Blade Runner (original 1982 US cut) (10/10)
I've been meaning to revisit
Blade Runner for some time (in fact I don't think I've watched the film -- in any form -- in about ten years). However, this time I thought I'd go back and re-sample the original 1982 version.
This is actually the cut I've seen the most -- at least five times on the big screen (it was shown every year or two at the local campus cinema near my home as a teenager -- my friend Ben was an usher and used to get me in for free!).
Blade Runner remains a captivating, even
mesmerizing experience over forty years on. The full effect of Ridley Scott's interpretation of Phillip K. Dick's story and dystopian scenario is hard to articulate. Perhaps I am over-imbuing the significance of the film, but it invokes feelings in me I can't describe, and didn't even know were there. I wouldn't call it an "entertaining" movie, but it is so immersive, so enthralling, so original and unique, I can't really describe its effect on me.
As far as the elements that are specific to the 1982 cut...
As much as I understand Scott has his preferred vision of
Blade Runner, I am not sure the "Final Cut" is superior to the original theatrical version. Deckard's narration, though a bit "on the nose" in places, does help clarify things.
I never felt the unicorn footage added anything to the story. Yes, it gives a context to Gaff's origami unicorn at the end, but as such it imposes the "Deckard is a replicant" inference on the film, which doesn't really fit into the narrative -- and
ruins Deckard's character arc (despite what Ridley Scott thinks).
The "happy ending" is not implausible or a cop out. Los Angeles is a sprawling metropolis -- but the wilderness is less than ten miles from its city limits. It's not unreasonable to assume wildernesses will exist in the future (even in 2019!). Besides, the film does not address the state of the Earth's other regions (or borders -- for all we know Deckard and Rachel are driving through Siberia).
And what's wrong with allowing Deckard and Rachel to "live happily ever after" -- especially in the wake of what they've just been through? (That said, watching the film this time, I got the sense Deckard was lying to Rachel when he said he didn't look at the life expectancy figures for her prototype -- suggesting she too is short-lived.)
I'm only just now appreciating the
phenomenal performances in this film. Harrison Ford may have been frustrated by Scott’s direction (or lack of it) but you’d never guess, as his work in the role of Deckard is among his best. I almost literally feel Deckard’s pain as Zhora strangles him, and in that cringey moment when he has to reset his broken fingers. And while there was on-set tension between Ford and Sean Young, that actually
helps their scenes together, as the anguish expressed by both characters is palpable.
Kudos also to Rutger Hauer and Darryl Hannah (in her finest performance) for their edgy mannerisms and off-kilter tics, which convincingly express the mindset of people unused to emotions, all while facing their "expiration dates" -- while simultaneously on the run from Blade Runners.
Although overall a gumshoe character study,
Blade Runner nevertheless boasts two of the greatest action sequences ever -- Deckard's pursuit of Zhora in the crowded red light district, and the visceral climax in the Bradbury building. It is almost redundant to mention
Blade Runner's hugely imaginative art direction and photography -- but this film is a masterwork of imagery, and remains the most visually-arresting picture ever made (thanks not only to Scott, but also collaborators Douglas Trumbull, and Syd Mead).
Vangelis' score is without a doubt his best effort (for films or otherwise). It is not only melodically-inspired and dramatically potent, but also an astonishing collage of timbre. Many electronic musicians merely try to mimic the intonation of acoustic instruments, but Vangelis exploits the medium to an unprecedented extent, and I marvel at how he came up with such an extraordinary sonic landscape. There is no question his music enhances and elevates the film considerably. I also think it was a stroke of good luck for
Blade Runner that
Chariots of Fire was such a successful album; had it not been, I could see the financiers pressuring Scott to "dump that weird music" and re-score the film orchestrally.
Blade Runner is an indisputable classic. I rate it the greatest science fiction film ever made, and it is certainly among most aesthetically prescient. It predicted -- and in many ways
created -- the style of 1980s music videos, commercials, and TV shows like
Max Headroom. Its blend of future technology and the look of the past was mimicked in
Brazil and
Batman (and a lot of post-80s movies like
The Fifth Element,
Judge Dread and
Watchmen). Vangelis'
Blade Runner music (along with
Chariots of Fire) ushered-in the vogue of electronic scoring (which was a mixed blessing, it must be said). And no one -- not even Ridley Scott himself -- has ever managed to equal the surpassing visual imagination and complexity of this, his finest effort.
Postscript:
After watching the 1982 cut, I decided to put on the "workprint" cut, to look at a couple of sequences.
As gorgeous as Vangelis' love theme is, I honestly prefer the more melancholy, fatalistic cue he wrote for the love scene originally.
But the final act of the workprint -- unscored by Vangelis -- is an absolute musical mess. Terry Rawlings was a great editor, but the notion that he had a talent for creating appropriate and effective temp tracks is utterly
dispelled when viewing the workprint. Roy Batty gazes ruefully at Pris' dead body -- to the strains of Jerry Goldsmith's "The Revelation" from
Planet of the Apes, while Deckard clings to the Bradbury building exterior as
Planet of the Apes' "The Search" is heard. The remainder of the sequence is accompanied by James Horner's
Humanoids from the Deep -- which is laughably overblown in the scene when Deckard jump across to the adjacent building. Seriously, Rawlings expected
Vangelis was going to provide something that sounds like those scores?