OK OK OK, time to return to the vault of classic films, and this time I'm going for a real sci-fi masterpiece, yep its Blade Runner, arguably Ridley Scott's finest film, and you could say his career has never been the same since. So let's have an indepth look at it shall we????
Well the story begins in Los Angeles 2019, where the future is bleak, dark, and above all wet, the skies are also filled with futuristic flying cars, and massive digital billboards. And one of the inhabitants of this bleak LA is Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), a former cop, who was nicknamed as a "blade runner", a term for a police officer who tracked down bioengineered beings known as replicants. Deckard is detained by an officer, Gaff (Edward James Olmos) who takes him to see his former supervisor, Bryant (M. Emmett Walsh) who tells him that six rouge replicants have escaped and made their way to Earth two of them were killed, but four remain, and he wants Deckard to track them down and "retire" them (the term used for killing replicants). Deckard reluctantly accepts and goes to the Tyrell corporation where he meets with Dr Eldon Tyrell, who formed the company, and was the creator of the replicants. Deckard is asked to try out the voight kampff test, which is used to determine whether someone is a replicant or a human, on Tyrell's assistant, Rachael (Sean Young). After many questions Deckard finds out that Rachael is in fact a replicant, a Nexus-6 model (just like the others) who is unaware of being a replicant herself, as she has been implanted with fake memories from Tyrell's niece. Deckard and Gaff then after search, one of the replicants Leon's (Brion James) apartment, where they find a photo and what appears to be a piece of snake scale.
Meanwhile, Leon and the leader of the group of replicants, Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) pay a visit to a local eye manufacturing laboratory where they question the owner, Chew (James Hong) as to how they can go about expanding their lifespan (which is four years). Chew admits he knows nothing about this, but an engineer called J.F. Sebastian (William Sanderson) may be able to help them. Roy then sends one of the replicants, Pris (Daryl Hannah) to meet Sebastian and gain his confidence. Meanwhile Deckard is visited by Rachael, who emotionally tries to prove to him that she isnt a replicant by showing her a picture of her family, but Deckard coldly tells that her memories are just implants, and she leaves upset. Deckard that takes the photo he found from Leon's apartment and scans it for more detail and finds in the photo a women with a tatoo on her neck. Deckard soon tracks down the whereabouts of the woman, who soon turns out to be the other replicant of the group, Zhora (Joanna Cassidy), who works at a strip club, using a snake as part of her act. Zhora soon catches onto who he is and flees, with Deckard chasing onto the busy streets, he guns her down in public, as crashes through shop windows, and eventually falls to the floor dead. On witnessing this, Leon soon after attacks Deckard, who is about to kill him, but is saved by Rachael who shoots Leon in the head. Back at Deckard's apartment, Rachael sobs and finally accepts that she "is the business" meaning that she realises she is a replicant. Deckard then seduces her.
In the meantime, Roy meets up with Pris and Sebastian, and Roy calmly asks that Sebastian takes him to meet with Tyrell, and if he doesn then Pris won't have long to live. Sebastian eventually agrees to take Roy to meet with Tyrell in the hope that he can find a way to extend his and Pris's lifespans, but on their meeting, Tyrell unfortunately can give no solutions or answers to Roy's demand "I want more life, fucker!", as he tells him "we made you as well as we could make you". Roy seems to accept this, then gives Tyrell a kiss and kills him by crushing skull. Sebastian watches on in horror and runs away, but Roy also soon kills him as well. Later on Deckard get's news from Bryant that they have found Sebastian's body and that he checks out his apartment, where Deckard finally meets with Pris and Roy for the final confrontation....
There is no doubt that Blade Runner is a towering achievement in science fiction films, and it stands as one of the all time greats in its genre. Originally based on the sci-fi writer, Philip K Dick's novel, Do androids dream of electric sheep? Ridley Scott brilliantly took the novel and created it into a visually stunning bleak world, with which what has been called one of the more accurate pictures of the future. Philip K Dick at the time was also astounded by the film as he said he could not believe how accurately the film's vision was to how he saw it visualised in his mind. There have of course been over the years several different versions of Blade Runner as well, with the original theatrical release being something of a scornful memory of what the film should have been, as it was heavily criticised at the time for its use of Harrison Ford's narration (which Ford was against doing in the first place as was Ridley), and the going off into the sunset ending. And it has to be said the definitive and best version of the film remains as the director's cut released back in 1991. The Final Cut of course was released in 2007, for the film's 25th anniversary, but personally I think it doesn't add anything new to the film, and in a way it detracts from it in one or two ways, especially with the stupid inclusion of Joanna Cassidy's CGI'd face in the scene where Deckard shoots her (as originally it was a stunt woman with a wig on) and the scene with the CGI dancers, in fact CGI should never have tainted this film, as it has tained too many already! But whichever version you watch, despite any additional bits, the film still remains a great one.
Performance wise things are top notch here, and Harrison Ford delivers arguably the best performance of his career as Deckard, the cool, laid back blade runner, who walked away from his life as a cop, before being pulled back in by his supervisor Bryant. Its also a very interesting moment in the film where it is suggested that Deckard himself might be a replicant, as the replicants in the film all have glowing eyes under low light, and in one scene in Deckard's apartment we even see that in his eyes too! There is also of course all that nonsense about the unicorn, which was added into the director's cut, which suggests Deckard's uniqueness and that he too might be a replicant. Personally I don't think he is one, but its open to debate, and it was certainly one point that was argued to death by both Ridley and Harrison at the time, with Ridley for and Harrison against Deckard being a replicant.
Rutger Hauer is also superb as Roy Batty, the leader of the replicants, and rather than play him as a blatant villain, he takes a very different take on Roy, as a somewhat sensitive, intellectual man, who desperately seeks to extend his short life as well as the lives of his friends. But in doing so he also shows his rage, anger and madness, especially in the scene where he kills Tyrell, crushing his skill, and later when he finally confronts Deckard, howling dementedly like a wolf, as he follows him through the old Bradbury building near the end of the film. His last scene is also quite poignant where she chooses to save Deckard's life as he nearly plummets to his death from the roof of the Bradbury building, and pulls him up and throws him down back onto the roof, and he delivers his last speech telling Deckard the unbelievable things he has seen, which was written by Hauer himself. I also like the moment in the theatrical and director's cut where he confronts Tyrell and delivers the immortal line "I want more life, fucker!". I was actually quite annoyed when they changed it to "I want more life, father!" in the final cut, as I think the original line was far better and more insistent and emphatic. Again more unecessary tinkering with a film that didn't really need it.
The supporting cast are also excellent, with Sean Young who gaves a rare fine performance as the replicant Rachael, who slowly comes to terms with who she is throughout the film. Daryl Hannah, who is actually something of an underrated actor, also gives an excellent performance as Pris, and her best moment comes when she and Roy try to persuade Sebastian to take them to see Tyrell, and he she looks slyly at Roy and smiles, its a great moment in her performance. Joe Turkell is also great as Dr Tyrell, and Ridley Scott cast him after he saw Turkell play the bartender in Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, and his scene with Roy is one of the film's highlights. Edward James Olmos also deserves credit for his brief perfomance as the police officer, Gaff, as he put tremendous thought into how he played the part, and he even came up with his own language for the part, as he took a mish mash of Esperanto and other languages to form the"cityspeak" he uses in the film. His best moment comes at the end where he asks Deckard if he is through and says in regards to Rachael "its too bad she won't live, but then again who does?". Emmett M. Walsh also does really well with his smaller role as the police Captain Bryant, and he get's some of the film's best lines, especially when he first meets Deckard and says "come on, Deckard don't be an asshole, I've got four skin jobs walking the streets!" and "stop right where you are, you know the score pal??! If you're not a cop, you're little people!". And Brion James as Leon is excellent, the less brighter of the replicants, and his opening scene with the blade runner Holden, is a great moment, especially when he leans forward in his seat and says "let me tell you about my mother" before he shoots Holden, and the moment in his last scene where he is about to kill Deckard and delivers the great line "wake up, time to die!". And finally Joanna Cassidy as Zhora, who probably has the smallest role of the four replicants, also does well with her role (and she does have quite a nice pair as well! ;-)).
Visually the film looks stunning there is no doubt about it, with Douglas Trumbull's amazing special effects as we see the flying cars in the skies, and the set design is simply superb, and the model work of the Tyrell corporation building is terrific. Jordan Cronenweth's superb cinemaphotography also adds immeasurably to the tone and feel of the film, with its dark tones and beautiful shadows. And of course I can't leave without mentioning the music score by Vangelis, which is brilliant, and remains one of the most memorable film scores in recent times, the opening passage in particularly is great in the titles, which is sparse, ambient and above all futuristic sounding.
And that is that for my review of Blade Runner, its a simply magnificent film that never ages and never feels dated, and despite the whole flying car thing, its not entirely far off the image of the future that we are now close approaching (in terms of time, 7 years away!) , well except perhaps not so dreary!
So with that I will finish there!
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