Review: Bladerunner, The Final Cut

Blade Runner The Final Cut

I watched Blade Runner, The Director’s Cut for the upteenth time Monday, appreciating the film’s flaws, and speculating on which ones Ridley Scott would clean up with the final, digitally-remastered version.

Of course, all the silliness that made the original theatrical release of Blade Runner a total flop would stay on the cutting room floor. The bad narration and pasted in happy ending wouldn’t sully the film, but what about the other items that dated the movie? The strings visible in one scene… The H.R. Geiger background that doesn’t quite fit… The sound overlays that didn’t quite match… how much of this would Ridley Scott fix?

When you can add “esque” to the end of a film’s title, you know it was a breakthrough in filmmaking. Ridley Scott’s story takes place in San Angeles, San Diego and Los Angeles grown into one another, a bit of futurism considered outlandish in 1982, but today is a reality. Akira, Battle Angel Alita, and Ghost in the Shell all model their worlds on Blade Runner’s cinematic style. The film’s philosophical dilemmas were as old as Frankenstein, but the plot devices used to explore them were novel, later appearing in films like A.I. and I, Robot.

The Final Cut was released yesterday, but nowhere in Elizabeth City would carry it and it’s not on Netflix. One kid working at Blockbuster apologized and couldn’t believe they didn’t get at least one copy.

So I scrambled, found a copy, and just finished watching it. It’s Beautiful!!! The special effects are so much clearer, revealing more detail in the city. The sound effects are so much more detailed, so that we can hear Roy whispering to Sebastian as he comes after him in a haunting scene. This is movie that could have come recently, it’s so relevant and it’s style so dateless.

The plot twist is still there, and is still very easy to miss if you aren’t paying attention. I’ve never actually met anyone who’s caught it, and only know about it myself from an interview with Ridley Scott, where the director actually came out and explained it.

This is a classic groundbreaking film, and deserves to be in everyone’s film collection.

Plot spoiler!!! (If you’ve never seen ANY version of the film)

Pay attention to Deckard’s dream/waking vision of a unicorn running through the forest, and the origami calling card left for him at the film’s end.

Why would that be there?