Post by StevePulaski on Oct 5, 2017 15:25:38 GMT -5
Blade Runner (1982)
Directed by: Ridley Scott
Rating: ★★★
This is a review of the 1992 "director's cut" of the film as opposed to the theatrical, final, or workprint cuts.
Directed by: Ridley Scott
Rating: ★★★
This is a review of the 1992 "director's cut" of the film as opposed to the theatrical, final, or workprint cuts.
The fact that Blade Runner got made is almost as big of an accomplishment as its status as one of the greatest, most challenging science-fiction films ever made. An immensely daring work of cynical dystopian fiction with ambiguities and a largely ignored source material (Philip K. Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?), the film launched the career of Ridley Scott despite a production hampered by frequent cutting and editing that made the process laborious for the director and Warner Bros.
Marketing and selling something like Blade Runner was no easy feat, which might explain why it barely recouped its budget and was indifferently reviewed upon release in 1982. Most who saw the film caught it on home video, and then became acquainted with the myriad of different versions of the film. There are so many versions of the film that it's almost as important to denote which one you viewed in addition to confirming that you did indeed watch Blade Runner.
There's not much of a need to flesh out the interworkings of the story due to the fact that, for one, I admittedly don't understand all of it, and two, most people know the basic plotline. The film follows Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), a former police officer now working as a blade runner in 2019 Los Angeles. A blade runner's role is to track down man-made beings known as "replicants" to "retire" (kill), and although resigning from his work, Deckard is brought back when it is said that four replicants have come to Earth. Replicants only have a four-year lifespan, but their arrival on Earth leads to the possibility of their life being extended. He leads an investigation on Tyrell Corporation, the company responsible for these sentient beings, known as Nexus-6 models, eventually coming into contact with Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer), the leader of the respective brand of models with goals of forging a replicant takeover.
Science-fiction fans have rejoiced at the film's complexity and many layers, and to be fair, their praise mostly isn't exaggerated. Scott's film could be considered his personal masterwork; the cornucopic compendium of craft for a visionary filmmaker with a lot of aesthetic and technical prowess. Scott's film is one of the most visually dazzling films ever made, and certainly one of the most attractive sci-fi spectacles of the 1980s.
Blade Runner's source of enjoyment, aside from admiring the lavish and immaculately detailed versatility of its special effects (aided by the gentle and nuanced work of cinematographer Jordan Cronenweth), has stemmed from the political and social conversations it sparks. Subtext can justifiably be linked to immigration, as well as the interworkings of America as a police-state, but a lot of the true fun of Blade Runner comes after the credits roll. For some, like myself, the film is not a very engaging experience, with a groggy pace, some uneven acting, and a central character who is disappointingly uninteresting. With all of his masterful techniques, Ridley Scott once again negates the possibility of having interesting human characters, and screenwriters Hampton Fancher and David Peoples don't do him justice.
This has been a shortcoming in Scott's work for the majority of his career. I can admire the physical and visual aspects of a movie for a certain length of time, but it needs to give me characters to appreciate or themes to gravitate and analyze. Blade Runner stunts itself in the character department and relishes in the inaction of its premise, forcing audiences to pick up on minor details in scenes both big and small in order to be a uniformly rewarding experience.
For many, that part won't be hard, and Blade Runner has successfully cultivated a legion of loyal fans and tireless analyzers that have dissected the film scene-by-scene. Like Eyes Wide Shut, or even the Star Wars franchise, it's a film that should be offered as a major in colleges. It's a rightfully acclaimed game-changer that unfortunately dwarfs its characters by creating a setting that engulfs them, and Scott's direction and Fancher and Peoples' writing doesn't explore the people and replicants in a way I would describe as meaningful, but most have seen past such nitpicks - maybe for the better - to give credit where credit is due. Greatness in science-fiction is hard to come by and we should value it while we have it.
Starring: Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, and Edward James Olmos. Directed by: Ridley Scott.