My Favourite Movies: Bladerunner
After winning £27 (about $50US) on a Lottery scratch card I treated myself to the Ultimate Collectors box set of one of my all time favourite movies – Bladerunner. Starring Harrison Ford in arguably his best role I remember being totally blown away by this film whilst sitting on my own in a movie theatre in Bromley, Kent. I was already a major fan of William Gibson’s Cyberpunk novels and couldn’t help comparing Ridley Scott’s 2019 LA (yeah, right) to Gibson’s Sprawl.
Anyway, Bladerunner tells the story of Harrison Ford (in the eponymous role) whose job it is (or was) to ‘retire’ rogue Replicants who are human looking simulacra designed for dangerous off-world occupations. During the film we are also introduced to the next generation of Replicant in the guise of Rachel (played by Sean Young) who has implanted memories and thinks she’s actually human. “How can it not know what it is?” Ford asks at one point.
Ford gradually retires the Replicant team – led by the great B-movie actor Rutger Hauer – one by one, suffering an increasing level of personal injury along the way. The final scene with Hauer is one of the best in the film with his soliloquy being one of the best things about the movie.
Beautifully filmed throughout with outstanding lighting this is a classic SF movie. The rendition of a future world set standards for decades to come and has rarely been equalled never mind surpassed. Together with its haunting soundtrack by Vangelis and its disturbing questions regarding the meaning of humanity this became and remained one of my Top 5 movies of all time and I think I may have watched it approximately 50 times over the years. I still prefer the original version complete with voice over though. The new version – the Final Cut – does have a much cleaner image and has been digitally enhanced to make some of the models more believable but I did miss that Film Noir voice of Fords. Although its power has faded with time (like tears in the rain) this still stands today as a benchmark in SF movie production.
4 comments:
Couldn't agree more. It's a movie that way ahead of it's time and it's look really captures the grittiness and amalgam of cultures that subsequent movies have used (Children of Men, V for Vendetta, 12 Monkeys).
Love it, love it. I also like the voiceover version better. Or maybe it's better to say that I like the voiceover--it's very film noir.
The Vangelis soundtrack has really grown on me.
I don't know where I'd rank it, but it's near my top 10, just outside.
The Ultimate Collector's Boxset? You lucky bastard! :)
I've only seen the original version once, so I can't remember the voiceovers all that much. In any form though, it's a classic, and surely one of the most influential films ever made (at least aesthetically). And while it's fairly different from the novel, I think the film is the superior and more significant work.
dbackdad said: Couldn't agree more.
I had a feeling that you'd like this movie as much as I did.
wunelle said: I also like the voiceover version better. Or maybe it's better to say that I like the voiceover--it's very film noir.
Film Noir rocks. More of which later.... [grin]
AM said: The Ultimate Collector's Boxset? You lucky bastard! :)
Yup. I'd thought about it previously but wasn't sure if it was worth the money. Of course with the lottery win it didn't actually cost me a penny....
AM said: And while it's fairly different from the novel, I think the film is the superior and more significant work.
I read the book *many* years ago. The only think I can remember about it (apart from the fact that it definitely wasn't the film) was that Deckard was married & henpecked.....
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