Blade Runner, a term borrowed from a novel by William S Burroughs, is based on the 1968 novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” by Philip K Dick. Like most of Dick’s work, the Science Fiction genre is used to great affect in his attempt to pose questions on the nature of humanity. With ... Read review
In 1982 to coincide with Blade Runner's original release Cinefex the respected magazine ... more
devoted to movie design and special effects devoted an entire extended issue to Ridley Scott's sci-fi masterpiece. That issue has been out of print since then but in constant demand -- copies now sell on the collector's market for over USD100. Titan Books is proud to bring this classic back into print in a remastered hardcover edition. Described as 'the single most comprehensive examination of Blade Runner's special effects' this must-have book contains scores of images not available elsewhere as well as authoritative text containing in-depth exclusive interviews with director Ridley Scott and the legendary designer Syd Mead.
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World War Terminus had left the Earth devastated. Through its ruins bounty hunter Rick ... more
Deckard stalked in search of the renegade replicants who were his prey. When he wasn't 'retiring' them with his laser weapon he dreamed of owning a live animal -- the ultimate status symbol in a world all but bereft of animal life. Then Rick got his chance: the assignment to kill six Nexus-6 targets for a huge reward. But in Deckard's world things were never that simple and his assignment quickly turned into a nightmare kaleidoscope of subterfuge and deceit -- and the threat of death for the hunter rather than the hunted...
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Advantages: Brilliant Cast, Brilliant Director, Brilliant Set, Brilliant Music...Brilliant Film! Disadvantages: Not one for those who like their sci-fi in the star wars mould
Blade Runner, a term borrowed from a novel by William S Burroughs, is based on the 1968 novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” by Philip K Dick. Like most of Dick’s work, the Science Fiction genre is used to great affect in his attempt to pose questions on the nature of humanity. With Total Recall (based on the short story “We Can Remember it for you Wholesale”) he examines the nature of identity and redemption. With ‘Androids’ the focus is ... ...saw it).
Blade Runner is set in 2019, Los Angeles. It is a dark, polluted and crowded future, full of cyberpunk imagery and a noirish, flame-ridden skyscape. Most of the animals in this distopia have become extinct, creating a market for artificial versions. This also has led to the development of synthetic humanoids as well - replicants – originally used as servants and slaves to carry out work too mundane or dangerous for humans, ... more
Blade Runner, a term borrowed from a novel by William S Burroughs, is based on the 1968 novel “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” by Philip K Dick. Like most of Dick’s work, the Science Fiction genre is used to great affect in his attempt to pose questions on the nature of humanity. With Total Recall (based on the short story “We Can Remember it for you Wholesale”) he examines the nature of identity and redemption. With ‘Androids’ the focus is on what makes us human and the limits of how we define ourselves as sentient beings.
There are six known versions of the film including a slightly gorier “international” version and the toned down “broadcast” version for TV. The two most well known cuts though are of course the slightly longer theatrical release and the “Director’s Cut”. The theatrical version came complete with narration by Harrison Ford and a rather “out of step with the rest of the film” happy ending culled from footage used in Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining”, whilst the Director’s Cut, released by Ridley Scott in 1992 in response to the unofficial “director’s cut” released in 1991 without his input, loses these in favour of a more ambiguous ending and the insertion of a dream sequence using footage of a unicorn from Scott’s own film “Legend”. It is the 1992 version that now is almost universally available and so it is this version that I will be covering below (luckily it is also in my opinion the best of all the various cuts although I did enjoy the voice over cut the only time I saw it).
Blade Runner is set in 2019, Los Angeles. It is a dark, polluted and crowded future, full of cyberpunk imagery and a noirish, flame-ridden skyscape. Most of the animals in this distopia have become extinct, creating a market for artificial versions. This also has led to the development of synthetic humanoids as well - replicants – originally used as servants and slaves to carry out work too mundane or dangerous for humans, they are now banned on Earth for fear that they have developed beyond their creators and would seek to rebel. Part of the problem is that the latest models (Nexus 6) come with a standard four-year life span, an intentional feature of their design to ensure that they do not advance beyond their functions.
Harrison Ford plays Rick Deckard, a retired Blade Runner (replicant hunter) turned private eye. Reluctantly he is forced to do one last job for his old police chief, to hunt down and “retire” a group of Nexus Six replicants who have escaped and made their way to Earth. This group including, amongst others, Rutger Hauer as their leader Roy Batty and Daryl Hannah as his lover Priss, are seeking to contact the head of the corporation that built them, Dr Eldon Tyrell, to have their life spans extended.
Thus Dekkard embarks on an often surreal journey into the bowels of LA, seeking out the replicants. Along the way he meets Sean Young’s Rachel – an even more advanced replicant, convinced she is human by the false memories she has been given – and William Sanderson’s J.F Sebastian, a mentally childlike bioengineer employed by the Tyrell Corporation, who befriends the renegades.
All the way through, the same basic question is asked about what makes us human. Is it merely the mechanics of flesh and blood, is it the ability to reason or have empathy, the ability to love and be loved. The viewer is confronted with this most powerfully in the tragic penultimate scene between Dekkard and Batty where the ethos of the film is summed up in Batty’s last monologue
“I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attacked ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate. All these moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain...time to die”
Of course there are many reasons why the film still has such a large cult following today. Although some of the actors give career best performances (not least Rutger Hauer), it is the overall look, sound and feel of the film that affect the audience most. This is not to say that the acting is in any way bad. Harrison Ford gives a typically solid performance as Dekkard. Although not the most sympathetic of the characters he has played, Ford still manages to make Dekkard an engaging central figure. Hauer’s Roy Batty is played somewhere between psychopath and cult leader, at some moments quiet and introspective, at others a cold-blooded killer (if he had real blood). Hauer also displays Batty’s more “human” emotions sensitively and it is ultimately his performance that carries the film off. William Sanderson also does excellent work as Sebastian.
The much-vaunted set design, pre-CGI and obviously inspired by the cityscapes of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, was created by Laurence G Paull. He was inspired by a trip to Milan when he said “For the first time in my life I had just been to Milan. On the plane back I said,' I absolutely hate that town, I hate the city.' It was built by Mussolini with the aid of Hitler and that's what it looks like! It looked like Albert Speer had his finger in the design of some of the buildings. The fascism is very, very clear but it is wonderful to see the buildings of Milan come right up to the street curbs, narrow up as you walked under big covered arcades.” The result in Blade Runner is a high rise, claustrophobic mixture of styles, from Frank Lloyd Wright to Gaudi. LA in 2019 has been built and rebuilt and we see this in the evolution from 20th Century architecture. The abundant use of neon gives the place a sleazy feel and it is only as you rise high above the city streets in high-rise apartments and offices that you find slightly healthier surroundings. The allegory of a hell below and the heavenly promise of escaping off world is unmistakable, especially as we fly with Dekkard on his way to meet the police chief for the first time.
The absence of Ford’s voice over also allows the music of Greek composer Vangelis to come to the fore. Long before the birth of the chillout album, he was creating haunting, ambient soundscapes and his work for Blade Runner is no different. The use of synthesizers adds to the 80’s cyberpunk aesthetic of the film, but does not date it. The melancholy sounds are used in correct proportion to what is unfolding on screen giving the viewer further reason to ponder the ethics of what is transpiring in front of them. This is particularly prevalent in the scene where Dekkard kills the replicant Zhora. The slow, balletic motion of her final moments, filled with fear and pain, are heightened by the mournful hymn being played.
In the end that is what the film comes down to, emotional response. The replicants are so perfectly made that no amount of blood or DNA testing can be used to identify them from a human. The only way is the empathy test the Blade Runners use. The problem, as Dekkard finds, is that these particular Nexus 6 models have evolved to the point where it takes hours to pin down whether they are replicant or not. They experience love, fear, pain, loss and mercy. Are they less human because they were bio-engineered and not conceived?
The Director’s Cut ending always raises the key question of whether Dekkard is actually a replicant as well. Fan’s have argued back and forth for years, but Ridley Scott himself during an interview for a channel 4 documentary made the statement that Dekkard was indeed a replicant, the model unicorn that Griss places on his coffee table alluding to the dream sequence half way through the film.
Blade Runner will always have its detractors, but for many people it remains the finest piece of science fiction ever committed to screen. The use of the visual and the audible to elicit a response from the audience is rarely seen today in an age where CGI effects are ten a penny. If you have not seen it then pick up a copy of the Director’s Cut, take the phone off the hook and engage your brain as you embark on modern cinema’s most seminal piece of Sci-Fi.
The Blade Runner Deluxe Edition is currently available at Play.com for £32.99
Advantages: The Ultimate Sci-Fi film Disadvantages: Asks more questions than it answers
The world of Blade Runner is a world of contrasts; it is at once familiar and strange, futuristic and retrospective, sprawling and confined. Set against the backdrop of the Los Angeles of the not too distant future with its dramatic skylines, and urban decadence is a cast of characters who almost seem as updates from a 1950s cop movie. These familiar, grubby, flawed and almost everyday people would seem at home on the wrong side of almost any modern ... ...around.
The plot of Blade Runner begins with a basic physical plot, Deckard (Ford) is a Blade Runner, a hit man for the law who is recalled to hunt down a particularly nasty group of on the run replicants. This group have returned to earth to find out one important piece of information, how long have they been programmed to live! At this point the film moves into a whole different realm, one that sets it apart from most other films. It becomes basically ...
steerpyke 07.07.2004 (05.06.2006)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Blade Runner (Director's Cut) (DVD)
Advantages: Amazing atmosphere, great acting Disadvantages: Can be confusing
...my favorite Ridley Scott films, Blade Runner builds on this sublimity, mixing in a dark reality, and combining subtleties that are more akin to a Hitchcock movie than a Sci-Fi movie. It should be noted here that the ‘Directors cut’ is far darker and more difficult to follow, making it somehow more enchanting as you struggle to understand the undertones in the movie.
Based on the highly successful Philip K Dick story ‘Do ... ...deprivation.
Deckard is a Blade Runner, a policeman of the 2025s, in Los Angeles. His prime objective is to find and destroy (well officially it is ‘retire’ but only in the loose sense of the word) shrewd cyborgs, that despite their prowess and abilities are generally impossible to differentiate from normal humans. It has been deemed that their superior strength and agility, combined with their intelligence (that more often than not ...
Simoncook1 10.01.2002 (11.01.2002)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Blade Runner (Director's Cut) (DVD)
Advantages: Awesome piece of sci-fi Disadvantages: No sequal
The movie to watch! If you haven't seen it & consider yourself to be a sci-fi fan, go and gouge your own eyes out with a blunt teaspoon. Otherwise go and watch, buy or rent it NOW! (freely available on dvd and video )
The film features great performances from such fine actors as Harrison Ford (Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Air Force One, The Fugitive), Rutger Hauer (too many obscure films to remember, but a brilliant British advert for Guiness!), Sean ... ...Attack Of The 50ft Woman).
The music was written by Vangelis, a Greek keyboard wizard. Special effects were credited by Douglas Trumbell (Silent Running and 2001: A Space Odessey). The visuals are stunning, the music suits the film perfectly and the effects all still stand up very strongly to the test of time.
The story is set in Los Angeles and follows Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) who is a cop and part of an elite police unit known as Bladerunners. ...
atytyut2434 05.11.2008
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Blade Runner (Director's Cut) (DVD)
Advantages: Incredible atmosphere. This future is so believable Disadvantages: Lame plot. Which version is better?
Over the last few years Blade Runner has risen from anonymity to being regarded by many as the greatest sci-fi film of all time. But is it worth the hype? Whilst the look and feel of the film are without equal, the plot is dull and a little predictable. But the look makes the film worth seeing on its own.
The Plot
(WARNING This op gives away vital details, so you might not want to read on if you haven't seen it!)
In the world of 2029 genetically ... ...Deckard (Harrison Ford) is a Blade Runner who has left the police but is called back in to go after 4 more replicants. Whilst doing so he meets Rachel, a new prototype of replicant who has implanted memories. He falls in love with her, but knows that this is interfering with his work, as he now has feelings for those that he is supposed to kill.
The Cast
Rick Deckard - Harrison Ford
An ex Blade Runner called back into service. He likes to drink ...
litebite 30.09.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Blade Runner (Director's Cut) (DVD)
Advantages: Fantastic film which everyone should see Disadvantages: It might depress
Blade Runner is probably the greatest ever sci-fi film. It pushed forward the way people think about the future and offered a much more believable alternative vision than the usual pristine, plastic setting. This future is dirty, it has character and it is bleak. Based on the fantastic book 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep' by Philip K. Dick the film takes a different direction.
Harrison Ford plays Rick Deckard, a cop charged with hunting down ... ...created by the Tyrell Corporation for slave labour and fighting wars. The whole thing feels film-noir and Deckard is a familiar type of character despite the futuristic setting. He is a likeable detective, quiet and a bit crumbly round the edges, but there is more to him than meets the eye. Ridley Scott directed this and his cut is different to the final release, needless to say the director's cut is far superior and elevates the film and the questions ...
setimerenptah 15.05.2003
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Blade Runner (Director's Cut) (DVD)
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Advantages: Greatest sci-fi movie of all time. Need I say more? Disadvantages: Slow pacing and thoughtful qualities may be a little tiresome for some.
BLADERUNNER
Blighted by an arduous shoot that led to t-shirt wars between an unsympathetic American crew and its English director; a frosty relationship with Tandem pictures; a considerable misjudgement in releasing the film with a dour voice over narration and happy ending following mediocre preview sneaks in Denver and Dallas; and the fact it followed on the boot heels of Spielberg's wonderful ET, you would think it amazing that BladeRunner ever found a loving audience. Few films that flop ever go on to do much business, yet alone receive a re-release in the form of a director's cut at cinema screens 10 years later. However, BladeRunner isn't just any other film. The opening shot alone defines the movie as something rather special, even if to admire simply as a piece of art. But there was always much more boiling under ...
Advantages: All time great, stunning. Disadvantages: Love or hate thing going on.
BladeRunner. 1982
The Director's cut 2006.
112 minutes.
Cert. 15.
Ridley Scott at his best as a director (do get the director's cut). Based on a Philip. K. Dick novel, we see a very sullen and cynical Harrison Ford playing the part of a 'Bladerunner' named Deckard; basically a government backed assassin employed to kill deviant 'replicants', (androids). This is set some time in the future, 2019 to be precise, not so far now!
I am certainly not a Harrison Ford fan, the closet he has come to any good has been Star Wars and that was only a 5/10 performance. However in this he is made for the part and it is in my opinion his best ever role. He plays it like a 40's detective, all rain coats and few words, drinking (of course), retired until this one last job (of course), shambles of an apartment (of course), falls ...
Advantages: Atmospheric and moody. Disadvantages: Sometimes difficult to follow...but not impossible.
at the untimely age of 53 and before Bladerunner was released, however his legacy of science fiction stories have been turned into several mainstream movies, including: Minority Report, Total Recall and Paycheck.
If you're a real Sci-Fi fan you'll love the look and feel of this movie as it captures Philip K Dick's view of the 21st century and latter 20th century. But it's a love/hate movie you either love it or hate it with no shades of grey between.
The DVD of the DirectorsCut was released some time ago but was withdrawn. It has recently been re-released on DVD in the UK. ...
"...A great Vangelis score, astonishing production design, Hauer's career role - and a movie that deserves its cult reputation..." (USA Today, p.8D, 11/09/1992)
DVD Description
Director Ridley Scott's hauntingly prescient vision of the not-too-distant future stars Harrison Ford as Rick Deckard, a retired police assassin, or blade runner. The Los Angeles of 2019 is a dark, polluted, overcrowded dystopia dominated by cloud-piercing buildings and looming neon billboards, the air dense with acid rain and flying traffic. World-weary Deckard has been called out of retirement to liquidate four escaped replicants--genetically derived androids of great strength, intelligence, and nearly-human emotion who serve as slaves and prostitutes in the off-planet colonies. Led by Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer), they've come to Los Angeles to confront their designer, Eldon Tyrell (Joe Turkel), with their unhappiness about the brevity of their four-year life span. In the course of his search, Deckard becomes romantically entwined with Tyrell's lovely assistant, Rachael (Sean Young), and must eventually confront Batty in an unforgettable rain-soaked sequence.<BR>A highly influential fusion of the science fiction and noir genres based on the novel DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP
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