Details
Movie Description
A jaded ex-cop in a totalitarian future is forced out of retirement to hunt down a group of genetically engineered superhumans bred for slavery. Seeing their heroic struggle against an inhuman system, he ultimately falls in love with one of them. This visually dazzling and boldly moral film caught many critics napping when it first came out. Based on the novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick. Academy Award Nominations: Best Art Direction-Set Direction, Best Visual Effects.
Synopsis
In 21st century Los Angeles (2019), a semi-retired policeman, known as a "blade runner," is assigned to hunt down and eliminate four "replicants," genetically created humanoid robots. On earth illegally from an off-world colony where they were used as laborers, and with a built-in life span of only four years, the androids have jumped ship in order to confront the individual who designed them.
Film Notes
This record is for the out-of-print Embassy laserdisc, which was taken from the domestic theatrical print described below (the laserdisc jacket misidentifies the film as the international theatrical print). This version of the film was shown on pay and cable television, but never released on videocassette.
"Blade Runner" has taken a rather torturous road to home video: beginning with numerous rewrites in pre-production; through onset squabbles between cast, crew, and director so heated it caused some to dub the project "Blood Runner"; and finally through numerous post-production tinkerings. These tinkerings caused several different versions of "Blade Runner" to be screened to the public and three different versions to be released on home video.
Following sneak previews in May of 1982 in Dallas and Denver, "Blade Runner" film was re-edited for a June sneak in San Diego. In addition to two brief shots that were not used in any other version of the film and have not been seen since, the ending was reedited to show the happy couple driving off into the sunset together after test audiences were mystified with the original version, which showed Rachael and Deckard leaving his apartment and entering the elevator. Rather than shoot new footage for the new "chase-and-escape" ending, the filmmakers utilized unused footage from Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining."
The initial domestic theatrical release was essentially the same as the San Diego cut, minus the two brief shots.
A more graphic version of "Blade Runner" was released to theaters outside the United States. This international print was also the first version of the film released on videocassette, by Embassy in 1983. Three scenes differ between the domestic and international prints: the scene in which Batty kills Tyrell by crushing his head with his bare hands is shorter but more explicit; the fight scene between Deckard and Pris features additional shots; and two shots late in the film show Batty pu
Industry Reviews
Typical of works of genius, "Blade Runner" is one of the most often-emulated and critically overlooked achievements of its time.
A milestone in cinema-as-art, the film is the brainchild of director Ridley Scott who masterfully synthesizes sets, casting, score, acting, atmosphere, pacing, story, theme and script into a single vision. While most critics are frustrated writers who watch movies by listening to the dialogue, Scott conveys deep thematic subtext with the sheer impact of the moving picture, thus leading many film critics to dub his work a triumph of "style over substance." "Blade Runner" is perhaps the best example of Scott's integrated approach. Every knickknack in the frame, every wisp of smoke, every stroke of style adds to the weight and momentum of the film's theme: that human life is precious and beautiful, and that its exploitation is a tragic evil.
The film's many Frankenstein references, down to the windmills at the climax, suggest the director is offering a bold response to Mary Shelley's somewhat Luddite theme that man must never usurp the Creator's power. Instead, the "Replicants" created by the evil genetic engineer Tyrell are beautiful, intelligent, self-possessed and life-loving. They are not monsters, but super-humans who should be admired rather than feared as they fight for their lives in a decaying dystopia that has bred them to be slaves.
The leader of the renegade Replicants, Roy Batty, embarks on a Gilgamesh-like quest to meet his maker and condemn him for dooming his kind to short, brutish and nasty lives. Tyrell has restricted the lifespan of Replicants to four years, to prevent them from rebelling. It is only as these facts are revealed that the audience is challenged to recognize the dilemma of the film: what appeared to be the villains are in fact the heroes, and the titular Blade Runner is the grim agent of the State sent to execute them. At one point, Roy Batty asks the Blade Runner, "Aren't you ...
Fahy
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