Blade Runner (1982)

One of the only films of its kind. Blade Runner is one of my all-time favourite movies!

Fmovies: This is simply Scott's finest hour. There are a sheer plethora of futuristic films with vision. Films which crudely grope into a possible time ahead,when perhaps a post apocalyptic era is scattered with cliché upon cliché and often miss the whole point. What Ridley Scott achieved with this film,is an entirely possible scenario. It really does feel like a science fiction novel brought to life,but not so much as its derivative penned by Phillip K Dick(do androids dream of electric sheep?). Its a grimy,violent world inhabited by the sick,lower class,villainous second citizens who haven't quite made the grade for the off world colonies. We have a true smelting pot of nationalities.The heavy eastern references within china town like inner cities is particularly poignant.

This film also sees Ford in perfect casting.Theirs a rye charm that Ford has that no other actor could fake or fill quite as effortlessly. Its a mixed review depending on what version you have seen. For me,the directors cut is simply too cut. I preferred the audience friendly screening which had the wonderful narration. The finest moment with this narration has to be the moments described by Batty in his dying eyes and the summing up by Ford of this man/machines passion and love for life.. No other sci-fi futuristic film has ever made the grade before or since in my humble opinion. It captured the raw smells and light of a brutal future scarily depicted in films or even so well. From the chase scene with Zora to the flybys over the city capturing a stunning skyline,chimneys and skyscrapers in one shot. This is my favourite movie of all time for all the reasons above and many more i could effortlessly type all day and night.

This is a film that is so deep, rich, and multi-layered, it may require more than one viewing to fully absorb the brilliance of what you've just seen. At first glance, it can be a bit slow. It's told in a classic film noir fashion, so this is to be expected. Director Ridley Scott seems to want to savor every shot, and an astute audience will be able to sense this.

Now, I say the film is told in a classic Noir style, but this can be misleading. There is no Humphrey Bogart in Blade Runner, snapping off brilliant one-liners once a second. Only hopeless people, in many ways victims of the merciless world of which they are all a part. Deckard is a typically downbeat protagonist, a hard-boiled cynical leading man with a weakness for heavy drinking. The plot is a mystery in name only, as the audience is allowed to know what Roy Batty, Pris and Leon are all up to before Deckard ever finds out. This only lends to the dread and inevitability of the film, lending further to its pervasive gloom. There is no final scene at the end where the bold detective puts all the pieces together and says "Ah-Ha!". Instead, we find Rick Deckard questioning his own existence and drinking away his constant doubts, all the while embroiled in a romantic relationship with someone he's sworn to kill.

Blade Runner requires audience participation, particularly in the Director's Cut, which is entirely devoid of some rather necessary exposition provided by the Original Cut's much-maligned voice-over. Certain facts will not be clear even at the end of the film, requiring personal interpretation in order to be appreciated fully. Other facts will be given away in much more subtle ways than in most modern cinema, such as through visual cues and tenuous dialogue.

Finally, visually, this movie is quite simply a science fiction triumph. It looks better than modern computer effects in every way that counts. Superimposed special effect objects don't give off that unnatural, clearly computer-generated "Lord of the Rings" sheen common in today's effects-driven blockbusters. This, of course, is because Blade Runner - while a gorgeous movie - is not effects driven in the least. Rather, it is a visually driven story that doesn't rely on special effects. This is an important distinction to make in today's Hollywood.

"Touch of Evil" really wasn't the last of the Great Film Noirs!

Blade Runner fmovies. This movie is obscenely over rated. It is clear that ALL the attention was given to the production design and overall look to the film, as the script (no matter the 'version') is awful. For a film so raved about by nearly every critic, the plot is cookie cutter and drab. The pacing is, well, there simply isn't any pacing. It is S L O W. The characters are completely uninteresting and the film isn't deep or genuinely philosophical enough to warrant the attention it asks us to pay. There are many parts that are simply goofy and unintentionally funny, like when Rutger Hauer pops his head through the wall towards the end and says something silly, or when Darryl Hannah could have killed Deckard but instead decides to back up and then do a bunch of goofy gymnastics flips in order to give him time to pick up his gun and blow her "guts" out. It is one of my best friend's favorite films and it took a lot out of me to hold my tongue while watching it with him.

But it's almost like an art movie, the first science-fiction art filmÂ… It's a futuristic film beautifully put togetherÂ… It's really impeccably made by one of the great visionary directorsÂ… And you really saw a future that looked very different from the future you had seen beforeÂ… A future that looked very believable like the visual-effects shots of the flying car going over a futuristic cityÂ… The fight sequence doesn't prepare you for the traumatic emotional side that there is in the film, it leaves you sort of brokenÂ…

There is a beautiful, delicate emotional great scene that I remember when I first saw the movieÂ… I'm in the theater and I'm so drawn in what Rutger Hauer's doingÂ… I'm so drawn in by what the theme of the movie has brought us toÂ… The magnificent moment where he is letting go of lifeÂ… And in those last moments of letting go of life he's really learned to appreciate life to the point where he spares Deckard's life, and where he's even holding a white dove because he just wants to have something that's alive in his handsÂ… It's an amazing sort of crescendo that's going and there's Rutger saying: "I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. All these moments will be lost in time like tears in rain." Hauer puts all the things that are so amazing about people: sense of poetry, sense of humor, sense of sexuality, sense of the kid, sense of soulÂ…

Scott brought out the best qualities in his performersÂ… He coaxed and very gently manipulated performances from his actors that in some instances I think they've rarely toppedÂ… You feel the story, you feel the emotions of the characters and you will be lost in the middle of this wild world, you know, it's so rich and it's painfulÂ… I mean it's a very bluesy, dark story and told very compassionatelyÂ…

The overpopulation, the sort of crowd scenes is so rich and varied and there's such an extreme detail designing the magazine covers, designing the look of the punks, the Hare Krishnas, the biological salesman, everything is designed… You have just Piccadilly Circus punks walking by… You have a sense of layers in that society… That is one of those things that you see again and again… The city landscape with the big billboards à la Kyoto or Tokyo… Scott was able to create the look based on what goes on in various cities all over the world… Whether it is Tokyo, Kyoto or Beijing or Hong Kong or whatever, you're right in "Blade Runner" country…

"Blade Runner," to me, embodies the elegance, the power, and the uniqueness of a film experienceÂ… It's the most classical, beautiful, purest movie-making writing and then the film-making itself isÂ… The images and the sound and the music, it's pure cinemaÂ… Ridley came out with an amazing, brilliantly executed future of an absolute dystopiaÂ… The intensity of his perfectionism on "Blade Runner" made the movieÂ… This is a master at his bestÂ…

OK, I admit...the first time I watched this movie I detested it. But hey, I was 16 years old and had expected an action-packed sci-fi adventure. Blade Runner is not such a film. But I am grateful for this, for after maturing a bit and rewatching the movie a couple of times, I discovered its greatness. It is not a traditional sci-fi movie, it's a touching drama about the value of life and the importance of making the most of what you've got. One of the most important themes in the film is the question of what is more valuable - humans without emotions, or machines with? The film gives no answer - it just opens our eyes and makes us aware that we should be grateful for being alive.

Some people prefer the Director's Cut, but I like the original version better - mostly because of the wonderful end line: "I didn't know how long we had together. Who does?" That pretty much sums it up.