Amazon.com Essentials:
When Ridley Scott's cut of Blade Runner was finally
released in 1993, one had to wonder why the studio hadn't done it
right the first time--11 years earlier. This version is so much
better, mostly because of what's been eliminated (the ludicrous and
redundant voice-over narration and the phony happy ending) rather than
what's been added (a bit more character development and a brief
unicorn dream). Star Harrison Ford originally recorded the narration
under duress at the insistence of Warner Bros. executives who thought
the story needed further "explanation"; he later confessed
that he thought if he did it badly they wouldn't use it. (Moral: Never
overestimate the taste of movie executives.) The movie's spectacular
futuristic vision of Los Angeles--a perpetually dark and rainy
metropolis that's the nightmare antithesis of "Sunny Southern
California"--is still its most seductive feature, an otherworldly
atmosphere in which you can immerse yourself. The movie's shadowy
visual style, along with its classic private-detective/murder-mystery
plot line (with Ford on the trail of a murderous android, or
"replicant"), makes Blade Runner one of the few
science fiction pictures to legitimately claim a place in the film
noir tradition. And, as in the best noir, the sleuth
discovers a whole lot more (about himself and the people he
encounters) than he anticipates.... With Sean Young, Edward James
Olmos, Daryl Hannah, Rutger Hauer, and M. Emmet Walsh. --Jim
Emerson
Amazon.com Essentials:
When Ridley Scott's cut of Blade Runner was finally
released in 1993, one had to wonder why the studio hadn't done it
right the first time--11 years earlier. This version is so much
better, mostly because of what's been eliminated (the ludicrous and
redundant voice-over narration and the phony happy ending) rather than
what's been added (a bit more character development and a brief
unicorn dream). Star Harrison Ford originally recorded the narration
under duress at the insistence of Warner Bros. executives who thought
the story needed further "explanation"; he later confessed
that he thought if he did it badly they wouldn't use it. (Moral: Never
overestimate the taste of movie executives.) The movie's spectacular
futuristic vision of Los Angeles--a perpetually dark and rainy
metropolis that's the nightmare antithesis of "Sunny Southern
California"--is still its most seductive feature, an otherworldly
atmosphere in which you can immerse yourself. The movie's shadowy
visual style, along with its classic private-detective/murder-mystery
plot line (with Ford on the trail of a murderous android, or
"replicant"), makes Blade Runner one of the few
science fiction pictures to legitimately claim a place in the film
noir tradition. And, as in the best noir, the sleuth
discovers a whole lot more (about himself and the people he
encounters) than he anticipates.... With Sean Young, Edward James
Olmos, Daryl Hannah, Rutger Hauer, and M. Emmet Walsh. --Jim
Emerson
