remains one of the best in the history of motion pictures. The other actors were somewhat overshadowed by leading duo; yet, almost any of them gave a strong performance. For some of them, like Edward J. Olmos, M. Emmet Walsh, James Hong and Daryl Hannah is quite understandable why they became huge stars or dependable character actors later on. Some, like Sean Young, William Sanderson and Joe Turkell, weren't that lucky and that's a real shame. Same can be said also about director Ridley Scott, who slowly reduced his almost divine reputation by making stylishly perfect movies bellow the standards of BLADE RUNNER. The strength of the movie isn't just in its popularity and the cult that steadily grows with each new generation of the moviegoers. It can also be seen in the influence it had on other media. BLADE RUNNER, at least initially, didn't influence other movies (which is understandable, because of its commercial failure), that was compensated in the area of science fiction literature. Because it was so stunningly refreshing, this movie is considered to be the main inspiration to the extremely popular sub-genre of cyberpunk, and later to the sub-culture of cyberpunk on Internet. BLADE RUNNER was also one of the very rare movies that dared to predict future and to become more accurate in its predictions as the years went by. Some movies aren't just good because of their own quality. They are also good because of the viewers feedback, especially when they inspire them to ask questions and get often very different answers. In the case of BLADE RUNNER, the followers of cult had a great schism due to the great replicant controversy - issue that was adressed in a 1992 released Director's Cut. Another endless debate is between those fans who like the voice-overs in original 1982 version as a tribute to the great film noires of 1940s, and those who consider them as unnecessary dumbing-down. Anyway, although some argue that those controversies can prove the lack of perfection in BLADE RUNNER, the author of this review thinks that they can be just another reason for people to enjoy this movie. RATING: 10/10 (+++++) Review written on October 4th 1998 Dragan Antulov a.k.a. Drax Fido: 2:381/100 E-Mail: dragan.antulov@st.tel.hr dragan.antulov@altbbs.fido.hr From rec.arts.sf.reviews Wed Apr 3 14:35:14 2002 From: Ram Samudrala Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews,rec.arts.sf.reviews Subject: Retrospective: Blade Runner (1982) Approved: ramr@rottentomatoes.com Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.past-films Date: Mon, 25 Mar 2002 20:30:46 -0000 Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Message-ID: X-RAMR-ID: 31376 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 298329 X-RT-TitleID: 1002553 X-RT-SourceID: 302 X-RT-AuthorID: 29 Summary: r.a.m.r. #31376 X-Questions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Submissions-to: ramr@rottentomatoes.com X-Complaints-To: newsabuse@supernews.com Lines: 50 Path: news.island.liu.se!news.Update.UU.SE!puffinus.its.uu.se!newsfeed.sunet.se!news01.sunet.se!news-peer-europe.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!news.tele.dk!small.news.tele.dk!128.230.129.106!news.maxwell.syr.edu!sn-xit-03!sn-post-01!supernews.com!news.supernews.com!not-for-mail Xref: news.island.liu.se rec.arts.movies.reviews:3208 rec.arts.sf.reviews:235 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Blade Runner http://www.ram.org/ramblings/movies/blade_runner.html /Blade Runner/ depicts one of the bleakest versions of a dystopian future that I've seen on film. Like with many other great science fiction movies, it's worth watching mainly for its thought provoking, rather than entertainment, content. Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) is a blade runner. His job is to kill "replicants", genetically engineered humanoids that threaten human existence as they strive to throw off their creators' yokes. He has the instincts and the intuition to distinguish human from replicant. He is brought in to hunt down four replicants who have escaped and are seeking the truth about their essence and existence (which has been programmed into them). In his search, Deckard finds more than what he bargained for. Directed by Ridley Scott, and based on the story /Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?/ by Philip K. Dick, the Director's cut is more interesting than the first released version: it omits Harrison Ford's narration and leaves the ending a bit ambiguous. Unlike other movies starring Harrison Ford, this one is definitely low key, and at times the pacing could disappoint anyone expecting to see another Han Solo or Indiana Jones. Even though /Blade Runner/ is creative, especially considering that it was published in 1982, humanity's scientific research has moved the visions portrayed in the film much closer to reality than to fiction. The film however is prophetic for its depiction of Los Angeles, foretelling what our cities may become in the future. The ability to distinguish self from non-self is key in the evolutionary process, both at the molecular level and the organismal level. The movie thus leaves us with an explanation as to how Deckard can recognise replicants so well. Definitely worth checking out. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- email@urls || http://www.ram.org || http://www.twisted-helices.com/th Movie ram-blings: http://www.ram.org/ramblings/movies.html ========== X-RAMR-ID: 31376 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 298329 X-RT-TitleID: 1002553 X-RT-SourceID: 302 X-RT-AuthorID: 29