Friday, May 30, 2008

1062 - Blade Runner: the final cut

So I'd never seen Blade Runner. My wife insisted that I watch it because of a script I'm in the middle of working on, since it's got a similar story. So I saw the final director's cut or whatever it's called. I did a little research before watching it and discovered that there's five versions of this film. Emily is fond of a previous version that has some kind of narration from Ford's character. I'd love to find that version and check it out, now that I've seen the cut that the director prefers.
I love it when we watch older sci-fi films and they start with date slugs like 2019 and then they cut to flying cars. We've got a little ways to go to get to where this film is in eleven years. I think films that take place in the near future should just avoid using years if at all possible, leave it up to our imagination.
This film landed right smack dab in the middle of Ford working on Star Wars and Indiana Jones, so it's interesting that, to me, he has a very distinct and different look about him in this film. I love the odd dress shirts and ties, etc... The whole film really is beautiful to look at, I think it would be even better on high def.
I wanted more of Rachael in this film. I think that she's underused and would have made the film a little bit more emotionally satisfying. She disappears for almost the entire last third of the film, being rendered useless as soon as Ford had his way with her. I like the openness to this ending. She Rachael like a unicorn? Unique? Will she not die? Will Deckard kill her to keep someone else from doing it? Is he a replicant himself (as Ridley Scott himself now claims, despite Ford's objections).
I'm glad to have seen it and I look forward to examining the special features on the DVD. There's a documentary which I believe is to discuss the different versions and how they came to be. Thanks for the film, Ridley, my wife was right - good reference material!

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