Blade Runner

Why didn't someone just say that in the first place? Now I need to rent the damned movie again. Danred it all!

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Ah, Blade Runner. A huge fan, I am. Ever since about a year ago when I first got to catch this movie on TBS. I was also lucky enough to pick this DVD up in the $5.50 bin at Wal-Mart. I now get a chance to watch this movie whenever I get the urge. Thank god for capitalism.

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"This is that human freedom, which all boast that they possess, and which consists solely in the fact, that men are conscious of their own desire, but are ignorant of the causes whereby that desire has been determined." -Baruch Spinoza

i garantee if you watch the movie you will no longer think of it as fan service because you will be a fan. the end of eva movie is to profound to put into words. all i can say is it creams the series in action, animation, and well good ol' fashion violence. it puts the series in perspective and finally gives the fans want they want. please, if you haven't seen the series or movie, go see them, then come back and post about it. skip the last 2 episodes and go straight to the movie. then you will understand my thoughts on blade runner.

I've always wanted to watch Evangelion but have no idea where to start, films are the cheapest but i gather the worst place to start.

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Redhorse - Yeah, i have seen a lot of the series, but I eventually gave up on it. Some of the concepts were of course interesting and deep, but overall, I felt the series was sort of lackluster and repetitive. It's been a few years, though. I just remember sitting down to watch Gasaraki, and thinking "Now this is well doen existential mecha anime".

I will give the movie a watch, popping it into netflix now...

Also, all this BR talk was enough to get me watching it again last night.... I just couldn't resist!

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also since you've seen most of the series i think they have an ova or movie that raps up the whole series. if memory serves i think it's call evangelion death and rebirth. i would check animenfo.com just to make sure. that way u don't have to sit through shingi whining for 24 episdoes.

This movie still confuses me like crazy.

How so? What specifically has you confused?

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"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra

Probably the part where you have to wake up because its time to die. Maybe..or not.

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“The gladdest moment in human life, methinks, is a departure into unknown lands.” – Sir Richard Burton

Okay, I'm reviving this thread because I'm no longer part of the great unwashed. So now all you people have to come back and talk to me about it. (Hey, I did it with BSG -- I can do it here too!)

I said some of this in the shoutbox, but here's a repeat:

I saw the Director's Cut. I haven't seen the theatrical version yet, so don't spoil the apparently different ending. (It's next on Netflix, so it's only a few days.)

Second, I totally missed that he's a replicant? I have a good excuse, though. I didn't notice that the little origami figure was a unicorn. I just picked up that it was Olmos's origami, which meant he'd been there. Must have had a little too much glare on the TV screen.

So, without that bit of info, my thought on the ending was that Olmos had been there and knew Rachel was there, but for some reason let her go and didn't kill her himself. I assumed that was because of what he said ("It's a shame she's not going to live ....")

My thought was that it just wasn't worth killing her. She wasn't harming anyone and she'd have a short lifespan anyway, so why not let Deckard have his way this once?

I just sent back the movie to Netflix, so now I can't wait for the other version to show up (probably Saturday) so I can rewatch it and maybe pick up on that. (Or is that part missing from the other version??)

I loved the camera work in this movie, too. Every shot, every frame was like a work of art. I don't always notice such things, and when I do, it's often because the gorgeous camera work overshadows the story (or props up a bad story). But in this case, I was amazed at how much the great scenes and shots actually made a great story even better.

The music by Vangelis distracted me a teeny bit for the first few minutes, but then I realized it actually made things better too. It was different, not what I would have expected from a dark sci-fi movie, and yet it worked.

I still wonder why it's always nighttime and raining in L.A. in twelve years, but that's a different question....

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You'll want to take that off of your Netflix list. The Director's Cut is the only version that's ever been available on R1 DVD. I just looked up the listing on their site, and though they have one labeled as the D.C. and one not, they both are. The one is probably just the remastered disc, which has the same content just much better audio/video quality.

The long-awaited Special Edition that looks like it'll finally be out by the end of this year will have the original theatrical version in its features. But until then, Netflix don't got it.


It's OK, most people missed it until like eight or nine years AFTER the D.C. had been released and Ridley Scott mentioned it in an interview. Then the young internet nerds went nuts, thinking they had a scoop when it was, like, in the text of the flick since 1991. Though I know walking out of the theatre the first time I saw it I had to explain it to a few patrons milling around outside, so you're most defnitely not alone on this score.


Yes, and without Deckard's unicorn dream, which was cut from the original 1982 release, that's exactly how one would read that scene and how it was thought of until the D.C. in the early 1990s. And just in case that sentiment isn't clear, the obtrusive Deckard voice over that follows in the original theatrical cuts says it aloud.

How could you tell the Netflix *other* version isn't the theatrical one?

For one by clicking on the picture, which clearly shows the box for the D.C. But trust me, the Director's Cut is the only version of Blade Runner ever marketed on R1 DVD.

So unless Netflix is renting out bootlegs of the old LD or VHS that they've transferred to DVD, it is not the theatrical version.

Commenting on the Gaff (Olmos) stuff:

Gaff did know Deckard was hiding Rachel, and his final comment, which was, exactly: "Too bad she won't live, but, then again, who does?" is a great line, and speaks about many different things. On a physical level, he is talking about the shortened lifespan, and how she won't live, but, we also have a short lifespan, all things considered, which plays into the second part of his comment in a way.

Moving beyond the physical, while still applying to it, the whole "but then again, who does?" is not a question we can easily explain or answer, well, ever. Many think that our mortality is what defines us, and brings passion to our lives, because, if we had forever, why would anything matter at any given time, really? Gaff is asking, who REALLY lives, no matter what their origin? Who decides what a soul is, and who has a soul?

So, When Elden Tyrell is telling Roy to "revel in his time", he is speaking to us, as well. Tyrell wants to be (a)God, and plays one pretty well, creating (flawed) life, and Roy sees him as God, playing into his megalomania. We observe a conversation many of us have wanted to have at various points in our life, between ourselves and our (alleged) creator. Why am I here? Is this all? And most of all, why does it have to end... I'm not finished yet, I don't UNDERSTAND yet. Why?

Heavy ****.

Oh...we were talking about Gaff, replicants, and oragami...

I know you want to watch the theatrical run, but, damn, I HATE what they do with the end, I really do. It trashes the film and makes it seem shallow, IMO.

Adding to Holden's words, I hope you got the new transfer when you watched it, as the one from the mid 90s is the worst DVD transfer out there. I watch a VCR tape of the Euro theater cut ( a bit more violent, some odd angle changes and reverses in the print) when I feel like listening to Deckard sleepwalk through a VO. My copy was a very thoughtful gift from someone you might know.

I know you're a Blade Runner aficionado, Seds, but have you seen the Brit doc On The Edge Of Blade Runner?

I stumbled upon an old pile of VHS tapes a while back and it was on there - I can't even remember watching it at the time so cranked up the old VCR with a misty-eyed feeling of nostalgia when I saw the tracking lines appear on the screen...

Anyway, I digress, the doc is really rather good with interviews from cast and crew (only Sean Young and, quelle suprise, Ford are missing).

I found it on Google videos just in case you fancy a peek. Mark Kermode presents it, but don;t let the be-quiffed bufoon put you off.

Link

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Awesome, thanks. I haven't seen it!

Yeah, unfortunately that British documentary didn't air in the U.S., and our first shot to see it other than streaming online or something is going to be that Special Edition disc, which includes it as a feature.

It's worth watching alone for Hauer's musings on the character of Deckard - "He gets a gun held to his head and ****s a dishwasher."

Gotta love Rutger.

Holden, have some linky info about the SE?