Because it's not a mystery, it's not much of a chase either, there's no McGuffin to worry over. It's more an exercise in mood and style. Long drown out scenes that contain no plot elements, dialogue or even character development. Just visuals, sound and atmosphere. The audience is invited to gaze in wonder at a strange world and ponder its deeper meanings while in the back ground a tired and depressed police officer hunts for illegal androids. Imagine if all of that strange visual and auditory setting had a compelling, edge of your seat story to tell. Could have been the greatest movie of its age.
A little anecdote: When the director's cut was released in theaters, back in the 90s I think, I went to my local art-house theater to see it. During the scene in Deckard's apartment with Rachel and the piano and that saxophone is blowing softly in the background, someone sitting in the center of the seating lets out this very loud and drawn out yawn and the whole audience burst out laughing. The audience was just starting to get restless and it really helped break the tension.
Agreed. It feels like a futuristic allegory or an old Grimm's fairy tale set in a neo noir Cyberpunk world. It kinda meanders; makes some pretty heavy philosophical points, and then just ends..but leaves you with feelings and ideas to ponder; much like those old folktales. Its much more experimental than people give it credit for.
I saw this film on VHS way back in like 1984 or something...was in Jr High... it made me recognize that a film can take you to a place - gritty, dark, grimy, that's extremely futuristic - and extremely realistic. Roy Batty, Negan, and Darth Vader, and Bruce the Shark are four just ... iconic movie villains.
I saw this film at the theatre when it first came out. Hard to explain now how eloquently Scott evoked a world no-one had ever experienced before. His set and visual design language and perfect casting captured a futuristic yet dystopian zeitgeist that took the world nearly two decades to recognise his brilliance Midfle America hated this film. Even Ebert sounds like his viewing experience ranks close to coughing up a furball . I absolutely loved it ...
In most great movies the soundtrack is totally underappreciated, and makes half of those movies. Here, I don't think it's only compliments the movie, it does much more, even the Tannhauser speech wouldn't be the same without that astonishing music setting up and also creating the emotions. I don't think even Star Wars would have been that successful without that absolutely magical score, same goes for Gladiator, Braveheart, and countless other movies.
Rutger Hauer's amazing imrove speach at the end saved this movie. You realize that replicants are just human and want to live. The story and characters are barely there. The plot and twist wasn't discovered until 30 years after the movie was made.
I do prefer the second movie as I find it a better story and I actually care for the protagonists. However, visually & audio-wise, the original is hard to beat.
Rutger also wrote those lines for himself and asked Ridley if he could shoot the scene one last time with his words. Holding the dove may also have been his idea, I forget. This can tell how little time they have left on this shoot as the sky has started to lighten with the dawn, the rest of the film was shot at night.
What? "SAVED" this movie? Deckard's struggles against the other replicants are harrowing. Rachael is an interesting character. Deckard's a solid film noir protagonist. What is it that you're so sorely missing before Batty's passing speech?
@jcp1984again Deckards struggles against the replicants are not dynamic and very boring. Its not exciting to shoot an unarmed woman in the back and does not make me like his character. Rachel is a wooden board forced into a love story. Deckard is an idiot. His plans to stop the replicants are uninspired at best.
@@SuperMoshady , why the f*** would you require a likable protagonist to like a movie? 🤷 I've never understood this with some people. A movie should be able to be captivating and speak to us without making us like its main character, or spoonfeed us a narrative that has to always follow some formula! Blade Runner makes it very clear that Deckard hates his job. The killing he has to do is not entertaining acts of heroism, it's unfair, dirty and ugly. The way Pris meets her end is one of the most disturbing movie scenes ever.
Ha ha. Well, personally, I don’t love it. However, as time has gone by I can certainly appreciate that certain aspects of it are top tier e.g. production design, sound etc. A 4/5 movie for me. I like it a helluva lot more now than when I was a teenager.
In fact the movie wasn't well recieved by audiences and critics alike when it first come out. It gained a cult following in the later years and now counts as groundbreaking and a future oriented film concept and piece of art. And I think that is just right.
Because it's not a mystery, it's not much of a chase either, there's no McGuffin to worry over. It's more an exercise in mood and style. Long drown out scenes that contain no plot elements, dialogue or even character development. Just visuals, sound and atmosphere. The audience is invited to gaze in wonder at a strange world and ponder its deeper meanings while in the back ground a tired and depressed police officer hunts for illegal androids.
Imagine if all of that strange visual and auditory setting had a compelling, edge of your seat story to tell. Could have been the greatest movie of its age.
A little anecdote:
When the director's cut was released in theaters, back in the 90s I think, I went to my local art-house theater to see it. During the scene in Deckard's apartment with Rachel and the piano and that saxophone is blowing softly in the background, someone sitting in the center of the seating lets out this very loud and drawn out yawn and the whole audience burst out laughing.
The audience was just starting to get restless and it really helped break the tension.
Agreed. It feels like a futuristic allegory or an old Grimm's fairy tale set in a neo noir Cyberpunk world. It kinda meanders; makes some pretty heavy philosophical points, and then just ends..but leaves you with feelings and ideas to ponder; much like those old folktales. Its much more experimental than people give it credit for.
I saw this film on VHS way back in like 1984 or something...was in Jr High... it made me recognize that a film can take you to a place - gritty, dark, grimy, that's extremely futuristic - and extremely realistic. Roy Batty, Negan, and Darth Vader, and Bruce the Shark are four just ... iconic movie villains.
@@Lethgar_Smith I much prefer the story in the sequel - Bladerunner 2049. And I really must get around to editing our episode on it…
I saw this film at the theatre when it first came out.
Hard to explain now how eloquently Scott evoked a world no-one had ever experienced before. His set and visual design language and perfect casting captured a futuristic yet dystopian zeitgeist that took the world nearly two decades to recognise his brilliance
Midfle America hated this film. Even Ebert sounds like his viewing experience ranks close to coughing up a furball .
I absolutely loved it ...
In most great movies the soundtrack is totally underappreciated, and makes half of those movies. Here, I don't think it's only compliments the movie, it does much more, even the Tannhauser speech wouldn't be the same without that astonishing music setting up and also creating the emotions.
I don't think even Star Wars would have been that successful without that absolutely magical score, same goes for Gladiator, Braveheart, and countless other movies.
@@bleekcer Totally agree with you. Music adds so much colour to a movie. A character in its own right.
It’s one of the few movies besides Alien that truly conveys a sense of gritty realism. Very few films get this right. They’re all too shiny nowadays.
@@virtuallydeadrich definitely nails the “lived-in-world’ vibe which Ridley Scott also brought to Alien.
Rutger Hauer's amazing imrove speach at the end saved this movie. You realize that replicants are just human and want to live. The story and characters are barely there. The plot and twist wasn't discovered until 30 years after the movie was made.
I do prefer the second movie as I find it a better story and I actually care for the protagonists. However, visually & audio-wise, the original is hard to beat.
Rutger also wrote those lines for himself and asked Ridley if he could shoot the scene one last time with his words.
Holding the dove may also have been his idea, I forget.
This can tell how little time they have left on this shoot as the sky has started to lighten with the dawn, the rest of the film was shot at night.
What? "SAVED" this movie? Deckard's struggles against the other replicants are harrowing. Rachael is an interesting character. Deckard's a solid film noir protagonist. What is it that you're so sorely missing before Batty's passing speech?
@jcp1984again Deckards struggles against the replicants are not dynamic and very boring. Its not exciting to shoot an unarmed woman in the back and does not make me like his character. Rachel is a wooden board forced into a love story. Deckard is an idiot. His plans to stop the replicants are uninspired at best.
@@SuperMoshady , why the f*** would you require a likable protagonist to like a movie? 🤷 I've never understood this with some people. A movie should be able to be captivating and speak to us without making us like its main character, or spoonfeed us a narrative that has to always follow some formula! Blade Runner makes it very clear that Deckard hates his job. The killing he has to do is not entertaining acts of heroism, it's unfair, dirty and ugly. The way Pris meets her end is one of the most disturbing movie scenes ever.
This has truly become the most overrated film in history!
Ha ha. Well, personally, I don’t love it. However, as time has gone by I can certainly appreciate that certain aspects of it are top tier e.g. production design, sound etc. A 4/5 movie for me. I like it a helluva lot more now than when I was a teenager.
I can think of maybe two hundred overrated films ...and this one isn't that.
In fact the movie wasn't well recieved by audiences and critics alike when it first come out. It gained a cult following in the later years and now counts as groundbreaking and a future oriented film concept and piece of art. And I think that is just right.
@@COFFEEWITHJIM What would be your top 3 most overrated films of all time?
@@emorsi ‘The Thing’, another classic 1982 movie which didn’t find its audience at the time. Such a great John Carpenter movie.