Blade Runner

[ksmith]

I saw it for the first time last night, hacked with commercials. The station, AMC, ran it again immediately, and I watched it again. Been thinking about it off and on all day.

Parts of it are so, so good. Every scene with Rutger Hauer. Daryl Hannah. William Sanderson. The dark world and the melange of clothing and language and the strange tiny children? Mutants? Sanderson’s apartment, filled with his companions. The rain.

I’m a fan of Harrison Ford, but he didn’t fit this movie. He lacks noir authority, and he needed it to pull off Deckard. I watch the scene below, Hauer’s Tears in the Rain speech, and dammit they cut to Ford’s reaction and all he has to offer is his Han Solo “oops’ expression. I’m not sure who from that early 80s era would have worked better. A more coiled-spring type, yes, but I can’t think of a name. But hi-ho open-face sandwich? No. I read that he fought against the inclusion of the voiceovers, and I agree with him. I know they’re a noir convention, but they added nothing to the story and Ford’s voice made them worse.

Yes, I do so like him. But here he’s a pastel golf shirt at a Goth Ball.

Hauer is incredible. Terrifying and mad, yet tender in his scenes with Hannah. But when they’re together in Sanderson’s flat, there’s that undercurrent. That they schemed to get in and now they’re there. That they’ve come for something, and they won’t leave until they get it. That Sanderson is likely a dead man. And they do it all with looks. The danger comes off of them in waves as they smile at one another.

I guess you could say I was enthralled.

Mirrored from Kristine Smith.

Comments

[cepetit.myopenid.com (from livejournal.com)]

Martin Sheen would have been a better choice, although after his experience shooting Apocalypse Now! (including the heart attack) he may not have wanted to do another noirish film with extensive voiceovers...

I thought Sean Young was a much worse casting choice than was Harrison Ford. The role called for someone who would not have looked at home in a JC Penney catalog illustration for big-shouldered fashion-forward dresses.

[sleary.livejournal.com]

I want to nominate Sting as a better choice, but I think I'm projecting his more recent work (Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels) onto his younger self.

[barbarienne.livejournal.com]

Agree 100%. Ford always struck me as the weakest link in that movie (followed closely by Sean Young, who has always been a little wooden and off-putting to me, but wooden and off-putting worked okay for her character in BR).

I have loved Rutger Hauer since Ladyhawke, which is ironic since it's not really his best role. (Roy Batty may well be his best performance ever.)

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I could see Martin Sheen.

I disagree about Sean Young--she worked for me. Imo, the role called for a tightly-wrapped naif, and I thought she managed it. She was no Daryl Hannah--who shouldn't have surprised me given how much I liked her in KillBill2--but hers was a minor role and so didn't overshadow the entire film.

Why shouldn't she have looked at home in the clothes? What other clothes would she have known?

The shoulders of her outfits were overdone, but they were trying for Joan Crawford/Barbara Stanwyck where the dress could stand by itself if necessary. They should have dressed Sean in softer clothes. She was as hard-edged as a puppy.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Sting may have worked. I wanted to throw Gary Oldman's hat in the ring, but he was probably too young at that point.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Yup--like I said above, Sean's perceived woodeness worked in this role,

Whenever Hauer is onscreen, the movie sings. That scene in the scientist's home--SY's "uncle"--is so good. I have only seen him in a few roles--I did see Ladyhawke--but Roy Batty is in another league.

Oddly enough, I think Hauer could have played Deckard as well. To me, that role called for a European actor. The two overtly "American" characters--Deckard and his boss the bigot--stuck out like the proverbial sore thumbs to me, while Edward James Olmos, frex, clicked.

[barbarienne.livejournal.com]

I don't know if the role called for a European actor--I think of "noir" as quintessentially American--but it called for someone less all-American, corn-fed, Midwest buckaroo.

[seachanges.livejournal.com]

I saw it not long after it first came out, and it knocked me on my ass. There were several dystopian SF films that came out in the 80s--the other one that really stands out in my memory is Brazil--and they really had a profound effect on how I looked at both science fiction and the future.

You should see the director's cut without the voice over. That was added at the insistence of the producers for the original theatrical release because they had a difficult time understanding the plot; everyone else involved with the film, including Harrison Ford, was against the idea, but bowed to studio pressure.

Another bit of trivia: Rutger Hauer ad-libbed the line "All those moments will be lost, like tears in rain." Which is really amazing when you think about it, because it's one of the most memorable moments in the whole film.

[equesgal.livejournal.com]

I remember seeing the Director's Cut for the first time after seeing the original version many, many times. Without the voice over was way better.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

When I think of Euro-noir, I think of the film Rafifi, or Alain Delon as Tom Ripley. The same dark fatalism, though maybe not as much with the femme fatale.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I think I need to get the Directors Cut.

I surfed a lot of info about the film after I watched it, and did read how Hauer changed and shortened that final speech.

All the replicants were so well done. Joanna Cassidy's was the most "normal," but the others were just off-center enough. And as I said, some shots of Hauer are freakin' terrifying.

I'm still mulling this movie, voiceovers, Harrison Ford, and all.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I look forward to watching the film without it.

[technomage.livejournal.com]

Welcome to the fan club, you're late, pull up a stool at the Noodle Bar and let's talk flying cars.

The Noodle Bar is a feature at Burning Man every year... an homage to Blade Runner. I own a t-shirt for Cons that says "I still want my flying car". Le Sigh, but you're spot on about the casting. The unbroken director's cut is best.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

It was a very cool world. Dystopic, dirty, and crowded yet isolated at the same time. Lots of people in the streets, but so many empty buildings.

OK, would that be "The Final Cut" or "The Director's Cut?"