A Replicant that refuses to be Retired

It was 1982, the definitive year for Mr Mike in entertainment. It was the year I felt the wrath of Khan, saw some fast times at Ridgemont High, watched Lee Majors leap from a tall building or crash a brand new car and heard Toto meet Rosanna "all the way". Yes, a magical year and in the midst of this was a new Harrison Ford movie, Blade Runner.

Blade Runner looked like a sure thing, it had who I considered to be the greatest actor of all time Harrison Ford in a Science Fiction movie. He was Han Solo, he was Indiana Jones-the man could do no wrong (except Force Ten from Navarone-that's 2 hours of my life I want back). Director Ridley Scott was coming off the space horror flick Alien. It looked so good.

So my Dad and I went to see Blade Runner and was amazed by the visuals. The special effects and look of the movie were amazing. But after going in with the expectation of wall to wall action like Star Wars or Raiders of the Lost Ark, it seemed slow and ponderous. My Dad liked the noirish approach but not much else. Still, the movie stuck with me and I bought the book to get more of the Blade Runner experience.

The idea of a Blade Runner assigned to killing Replicant androids while questioning his own humanity in the process appealed to me. The movie frequently appeared at the local dollar movie theater growing up which gave me more of a chance to drink in the detailed art direction like the smoky rooms of the night club and the rain soaked neon lit streets. On home video, Blade Runner was given a bloodier edit to boost it's visibility.

Ridley Scott in the 80's is one of my favorite directors. He was often put down as a "visual stylist" and in the 90's matured into a better, but blander, Oscar winning director. To me, even his bad movies in the 80's were incredible film going experiences-Alien, Legend and Black Rain were spectacular.

In the 90's a director's cut of Blade Runner surfaced so I ran off to San Francisco to check it out. The Director's cut amazed me, all of the story and subtlety of character came through. Without the leaden voice over and fake happy ending the movie came to life. It was a dark ride through the deadened soul of a man trying to find his humanity while killing beings that may be more human than the people who created them. Also added to the Director's cut is the possiblity that Ford may be a robot as well.

Once the DVD age came about, Blade Runner was short changed again with a single disc and no special features. Recently, Blade Runner has been remastered into a definitive Director's cut overseen by Ridley Scott himself. The movie has slowly revealed itself over time through various edits that have led to different meanings of the same piece. It's like one of those books where you make choices in the middle and each choice leads to a different storyline and ending.

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The picture is restored to a level of beauty I've only seen in the movie theater. The sound is remixed to perfection, Vangelis synth score is as moody as ever. Mistakes like the blatant use of a stunt woman in the death of the Zhora character were fixed with the original actress. All versions of the movie are included, the theatrical release, european version, original director's cut and new cut are here as well as lengthy documentary features. Blade Runner stands as one of my all time favorite movies, beauty and sadness in a future where man has ran down the earth.