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THIS IS ONE OF THE TEN BEST SCI-FI FILMS!
STARS...
Harrison Ford,
Rutger Hauer, Sean
Young, Daryl Hannah, Brion James, Edward
James Olmos, Joanna Cassidy, M. Emmet Walsh
PLOT SUMMARY...
In 2019 Los Angeles, a cop tracks down escaped killer androids.
QUICK SCAN...
This film could be compared to "Freejack". BLADE RUNNER
features action, romance, and FX. Rutger Hauer is superb as the "replicant"
Roy Batty. The FX, by Douglas Trumbull and Richard Yuricich and David
Dryer, create a fully realized look at Los Angeles of 2019. A highlight
of the film is a climactic battle between Ford and Hauer.
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DIRECTOR: Ridley Scott
YEAR & RATING: 1982 (R)
BEST BETS: Split Second,
Highlander 2
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SYNOPSIS...
Powerful human-like robots, illegal on Earth, arrive in Los Angeles in
2019. A former blade runner, a robot hunter, is brought out of retirement
to deal with them.
The blade runner tracks down the humanoid robots, killing several. He
also gets romantically involved with a woman who may or may not be human.
The last robot left chooses to let the blade runner live, rather than
kill him. Then the robot dies. The blade runner and his almost human girlfriend
escape to the country in an air car. |
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The Review:
With BLADE RUNNER, Director Ridley Scott has created a vivid, near future
world that seems as close as our own backyard.
Although not a hit with audiences at the time of its release, BLADE
RUNNER has become a cult Sci-Fi favorite over the years. And no Sci-Fi
film since has covered the same near future territory as well or better.
Case in point: "Freejack".
BLADE RUNNER is a futuristic film noir look at the life of future cop
Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) whose job it is to track down and terminate
renegade replicants, who are genetically engineered slaves with limited
life spans. Although Ford's narration is weak, his performance is strong,
in a neo-Bogart kind of way.
When four highly developed replicants kill 23 humans and hijack a shuttle
to earth, they arrive in L.A. Permanently bummed Deckard is pulled out
of self-retirement to track down the replicants and kill them. Harrison
Ford is very convincing as a burnt-out case, going through the motions,
who learns much about life, love, and what it means to be human,
in the course of his wet, cold, and violent adventures.
The criminal replicants include Roy Batty, Rutger Hauer ("Split
Second"), Zhora, Joanna Cassidy ("Under Fire"), Pris,
Daryl Hannah ("Splash"), and Leon, Brion James ("Time
Runner"). All are impressive, but Rutger Hauer burns up the screen
as Batty, a brutal but poetic superman, who desperately desires to live
longer than the four years replicants are programmed for.
The questions BLADE RUNNER asks, about what it means to be human, are
worthy of consideration. And as we get more into genetic engineering
and artificial intelligence in the years to come, the questions will
become even more relevant!
The Special Visual Effects, by Douglas Trumbull and Richard Yuricich
and David Dryer, are superb! And the aircar sequences, flying between
huge buildings, and then soaring down for pinpoint rooftop landings,
are exhilarating. These are my favorite scenes in the film.
The film offers a fantastic look at Los Angeles in 2019, thanks to imaginatively
creative contributions by Production Designer Lawrence G. Paull and
Visual Futurist Syd Mead. Director of Photography, Jordan Cronenweth,
offers stunning, eye filling imagery of this unique futuristic environment.
The film's Screenplay, by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples (from the
novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?", by Philip K.
Dick), offers moments of both terror and poetry. Near the end of the
film, dying replicant Batty (Hauer) tells Deckard (Ford), "I've
seen things you people wouldn't believe. All those moments will be lost
in time, like tears in rain."
The Music, by Vangelis, maintains a melancholy tone throughout that
seems well matched both to the mood of our depressed hero, as well as
the wet and crumbling external environment he must move through.
BLADE RUNNER should be highly watchable for Sci-Fi viewers. Ford/Hauer/Hannah/Young
fans may expire from joy.
MovieMonday.com
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