Blade Runner (HD DVD)

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"A cult film is a movie that attracts a devoted group of followers or obsessive fans, despite having failed on initial release. The term also describes films that have remained popular over a long period of time amongst a small group of followers. ... Cult films often become the source of a thriving, obsessive, and elaborate subculture of fandom, hence the analogy to cults. ... Usually, cult films have limited but very special appeal. Cult films are often known to be eccentric and usually explore topics not considered in any way mainstream--yet there are examples that are relatively normal." --Wikipedia

Now I'd like to step out of this standard definition of a cult movie and consider WB's 1982 release of director Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner" for a moment. It's hardly what you would call "cult" by its size or importance. Warners spent a goodly amount of money on it and gave it a strong, popular cast and director. Surprisingly, though, it did not do as well at the box office as people imagine, taking in about $27,000,000 on a $28,000,000 budget. What's more, it did not go over as well with critics as we like to think. For instance, Leslie Halliwell described it as a "gloomy futuristic thriller, looking like a firework display seen through thick fog, and for all the tiring tricks and expense adding up to little more than an updated Philip Marlowe case." Tim Milne wrote that "the sets are indeed impressive, but they are no compensation for a narrative so lame that it seems in need of a wheelchair." And Leonard Maltin called it "a triumph of production design, defeated by a muddled script and main characters with no appeal whatsoever."

Yet today, after more than twenty-five years, many people herald the movie as one of the finest sci-fi noirs of all time, a classic of its kind, so much so that Warner Bros. have now reissued it in elaborate standard-definition, HD DVD, and Blu-ray editions for an impatient audience. Clearly, "Blade Runner" is an example of a big film gaining at first a small but devoted following, which has now blossomed into full-scale support. Heck, nowadays even critics like it. So, is it a "cult" film in the strictest sense? No, but its following has been so loyal and so vocal that it shames most other more-conventional cult movies.

Therefore, it's fitting that Warner Bros. give it its proper due in the five-disc HD DVD package under review, a set that includes just about every change the director ever made to it in five complete versions, most notably the new "Final Cut," all of the versions in high def. Of course, there is no absolute guarantee that the "Final Cut" will actually be Scott's last word on the subject. Maybe in another ten years we'll get a "Positively Last and Definitively Conclusive Director's Cut." Who knows. What's important is that the new cut includes the best of all worlds, added and extended scenes, added lines, improved special effects, and restored and remastered picture and sound. What's not to like?

But first, let's talk about the film itself a little. As Leslie Halliwell pointed out above, "Blade Runner" really is a reworked 1940s detective yarn updated for the future. It contains all the basic elements of film noir, but it places them in a future, sci-fi setting, where Harrison Ford stars as a bounty hunter, Rick Deckard, persuaded to return to his old job as a police-force "blade runner," a person whose calling is to track down errant robots in human form. In this regard, he's sort of like the Will Smith character in the movie version of "I Robot," only "Blade Runner" is a bit more realistic (for science fiction) and a bit less silly. The screenwriters for "Blade Runner," Hampton Fancher and David Webb Peoples, adapted their script from, who else, Philip K. Dick and a story called "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?"

The movie's setting is Los Angeles in 2019, by which time humans have developed robotic engineering to the point where they can produce robots that look and think exactly as we do, robots called Replicants, and we use them as slave labor in space, "Off-world." After quelling a rebellion of Replicants, humans no longer allow them on Earth. But a few have come to Earth, anyway, four of them, and it's Decker's job to track them down and terminate them. Er, "retire" them.

More specifically, a Replicant is a being virtually identical to a human. The most advanced Replicants belong to a class called Nexus 6, which are "superior in strength and agility, and at least the equal in intelligence, to the genetic engineers who created them." Among these engineers are Dr. Tyrell (Joe Turkel), the "father" of Replicants, and J.F. Sebastian (William Sanderson), a contributor who lives with his "toys."

Now, here's the thing: As a safeguard against Replicants getting too uppity and taking over the world, the Tyrell Corporation that makes them have built in a safety device--the creatures only live for four years and then die. Well, the four Replicants that have escaped back to Earth want to change that. They are Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer), the Replicant leader; Zhora (Joanna Cassidy), a combination beauty and the beast; Pris (Daryl Hannah), a standard pleasure model; and Leon (Brion James), a thug. None of them are pleasant to be around.

The plot moves along methodically, as all good noir mysteries should. There are no explosions or outer-space battles; it's not that kind of sci-fi flick. It's sort of like Ridley Scott's "Alien" of several years before, which was really a haunted house story masquerading as science fiction. Well, "Blade Runner" is "The Big Sleep" or "The Maltese Falcon" under the guise of sci-fi. Deckard is a typical hard-boiled gumshoe in the Philip Marlowe/Sam Spade tradition, world-weary and living alone. Naturally, he's got to have a beautiful girl around, and she enters in the person of Rachael (Sean Young), a beautiful Replicant who doesn't know she is one until Deckard reveals it to her early on. It's a poignant moment. And we have to have the usual assortment of colorful, and shady, characters, too, like Bryant (M. Emmet Walsh), Gaff (Edward James Olmos), Hannibal (James Hong), Taffey (Hy Pyke), and others.

But the plot and characters are not what are really important. The movie is, if nothing else, a triumph of set design. It's got dazzling production shots, fascinating scenery, 1940s' style costumes and hairdos, distinct camera angles, imaginative lighting that places everything in shadows, and atmosphere galore. Then it's set in a world that seems perpetually night, an idea that the film "Dark City" would run with some years later. Additionally, it's fun to see that Scott filmed a few parts of his movie in familiar L.A. locations: Frank Lloyd Wright's Ennis-Brown House, also used famously in "House on Haunted Hill" (1959); Union Station; the 2nd Street tunnel; the Bradbury Building; etc. Stylistically, "Blade Runner" is the "Citizen Kane" of sci-fi movies.

Moreover, it's science fiction with thought. Tyrell gives the Replicants memories so they don't know they're not human. Which makes Deckard wonder if he is really human, either. And that, in turn, asks us to think about ourselves, what makes anyone "human," where we come from, where we're going, and what it means to be alive. With the exception of Kubrick's "2001," few sci-fi films pose such significant questions.

"All those moments we lost, like tears in the rain. Time to die." --Rutger Hauer, "Blade Runner"

Video:
WB reworked, restored, and remastered everything about this new "Final Cut" edition. Director Scott says this is his "preferred version" of the film, with tweaks and enhancements. The result looks as good as it probably could possibly look, which is to say pretty good. Fans will undoubtedly go the extra step and say it looks fabulous. I still see minor imperfections in the original print, a bit of softness in a few shots, some light grain, and some intentional glares and prismatic coloration. That's OK; it's expected. What's most important is that the 1080 resolution, VC-1 encoded video captures all the beauty of the 2.40:1 ratio picture in vivid detail and mostly terrific definition, something that is all the more remarkable given the movie's dark tone throughout. Fortunately, the strength of the black levels helps improve the clarity of the image as well as bring out the depth and richness of the colors. WB may have waited quite a long time finally to issue this movie in a condition that does it justice, but the wait was worth it.