What is the fascination with Blade Runner?

Re: What is the facination with Blade Runner?

I've tried watching it several times, but always turn it off after about an hour. I will probably try again just to think "WTF are these people thinking?!". Maybe it becomes good after a set amount of times watching it?

Re: What is the facination with Blade Runner?

It was made in a time before they invented lighting on sets.

Re: What is the facination with Blade Runner?

What planet do you live on?

The lighting is phenomenal in Blade Runner?

Re: What is the facination with Blade Runner?

It's beautifully lit.

Re: What is the facination with Blade Runner?

you must be drunk

Re: What is the facination with Blade Runner?

Perhaps you're unable to properly calibrate your television set.

Re: What is the facination with Blade Runner?

I used to like the fact that I was one of the very few who liked Blade Runner back in the day (80's-90's). I kind of like having something I don't have to share with too many people, and isn't "Popular". I am not knowingly trying to be some sort of iconoclast. Truthfully, I wasn't crazy about it the first time I saw it either. It grew on me over decades, and I found it to be something special, and like many acquired tastes, you never seem to get sick of it, but rather enjoy it more intensely over time.

If I had to pinpoint it, I would say for the most part I prefer movies that are proficient in creating a realistic place and a mood rather than just telling a story, or taking you for a ride. Blade Runner is one of the very few films I have seen that have been able to create an organic, living setting that I feel that I can actually absorb myself into. Most other films that have done that for me too have been period pieces. This film works on that same level for me. It’s slow pace also helps with that, because I get the chance to look around rather then run through each room. Like a great painting or landscape, I can be totally drawn into it, and those don’t move at all.

I also find that as a person with ADD, this film is like medicine for me. The dark setting, the music, and rain triggers a kind of endorphin or serotonin like effect on me. It is not an adrenaline movie at all, and those movies in general tend to lose their effect after a single viewing to me. That is why action movies seem to need to be more and more over the top in action. Like a drug, you need bigger doses of it for the same effect. This movie has only become more involving over the many times I have watched it. Maybe it is more a kind of therapy for me then. Something a lot of others just don’t need.

As far as the term “Boring” goes, I feel that it is just another form of impatience, and lack of focus on the viewer. We have become a culture where we expect everything to be spoon fed to us. The story, the emotions, the background of the characters, all have to be superficially presented to us. As a result it has become pretty rare for people to look deeper into something, because most seem to want the cliff notes, and not have to spend the time learning to appreciate something. No one seems to have the time to do that anymore. Your boredom is not the movies fault. I remember a quote from an athlete I wish I could recall whom, but it was something like “The only people who can become the top in their sport, are the ones that love to do the boring parts of it, and that is true with all things”…It might have been Michael Jordon, but I am not sure.

So, if the movie is not to your liking, Oh well. I am sorry you are unable to enjoy it like we do. I am sure there is stuff you enjoy, that I can not either. I promise not to judge you or those things based on that fact.

Andy

Re: What is the facination with Blade Runner?

androidandy said:

So, if the movie is not to your liking, Oh well. I am sorry you are unable to enjoy it like we do. I am sure there is stuff you enjoy, that I can not either. I promise not to judge you or those things based on that fact.

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These are the four best sentences I've read since I've been reading the things here, in this community. Right on. Holy crap. Just excellent. Well-observed.

Re: What is the facination with Blade Runner?

Jannix Quinn said:

you must be drunk

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It's beautifully unlit?

Re: What is the facination with Blade Runner?

NAZGÛL said:

Ive always loved BR! It has everything I love in movies. The directors cut ending is one of the best endings Ive seen.

There are many levels in the story and it can be interpreted in many ways. The themes and topics are universal.

I can understand that todays audience dont apreciate the slow speed and dialoge.

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Yeah, you have to wonder what the Director was thinking, trying to throw a nior sci-fi out there.. so close on the heels of the previous action packed blockbusters.

At least he got it right with his next sci-fi Horror.

Re: What is the facination with Blade Runner?

All joking aside and not to repeate too much of what a few others have said, but what makes Blade Runner so fascinating?Well,in film it was a monumental matsterpiece. The sets,design and environments have yet to be topped in other feature films I.M.O.The cinematphotography is absoloutely exquisit, and that was the only award it was given credit for back in 1982 in Europe.Other films have tried(few have surpassed or even become an equal to my knowledge), but everyting is done in CG now and looks bad/fake.All was done practically and built(what could be) the rest was filled in with some pretty incredible matte paintings back in the day.

The miniature effects were top of the line and the manner in which they were filmed was noteworthy.I really have to read my Cinefex #9 issue again, but even I didn't know how limited of space Trumboll had to build and lay out the miniuatures.Allot of forced perspective&smoke was used. Much of the time it is really hard to differentiate the models from the real thing.

Blade Runner has an interesting story and plot and I think because is was set in the "not so distant future" that makes it even better and more captivating.Look at whats happening today.Wars, over population,polution and people being ever so dependent on technology while at the same time distancing themeslves from one other.Kinda scary how closely the fiction described in PKD novel and the film are very much like our society today.

I can't speak for others, but I know that (for me) the ongoing theme in Blade Runner I do find intriging and captivating.About the creation of artificial life, what makes us human and do we have the right to play god?Those are the driving themes in the film if you don't get lost in it.The original theatrical release isn't really that confusing,I don't understand why folks complain so much.Is the voice over necessary?Really,"No."I don't hate it, but I don't exactly love it either.

The "final cut" of Blade Runner is really THE BEST version to see. No voice over, no odd ending that doesn't make sense with the rest of the film and it has some alternate dialog in it and more of the European release of the film.I still have a hell of a time watching the eye gouging sceen, but it is a poinent and important part of the film.There's allot of depth and complexity to Blade Runner, but it isn't as confusing as some say it is.At least I don't think so.Then again..I can't say really how many times i've seen Blade Runner be it the theatrical release, the director's cut or the "final cut".

I almost always find or notice something new about the film no matter which version I watch.To each his own in the end, but I sincerely find the mystery(and journey these characters take) in the film fascinating. Some think its boring or it doesn't make sense.I say you just really aren't cluing in on the signals and true plot/drive of the story/film.The fact that Ridley Scott says or thinks Deckard is a Replicatint is really inconsequential.Despite him saying stating in interviews, I think really he was merely suggesting it.At least...planting the idea that he was,and if he was...what a contradiction.Deckard being a Replicant hunting down and killing his own kind.

On the opposite side, Deckard being a human and turning himself into an emotionless,unfeeling being(which is really how he comes off in the film).Which in turn says something about the character, that maybe he thinks/believes Replicants are'nt these empty vessels they are suppose to be and he sees then as equals,or at least as beings.I don't know.I'm rambling and its super late,but maybe that will give others another perspective to consider if watching the film no matter what version and to me what makes it such a great piece of cinamatic history.

Re: What is the facination with Blade Runner?

How cool is it that "The Final Cut" has just about every version you could want.

I most of the time watch "The Final Cut", but yes, I do sometimes watch the "Theatrical Cut" with the narration, and I enjoy it too. I dont feel like I have to lock into one version and like just that one. I even like the workprint.

Too bad we cant get a Star Wars release like that.

Re: What is the facination with Blade Runner?

It's a poet's movie in many ways. You either understand the deeply resonating beauty suggested by the few brief words of a haiku, or you don't.

"The world of dew
is the world of dew--
and yet, and yet."

Issa (as translated by Hass)

That's Blade Runner.

Re: What is the facination with Blade Runner?

Forestmoonstudio said:

I just finished watching this film for the first time.:eek

This ranks as one of the worst films I have ever seen.:sick

It was like trying to sit through the Star Wars Holiday special. :confused

So I ask... what is the facination?

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Two quick questions, actually, and I ask these purely to get a better understanding of where you're coming from.

1. What kind of films do you usually enjoy the most?

2. What were you expecting when you started watching it? I mean, what was your sense of the film based on what you'd heard from folks and/or read?

Re: What is the facination with Blade Runner?

Jedi2016 said:

These days, it's either "Summer Blockbuster" or "Oscar Bait", and there's not much room for anything else.

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You're dead right, and it's been that way for quite a while now. I tried to watch "Legends of the Fall" the other night. Unbearable.

woffpack said:

I think the biggest reason that I was disappointed in the movie is because I didn't have the right expectations before watching it.

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That was me back in 1982. And everyone else, pretty much. I only saw it twice in the cinema, in a time when I'd normally see a big new SF film at least four times. But leaving the cinema with my dad, feeling let down, he paused and said 'you know...that was powerful', and I thought about it, and began to restructure the way I looked at films.

Solo4114 said:

Which is a big part of why I really dislike The 5th Element.

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Oh, unfair! It was the marketing department's decision to market the film as the Second Coming of Blade Runner. BR was well established as a legit cult hit by 1995 and they thought they could most neatly pigeonhole 5E alongside it. It cost them dearly. I saw people leaving the cinema half way through.

Sigma-LS said:

I like to compare it to the Course of Empire series by Cole.

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Thank you for the headsup on these. May order prints. :thumbsup

noble said:

If there was no blade runner, there wouldn't have been a fifth element.

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Uhhh...no, can't agree at all.

Larry Young said:

I dunno about that; I kind of see a world where The Fifth Element is made just off the strength of Heavy Metal magazine.

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I was going to correct you there Larry, in that it would have been more correct to say 5E is a Hollywoodised bande dessinee...

Larry Young said:

The kids see flying cars and think American cyberpunk and European BD is the same thing.

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...but of course you immediately redeemed yourself by mentioning BD and posting a Bilal image. Silly of me to have so little faith!

Heh, I was just watching l'Immortal the other night, strange thing that it is.

Jannix Quinn said:

you must be drunk

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If he is, I am too!

blip said:

At least he got it right with his next sci-fi Horror.

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If you mean Legend, it was fantasy, not SF. It was certainly A Horror, though. :lol

cayman shen said:

It's a poet's movie in many ways.

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Well said, that man!!! :thumbsup

Re: What is the facination with Blade Runner?

Thanks, Nwerke!

The comparison of BR to FE is...insane. The two movies could not be less alike. So they both have crowded cities and flying cars, so what? It's like comparing Schindler's List to Dumb and Dumber because they both have a suitcase in them.

Re: What is the facination with Blade Runner?

Any time. People can be forgiven for the comparison (though it IS insane) because it WAS what the studio intended with the marketing of 5E. A stupid, stupid, own-goal, IMO. As a friend of mine put it, 'they should have sold this film as what it is: a great big silly French manga explosion'.

I loved Bladerunner, still do, I'll watch it evey now and then, often just for the visuals. I'm an hour away from Hong Kong and love walking around Kowloon and Mongkok at night. Feels like your in Bladerunner. By the way rumour is they are revisiting BR with Ridley directing. Should be interesting!


http://www.csmonitor.com/The-Cultur...-Ridley-Scott.-Can-it-hold-up-to-the-original

Re: What is the facination with Blade Runner?

Nwerke said:

Any time. People can be forgiven for the comparison (though it IS insane) because it WAS what the studio intended with the marketing of 5E. A stupid, stupid, own-goal, IMO. As a friend of mine put it, 'they should have sold this film as what it is: a great big silly French manga explosion'.

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I actually had no idea what to expect when I saw it on VHS (never caught it in the theaters). I knew it was sci-fi, I knew it had action.....and that was about it.

It sounds like a more apt comparison would be to Barbarella, actually, since "a great big silly French manga explosion" is pretty much what Barbarella was, no?

Actually, come to think about it, when I first watched Barbarella on VHS or TV, I had much the same reaction as 5E: "This sucks. WTF is this crap?" Mostly because I wasn't expecting the silliness, the over-the-top designs, the cartoon colors, etc.

It's still not really my cup of tea aesthetically, but I can appreciate what it's doing artistically. What each film does it seems to do well...it just isn't my thing. Come to think of it, that could be a big part of why the 1980s Flash Gordon came off kinda weird. It has that same sort of vibe to it, when (for me at least) the source material is quite different in its tone.


By the way, I'll confess my ignorance here: what is "BD" that's been mentioned in this thread?

The better question is (What is the fascination with Star Wars & Star Trek?