Last movie watched...

[Mabs]

Watched Blade Runner last night. One of the versions without the narration. Definitely one of the best movies I've ever seen.

Don't get me started on Blade Runner! My favourite movie of ALL time. This film is my idea of cinematic nirvana. From Vangelis' soothing synth score, Ridley's masterful direction to Webb-Peoples' superb script; everything comes together to create a unequivocal masterpiece. A beautiful nightmare. From the opening Hades landscape with fire bellowing out from black towers, to the neon lit streets awash in perpetual rain and darkness, to the design of Tyrell's buildings, like great Aztec temples looming over everything, or the dark, hallways of the Bradbury building, littered with mannequins, statues inside a desolate temple , occasionally disturbed by flittering lights from outside - it is quite possibly, the most visually breath-taking film I have ever seen. And of course the story is another, from which a whole myth has built up. The Deckard vs Replicant debate. The Unicorn. The motif of the eye. Roy Batty as Jesus (he does create stigmata by driving the nails through his hands).

And of course, that speech. Pure poetry.

There is no other film quite like it. By the way, I have a soft spot for the voice over version as it was the version I watched first as a youngster. But overall, the Final Cut is the definitive version for me now.

[Sideshow Bob]

Yep, Blade Runner remains ( and always will ) in my top ten of favourite films....

From start to finish, I don't think it puts a foot wrong........and as you say,  Roy Batty's final 'death speech' is just wonderfully poetic .....
It's one of many quotes from the Movies,  that I always remember...

" I've seen things you people wouldn't believe......Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion...I've watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate...All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in the rain.....Time to die "....

Great stuff and amazing to think that Rutger Hauer improvised that final speech.....
Cheers

[Mabs]

Rutger Hauer= Legend.

He's the star of the show, the beating heart of Blade Runner.

Thanks for posting the 'tears in the rain' speech, SB. I've almost got my own tears welling up (minus the rain) reading that! 

[Jim_Campbell]

Thanks for posting the 'tears in the rain' speech, SB. I've almost got my own tears welling up (minus the rain) reading that!

A few years back, I read an article in a newspaper* where a critic cited his love for Blade Runner as a starting point for discussing something else, but managed to catastrophically mis-quote the "tears in rain" speech as: "Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion... I've watched Sea Bees glitter in the dark..."

Somewhat undermined his point, TBH!

Cheers

Jim

*Yes, dead trees! How quaint...

[Greg M.]

I've watched Sea Bees glitter in the dark...

The glittering, of course, comes from their sea honey, which is shiny and golden. Unfortunately it tastes of old crabs.

[Mabs]

Oh dear! Not to mention mis-quoting Roy Batty's speech....that's unforgiveable in my eyes. 

Sea Bee's.......tsk tsk (shakes head disapprovingly).

[JamesC]

Are Sea Bees anything like CBeebies?

[Hawkmumbler]

Someone shouldn't write articles with auto correct on.

[radiator]

That Blade Runner speech is so frequently quoted and thoroughly played out, it's like the aural equivalent of Bullet Time.

[Radbacker]

Absolutly agree regards Wall-E possibly one of the best SCi-Fi movies of the last 20 years.
I'm a heretic I know but I do not worship at the alter of BladeRunner, i recognise how well filmd it is and the design is superb but I just can not sit through it without falling asleep, i have tried a milion times and I usually get to the bit with the snake woman and then off to the land of Z's for me.  So for me its a well designed but ultimatly boring movie. (And i have seen the whole thing seevral times just never managed it in one sitting).
Watched StarTrek Into Darkness last night, liked it in the cinema but didn't enjoy it half as much at home where you could put a bit of thought into it.

CU Radbacker

[JamesC]

That Blade Runner speech is so frequently quoted and thoroughly played out, it's like the aural equivalent of Bullet Time.

I don't think so. Bullet time was a visual trick that was copied by so many other films and video games that it lost it's wow factor.
The speech in Blade Runner is like the chocolate chip in the cookie - you know it's coming but it's still the good bit. It's like 'Play it Sam' in Casablanca, 'Frankly my dear, I don't give damn' in Gone With The Wind or the shower scene in Psycho.

[Jim_Campbell]

The speech in Blade Runner is like the chocolate chip in the cookie - you know it's coming but it's still the good bit.

What keeps me coming back to Blade Runner is the feeling that if I watch it one more time, I'll understand why Batty saves Deckard on that rooftop.

Cheers

Jim

[radiator]

I'm a heretic I know but I do not worship at the alter of BladeRunner, i recognise how well filmd it is and the design is superb but I just can not sit through it without falling asleep, i have tried a milion times and I usually get to the bit with the snake woman and then off to the land of Z's for me.  So for me its a well designed but ultimatly boring movie. (And i have seen the whole thing seevral times just never managed it in one sitting).

I'm in the same boat. I acknowledge the wonderful atmosphere and art direction, and interesting (if horribly dated) soundtrack - and I want so much to love it. But as a film and story, it bores me to tears.

Ok, maybe that speech is less 'bullet time' and more 'Le Big Mac/Royale With Cheese' scene from Pulp Fiction.

[Goaty]

Let you know Blade Runner on BBC4 this week

[Mabs]

The speech in Blade Runner is like the chocolate chip in the cookie - you know it's coming but it's still the good bit.

What keeps me coming back to Blade Runner is the feeling that if I watch it one more time, I'll understand why Batty saves Deckard on that rooftop.

Cheers

Jim

Just as Deckard's about to fall, Batty grabs him (thus saving him), but right at that instant if you listen carefully, Batty cries "Kinship". A lot of Blade Runner enthusuasts cite this as proof that Deckard is a replicant, hence Batty uttering that word. Batty knows what Deckard is, but he himself doesn't know.

But, I am from the school of thought that believes Deckard is human. Because if he were to be a replicant, then the contradt between Deckard's soulless humanity and Batty's poetic, lifely inhumanity would not work. And it's that contradiction about these two characters I find absolutely fascinating, that Batty is a replicant and yet he craves for life, quoting (or mis-quoting!) William Blake and so on. And yet Deckard, the human is more like an android, devoid of feelings (albeit for some small instances).

Ulimately the reason why I feel Batty saves him, is because as death approaches him he wants to seek some sort of affirmation, that he has a soul. And this in turn is symbolised with him holding the dove, and it flying off towards the heavens as he dies. An allegory perhaps of Batty's own soul ascending to heaven.