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Blade Runner


33. Blade Runner

I liked this film a lot more an hour after watching it than I did upon immediate viewing. While I was watching it, I appreciated the visuals of the film and found the story interesting enough but it wasn't exactly a film that immediately grabbed my attention or excited me, at least not as much as I thought it would. I didn't know anything about the film and I went in expecting more or less a science fiction film that would be a little bit more action oriented I suppose. But the more I thought about and processed the film as it went along and especially shortly after finishing it the more I fell in love with it. It's such a deep thought provoking film and there's so much there to talk about with what it means to be human. I love films that have deeper meaning on top of being a great film and this is one of the deepest films I've ever seen.

It follows the story of a man named Deckard, played by Harrison Ford, who is forced to take up his old job as a blade runner, someone who hunts replicants which are kind of like artificial people, by the police after four replicants had escaped from the colonies and returned to earth. The film itself is much more complex than that but that is the premise at its most basic level.

Ridley Scott is one of my favorite directors of all time (probably in the top 3, but that's a different list), and on display in this film is what I think his best quality is as a director which is the ability to create a world and an atmosphere around the film that really helps transport you into another world. This is especially true in the grimy, lived in neo noir future world in Blade Runner which is one of the finest films in terms of production design ever, and no doubt that Scott have a huge part to play in providing the vision to bring it to life in the impressive way that this film does.

While there are films that I may have felt more emotional attachment to or been more entertained by, as a film, this is certainly one of the best and most well made films I've ever seen, if not the best. An incredibly deep and powerful film, Blade Runner is a masterpiece.