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Blade Runner: Final Cut

Started by the shutdown man, 26 November, 2007, 03:20:02 PM

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Wils

That differs quite a bit from what I read about it, which is that the voiceover and bolted-on footage from The Shining were added after test screenings, after the thickos couldn't understand what was going on through the whole film and were upset that it didn't have a Disneyesque ending.

MIKE COLLINS

That was Joanna Cassidy! I missed that-- the young version was well cast, wasn't she?

Oh, and the Briefcase edition (Own Deckard's briefcase!) is available on Amazon.com for $60 including postage, and that's less than £30 (as I know to my cost when cashing US checks lately...

JOE SOAP

***That differs quite a bit from what I read about it, which is that the voiceover and bolted-on footage from The Shining were added after test screenings,***

No that's not true, if you read Paul Sammon's Blade Runner book you will see that Ridley actually contradicts himself a lot about the details of scripts and who's idea it was to have VO's. Many on the production team including the producer's say it was Scott's idea to have VO.

The test screenings without VO were tried first when they realised the VO sounded shit but because the shooting script was written with VO a lot of info the audience needed to understand the film was missing, so they had to reinstate it. If he had shot it with the intention of no VO, more charater exposition scenes would have been shot, als the original scripts. They weren't and you can still see the points in the film where the VO is intended to go, hence Ridley's recent slight re-edit of certain scenes using alternate takes etc.

It's a fact that if you read the early script drafts dated before filming started that there is voice over. The first drafts by Hampton Fancher before Scott's involvement don's contain any VO's. The scripts are online so it's easily verifiable.

Scott always said he wanted the film to be reminiscent of a 50's film noir and VO's were a feature of such films, as well as the dark lighting.

Rob Spalding

Just got an email from amazon saying my copy has shipped!

Might even be here on Monday if I'm lucky

dweezil2

None of these points alter the fact that the voice over is completely redundant-something both Harrison Ford and Ridley Scott have declared since the films release.
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paulvonscott

But was the voicover only redundant once you'd seen the film once with the VO and could then understand it without it?

I'm a bit confused about the whole thing, I have no idea which version is best.  I have a friend who much prefers the original cut.

No doubt I'll watch the new one and my opinion will be even more vague.  Maybe the 'Injury Time' cut may help...

Garamin, please report back... and Dweezil, I may have to get that CD set.

the shutdown man

"Just got an email from amazon saying my copy has shipped!"

Me too (from play.com, but the point's the same). And I saw it on sale in HMV today as well. A bit odd since the big deal was that it was supposed to be released on the 3rd, but I'm not complaining.
You're at the precipice Tony, of an enormous crossroads.

JOE SOAP

***But was the voicover only redundant once you'd seen the film once with the VO and could then understand it without it?

I'm a bit confused about the whole thing, I have no idea which version is best. I have a friend who much prefers the original cut. ***


I think it's a flawed film either way. It's an ok mood piece that looks great at best. There are ideas behind the deco furniture and monolithic buildings but it's more about the aesthetic than the subtext and who populates the film's landscape.

Jim_Campbell

"There are ideas behind the deco furniture and monolithic buildings but it's more about the aesthetic than the subtext and who populates the film's landscape."

For you, perhaps, and that's entirely valid. However, to simply dismiss the themes of mortality and free will is - IMO - to do the film a disservice, as it is to sell short the towering performance of Rutger Hauer.

I'm not looking for an argument, I just wanted to put forward an alternative view on what can be found in the film.

Cheers

Jim
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The Adventurer

I too think the flims stands best on it's artistic merits. It's a very good looking film with a very iconic setting.

The story though is a mixed bag. First off, everyone calls it cyberpunk when it's not really cyberpunk at all, just a dystpoian future with clone tech. Second, it's whole "mortality play" with what it means to be "alive" is just a really dumbed down brand of Asimov, just replace robots with clone replicates. Oh its pace is a bit plodding.

So yeah, great design, some memorable quotes and moments, and definitly worth buying. But it's not "The Greatest Sci-Fi Masterpiece Ever", though it does score points for being one of the few sci-fi flicks that takes itself dead serious on cerebral topics. Instead of devolving into soap opera.


And Deckard is not a Replicate!

THIS SPACE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK

Keef Monkey

"And I saw it on sale in HMV today as well"

We're not supposed to sell it until Monday but it was delivered on Friday, so if your HMV have it on the shelf then someone's put it on the shelf without realizing it's a new release.

satchmo

I agree that it isn't really cyberpunk, but a lot of the imagery people would associate with cyberpunk came from Blade Runner.
I would say Repo Man had the attitude, Blade Runner had the backstreet eyeball shops :)

philt

Just ordered the soundtrack (and the Forbidden Planet one as well). Can't wait

JOE SOAP

***For you, perhaps, and that's entirely valid. However, to simply dismiss the themes of mortality and free will is - IMO - to do the film a disservice, as it is to sell short the towering performance of Rutger Hauer. ***

Oh yes, these things are there but they're so weakly dramatised and paced they don't amount to much. The performances are an exception, it's the material they have to deal with that merely plods without real incident and tries to recover with some philosophical musings.

A bunch of themes doesn't make a film, meaningful incident does.

dweezil2

"A bunch of themes doesn't make a film, meaningful incident does".


Well, I'd cosider a character who thought he was human at the start of the movie, questioning his humanity by the end a pretty significant incident-but maybe that's just me.
And that's without taking in to account how influential the film has been visually and stylisicly.
But, opinions, blah de blah.
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