Blade Runner (International theatrical cut)
Well, I asked for the voice-over version; I inadvertently got it, on the telly. The moment Deckard explains his job, I thought "oh, great, finally some clarification". The only version of BR that I familiar with was Final Cut.
Anyway, I never thought of BR as one of the greatest movies of all time. Maybe because I thought of it as a blockbuster action film, which only superficially is true about the movie. I like to think that the movie poster where Deckard was looming with his badass pistol over the city was responsible for that. That and some deep shit philosophy. Oh well...
Still, I gotta acknowledge its craft of filmmaking. Ofcourse, the visual look and scenery are nothing short of breathtaking and even 40 years after, it doesn't lose its dazzling flair. And I find the movie pretty unique for the 1980s; in fact, placing BR in any decade wouldn't do it fairly. On the technical level, attention to detail is just brilliant. And despite the epic look of it, I never got that feeling. Tight, murky, cluttered corridors, copious use of close-ups give rather a claustrophobic feel. The music score is beautiful and haunting and fits the scenery and atmosphere on the spot. I also liked how the film adopts noir antics into a futuristic setting. The morally ambiguous protagonist, dark, rainy backgrounds, the Venetian blinds, pessimistic worldview; and despised by some, the voice-over, uttered in typically grumpy, disinterested Harrison Ford's fashion, that somehow adds well to the noirish feel. There ends what I liked about the film. Downsides... well, it's obviously the pacing. The movie just drags and loses momentum in the second hour, which he could be summed to Batty goading JF Sebastian into gaining access to Tyrell, Batty kills Tyrell, Deckard hunts Pris, and Batty...and that's it. The characters in the film are rather empty and impenetrable; Batty is a somewhat more interesting character than Ford's bland and unremarkable as protagonist Deckard; the relationship between Deckard and Rachel (Rachel is awful as femme fatale) is rather awkward (although I get it that the movie tries to make Deckard as alone, miserable man (?!) in search for love, but that doesn't excuse the infamous forcing Rachel to kiss him) and while I do appreciate some philosophical points that the movie tries to raise, it ultimately falls under its own weight by biting into too much deep bullshit of it, helped by its unanimous ambiguity which makes all those points come rather flat. As if someone took all thought-provoking ramblings of humanity and compiled them into a single movie.
This cut? Well, I appreciate the voice-over use, it makes the film slightly less confusing.
And while this cut is excised of the scenes with the Unicorn, a few subtle hints still remain which indicate that Deckard is possibly the Replicant himself (like when Rachel asks him did he ever take the test on himself).
The best SF by milstar? That'd be 2001 or to a lesser extent - The Matrix.
