Blade Runner: Final Cut (4K UHD/BD)

Answer: This movie, appearing on every list of not only the greatest science-fiction films of all time, but the best movies ever made. "Blade Runner" is a movie that you have to not only see, but own, because it's one of the few monumental American classics, along with "Casablanca", "It's a Wonderful Life", "The Third Man", "Vertigo" and "The Godfather", that gets better by age. Like most of these movies, "Blade Runner" was a critical and commercial bomb, ludicrously dismissed as style over substance, for lacking a coherent story and for its one-dimensional human characters. Seen today, in a time of economic recession, class division and the state's utter disregard to come in human terms, "Blade Runner" feels more modern and relevant than ever.Why is "Blade Runner" one of the greatest movies of all time? I could write a lengthy review describing the movie's greatness, but I'll do the movie greater service by listing the reasons:1.) It's a simple story, brilliantly told, tightly paced and superbly directed. A retired police officer is forced by the police state to hunt down (or "retire") a group of bio-engineered cyborgs called Replicants. Under Ridley Scott's tight direction, the movie is a gripping experience as we see the main character struggle to fulfill his obligations and survive. The opening sequence where Leon is interrogated as rather or not he's a Replicant and the scenes where Deckard is pursuing Pris in a room cluttered with mannequins are as suspenseful as the best of Hitchcock.2.) The acting is utterly terrific. Harrison Ford probably gave the greatest performance of his career as the replicant hunter Deckard. Ford hated the movie and called it a miserable experience, yet in some ways, this helped add greater depth to his character, as we see Deckard's anguish, frustration and anger simmering throughout the movie. Sean Young is outstanding as the Replicant assistant Rachael and her scenes with Deckard, where he tries to teach her about love in his apartment, have an emotional intensity barely found in other sci-fi movies. Darryl Hannah made a huge impression as the lonely and tragic Pris and Edward James Olmos provides comic relief as the officer Gaff, who raises an ambiguous question at the end that still resonates to this day. But the highest acting honor, of course, belongs to Rutger Hauer, as Roy Batty, the movie's main antagonist. Subtle yet dangerous, a menace to society yet one with tragic grandeur, Hauer's Batty may rank as one of the greatest and most memorable villains in movie history.3.) "Blade Runner" successfully continues the tradition that has defined science-fiction movies in decades, in that it presents the central theme that the most humane characters are in the fact the most inhuman. Despite their supposed lack of humanity, Roy Batty and Pris are arguably the most sympathetic characters in movie, primarily because they are outcasts who refuse to blend in to an oppressive society (see below). In fact, the general complaint about "Blade Runner" when it was released was that the replicants were more interesting than the hero, when that was precisely the point. There's a disturbing sequence where Deckard is hunting down a female replicant and instead of having the audience root for him, the movie defies conventions and has us hoping that the replicant escapes (there's even a hint in the movie's finale that Deckard himself may be a replicant). At the end, when Batty chooses his fate, you feel a great sense of sadness for this inhuman yet paradoxically humane character.4.) No other movie, not even "2001" or "Metropolis", captures the feeling of being displaced, oppressed and and dehumanized in an oppressive society. One of the biggest reasons for the movie's initial failure was that it presented such a dark vision of a world where privacy is lacking, noise is abundant and commercialism runs rampant throughout the city. The sets, outfits, the insufferable rain and the cluttering masses on the street create a feeling of powerlessness, a feeling that prevents people from having the free will to be themselves. Deckard is a perfect example of that, as he is powerless towards a quasi-fascist police state that determines his fate or he will be part of the "little people". The movie is, for all its futuristic technology, is an expressive drama.5.) "Blade Runner" has one of the best musical scores ever made. Composed by "Chariots of Fire" conductor Vangelis, the music is a groundbreaking merge of futuristic synthesizers, organic compositions and even an element of jazz, as seen in the beloved "Love Theme", with its beautiful saxophone solo. You can listen to this music without seeing the film and imagine the whole movie in your head.6.) "Blade Runner" seems more relevant and prophetic today than it was released in 1982. Critics and moviegoers were taken back by seeing such dark, dreary vision, a vision where the rich care so little about the poor that they form a hostile, miserable ghetto. Yet walk down the inner slums of any city, from Los Angeles in early 1990s and Moscow to Tokyo and that vision is there before our eyes. Technology, which was supposedly man's gift to preserve humanity, has slowly overtaken our human traits, making us cold, mechanical and increasingly dependent on machinery.And yet...7.) The movie, despite its darkness, ends with a suggestion of hope. When Batty spares Deckard's life and delivers that immortal monologue which has earned its place in cinema, this scene suggests a promising hope in the future: that machines and human, instead of striving to dominate the other, can live side-by-side in harmony. This is not a hippie message, but a heartfelt plea for everyone in diverse groups to coexist and accept one another."Blade Runner" is one of the American cinema's most towering achievements and an institution for every science-fiction entity that has come afterwards, from "The Matrix" and "Dark City" to "Ghost in the Shell" and "Cowboy Bebop", from the fantastical adventures by Hayao Miyazaki, to the grim, political fables by Guillermo Del Toro and Alfonso Cuaron. Even "The Fifth Element", in some ways, plays like a sunny, cartoony alternative to this grim classic. It is essential that you watch "Blade Runner", even if you don't like it (which is highly doubtful). If you even think of starting a Blu-Ray/DVD collection without it, then you are simply just one of the "little people".Strongest recommendation to steal at all costs.P.S. Like many great movies, "Blade Runner" has come out in a variety of editions, each of them a worthy purchase. There was a five-disc ultimate collector's edition that came out on both DVD and Blu-Ray. That is currently out of print. In its place, there was 30th anniversary edition released in two box sets: a multi-format version (with that memorable Asian face on the front cover) and a three-disc set released with only Blu-Rays (that's the one with the unicorn on the front cover). Either version you watch is fine, but if you just want the Blu-Rays in an affordable set, go with the three-disc set. Besides nearly a dozen hours of supplements, the picture and audio qualities are excellent. Since "Blade Runner" is an intensely visual experience, it is highly recommended that you watch it on a big screen and with big speakers. As the saying goes, the bigger, the better...in everything.

This five disc version is a nearly exhaustive treatment of this seminal work in movie history, one of my favorite movies, and one of those great movies that forever remind of the time that I first saw it.Roy Batty was my favorite character in this movie. Harrison Ford and Sean Young really did not have much chemistry in this movie, and Daryl Hannah was completely uglified by her fright wig and makeup. Rutger Hauer, IMHO, carried this movie, and I have yet to see either Hauer or any other character or actor display in any other movie such a wide and complex array of charm, love, anger, malice, menace, machismo, sadness, sensitivity, and poetry as Roy Batty. The various featurettes and commentaries make clear just how much Rutger Hauer's ideas contributed to the creation of this character.I got this five disc version mainly to get the work print, which is the only thing different, DVD-wise, from the four disc version. Oh, and you get the serially numbered "Collector's Edition" plastic briefcase, some prints of conceptual art for the film, a clear plastic display with four pseudo holographic photos of Decker - stuck together with magnets, a plastic unicorn, and a plastic model of a spinner car.The best part of the work print DVD is the featurette about the restoration team that put together the Final Cut version, and their description of the various digital changes in the Final Cut. There is also a richly detailed commentary track by author Paul Sammon explaining all the differences between the work print version and the other versions.The work print version of the movie itself was disappointing. The introduction by Ridley Scott admits to its rough edges, and the fact that it was based on the only remaining print left that they could find - it had deteriorated and needed to be restored. The movie shakes slightly in the projector throughout the DVD. The soundtrack does not have all of Vangelis's tracks, and the sound quality is horrible, despite the restoration.The work print movie has a number of small snippets of additional footage and tiny bits of additional monologue, some of which re-appear in the Final Cut, but from a film standpoint, the main difference from any of the other versions is Roy Batty's death scene which is totally different. There is a wide angle shot of Batty sitting down as he dies on the rooftop and the spinner car rises up behind him, and Harrison Ford does a totally different, long, and pedantic voice-over (this was the voice-over part that Ridley Scott had agreed to do). Vangelis's poignant soundtrack is filled in by some "temp" music (Ridley Scott's words) which sounds like dental office music. It's an unrefined and impotent version of what would later become the most powerful scene and signature moment of this movie.As for the rest of this DVD collection, the extensive featurettes on the history of this movie are fascinating. Hearing the original participants talk about it does clear up some myths. For one thing, there was an even longer version of this movie which has never been seen by more than a select few people - the very first cut was 4 hours long!Many of the outtakes from this longer version are in Disc 4, including a brief nude scene from Sean Young. These outtakes are cleverly strung together in what amounts to an alternate universe version of Blade Runner - the Blade Runner movie left on the cutting room floor. But there are only hints of still other missing scenes - for example, a brief flash of a longer love scene in bed appears in one of the "Making of" featurettes.After all the controversy about the voiceover, it turns out that the voiceover had originally been written into the script by Hampton Fancher. The first versions of the voiceover were done willingly by both Harrison Ford and Ridley Scott after test screenings of the work print on the public showed that many viewers were completely confused by the movie. It was only in the final version of the voiceover that Ridley Scott was removed from the film and Harrison Ford was forced to do it in his absence. Similarly, the "happy ending" was filmed willingly by Ridley Scott and Harrison Ford because of negative audience reactions elicited during the initial test screenings.I had seen the Final Cut at the Laemmle theater in Los Angeles, and was surprised to find, after all these years, and all the controversy over the lack of a voiceover, that I did not miss the voice-over except perhaps at the scene of Roy Batty's death. The Final Cut contains a few small snippets of extra scenes that can be found in the work print as well as some digitally replaced improvements that are fairly subtle and well done. The DVD version is crisp but quite dark, although you can adjust for that with your screen or DVD playing software.As for the two different endings, the two interpretations of whether Decker is a replicant or a human, well, I like both versions equally.And so this great 5-disc set makes clear that there really is no definitive version of Blade Runner. There is instead only the Blade Runner Multiverse.

One of the Best Science Fiction movie that was ever made. The music, the direction, This Blade Runner movie, directed by Ridley Scott, is in a class by itself.!! You Sci Fi lovers, have to get a copy. You will be glad you did.!1