Blade Runner (HD DVD)

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Audio:
The "Final Cut" comes with both Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and Dolby Digital Plus 5.1. The other versions of the movie come only in DD+. Warner Bros. audio engineers went back to original sources and came up with a brand-new five-channel soundtrack, plus subwoofer effects. The bass definitely thunders from the opening credits, and the dynamic range is extended. There is, understandably, not a whole lot of information in the rear channels; regardless, the front-channel stereo spread is quite wide. We do hear some things, like rain, in the surrounds, and Batty's howls are nicely amplified as they echo in the rears; but mostly what we hear is a pleasant ambient bloom from the musical score. My only minor concern is that even in TrueHD there seems to be a slight midrange edge to the sound, exacerbated further in DD+. Still, it's minor.

Extras:
Disc one contains the all-new "Final Cut" of the movie, as I say, restored and remastered with added and extended scenes, new and cleaner special effects, and new 5.1 audio. It's in high definition, as are all of the "Blade Runner" films on these discs. Along with the movie, we get a brief, thirty-second introduction by Ridley Scott and three audio commentaries. The first commentary is by director Ridley Scott; the second is by executive producer and co-screenwriter Hampton Fancher and co-screenwriter David Peoples, producer Michael Deely, and production executive Katherine Haber; and the third is by visual futurist Syd Mead, production designer Lawrence G. Paull, art director David L. Snyder, and special photographic effects supervisors Douglas Trumbull, Richard Yuricich, and David Dryer. Of the three, I think I preferred the second one best for its continual insights, although all three are serious enough to satisfy the movie's fans.

In addition, there are thirty-six scene selections; an informational booklet and chapter list; English as the only spoken language; English, French, and Spanish subtitles; and English captions for the hearing impaired. Of course, this being a WB HD DVD, there are also pop-up menus, bookmarks, a zoom-and-pan feature, a guideline to elapsed time, and a special, five-disc HD case.

Disc two contains the standard-definition, widescreen documentary "Dangerous Days: Making Blade Runner." It's three-and-a-half hours, divided into eight chapters, "culled," as the book insert says, "from over 80 all-new interviews with cast, crew, and colleagues and hours of never-before-released outtakes and on-set footage." The chapter titles give you an idea of its contents: "Incept Date--1980: Screenwriting and Dealmaking," "Blush Response: Assembling the Cast," "A Good Start: Designing the Future," "Eye of the Storm: Production Begins," ""Living in Fear: Tension on the Set," "Beyond the Window: Visual Effects," "In Need of Magic: Post-Production Problems," and "To Hades and Back: Release and Resurrection." It's one of the most comprehensive documentaries on the making of any film I think I've ever seen and pretty much answers every question you've ever had about the movie.

Furthermore, the second disc includes four trailers for other Warner Bros. and New Line films: "I Am Legend," "Invasion," "Fracture," and the animated "Superman: Doomsday."

Disc three contains, thanks to seamless branching, three separate previous versions of the movie. There's the 1982 theatrical version, which includes Harrison Ford's sleepy, voice-over narration and a so-called "happy ending," a version I liked somewhat more than other critics because it gave the film a more 1940s, noirish feel; the 1982 international version, which WB also used in tape, laser disc, and cable releases in America up to 1992; and the 1992 Director's Cut, which many of us know from WB's initial DVD release, and which leaves out Ford's narration as well as the happy ending and adds the unicorn scene (the latter retained in the "Final Cut"). All three of these versions are in widescreen high definition.

Disc four, the "Bonus Disc," the studio labels an "Enhancement Archive." It contains a series of featurettes and galleries, all in standard definition. Section one, "Inception," includes "The Electric Dreamer: Remembering Philip K. Dick," fourteen minutes; "Sacrificial Sheep: The Novel vs. The Film," fifteen minutes; and "Philip K. Dick: The Blade Runner Interviews," over twenty minutes of audio only in which Dick concedes he wasn't too happy being left out of the production process. Section two, "Fabrication," includes "Signs of the Times: Graphic Design," thirteen minutes; "Fashion Forward: Wardrobe & Styling," twenty minutes; "Screen Tests: Rachel and Pris," different actresses testing for the parts; "The Light That Burns: Remembering Jordan Cronenweth," twenty minutes; and, most important, twenty-four "Deleted and Alternate Scenes," forty-seven minutes altogether, which creates practically an all-new movie. The phrase "You and I were made for each other" takes on a whole new meaning. Section three, "Longevity," includes the 1982 promotional featurettes "On the Set," fourteen minutes; "Convention Reel," thirteen minutes; and outtakes, nine minutes. Plus you get "Promoting Dystopia: Rendering the Post Art," nine minutes; "Deck-a-Rep: The True Nature of Rick Deckard," nine minutes that ask the question, Is Deckard real or a Replicant? Director Scott thinks he is a Replicant and says "If you don't get it, you're a moron," but others among the filmmakers have their own, differing opinions. Finally, "Nexus Generation: Fans and Filmmakers," is twenty-one minutes, followed by six trailers and TV spots spanning the years 1982-2007.

Disc five contains a rare, workprint version of the film, 110 minutes (about seven minutes shorter than the other versions), and newly remastered in HD (although still looking rather rough). It has a slightly different opening, none of Ford's narration until the very end, no "unicorn," no "happy ending," altered dialogue and music here and there, and the like. There is also an audio commentary by Paul M. Sammon, the author of "Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner"; a brief director's introduction wherein he reminds us this workprint is a "work-in-progress"; and a twenty-eight-minute featurette: "All Our Variant Futures: From Workprint to Final Cut," to wrap things up. I have to admit that a lot of this final documentary began to feel redundant, but the movie's fans can probably not get enough of it.

Parting Thoughts:
There is no doubt in my mind that director Ridley Scott and the Warner Bros. restoration and remastering team did a bang-up job making a sci-fi classic even better. The new "Final Cut" is really no longer and no shorter than the original version, but somehow the additions and subtractions add up to a movie that feels tighter. I know there are a lot of folks who still won't like "Blade Runner" no matter how much the director and the studio improved it, complaining it's too dark, too slow, too muddled. That's fine. This new edition is for old fans and future fans. And it works. Brilliantly.

"Do you trust me?" --Harrison Ford, "Blade Runner"

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