Who here actually saw BLADE RUNNER on opening day???

joker-scar

joker-scar

Well-Known Member
RPF PREMIUM MEMBER
I, like so many others, could not wait until Friday June 25 1982. Saw the 1st show that day and the theatre was near empty. That’s weird but hey it’s a work day. Got my BR button when I got my ticket, which I still have..THANK GOD. Sitting in the dark waiting for the trailers to end...there were NO commercials in those days my friends, that S__T didn’t start until a few years later (as I recall). Harrison Ford was hot off Empire and Raiders, this is gonna be one sweet summer popcorn movie. Movie starts....WOW...it goes on...this is different...half way through...this ain’t no sci-fi action flick? The movie is over....this ain’t the ride I was promised???!!! I walk out slightly stunned. Like most people back then, I expected something else. I t wasn’t like I didn’t NOT like it, so much as I didn’t get it. I watch it again. I like it more. Watch it again...I’m lovin it. It took about 3 viewings until I love this film. After 29 years I still pick up things in the BG that I missed on earlier viewings. That is the mark of a great film.
- Who else here was side swiped the first time you saw it???
- Who here loved from the 1st time?????
- Who only saw it the firts time on video????
:eek
 
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I can't remember (strangely) my first viewing in the theater, but the second time I saw it was a one-night-only midnight show sometime in 1985. I remember that one because I went with a few friends from college who'd never seen it.
They were all big sci-fi fans, too, and they really enjoyed it.
 
I almost forgot the story about Blade Runner from 1982 !!

I almost hate to reveal industry secrets, even after so many years. I had graduated high school in 1981 - going to Community College and needed a part time job. Like so many college students, some of us had a part time job at the local Movie theatre . . . as a lowly usher.

The movie prints usually arrive by tuesday evening for a friday release. The films come in several metal cans and have to be assembled on these huge platters ... anyway since the Projectionist unions were broken up - the managers run the projectors. Employees usually get a private sceening of big movies for employees only after closing. We got a screening wednesday or thursday night before the public got to see it. I happen to see blade runner. It was not what I expected. I did not even appreciate it at the time. I was so shallow, I missed the entire point of the film and HATED the whole Riddly Scott NOIR film. :confused

OK ... I was just stupid. :eek It was not until decades later that I really SAW Blade Runner an got it. Now I own five different versions and a slew of props from the film. Blade Runner is one of my all time favorite SCi Fi films. :love

I still wonder what the heck I was thinking the first time I saw it. :confused

I am much better now ....

Irony does not begin to describe the situation. I almost walked out before the film ended. HOW COULD THAT HAPPEN ??

I just wonder how many other films I missed out of ignorance. :confused

Gordon









joker-scar said:
I, like so many others, could not wait until Friday June 25 1982. Saw the 1st show that day and the theatre was near empty. That’s weird but hey it’s a work day. Got my BR pin when I got my ticket, which I still have..THANK GOD. Sitting in the dark waiting for the trailers to end...there were NO commercials in those days my friends, that S__T didn’t start until a few years later (as I recall). Harrison Ford was hot off Empire and Raiders, this is gonna be one sweet summer popcorn movie. Movie starts....WOW...it goes on...this is different...half way through...this ain’t no sci-fi action flick? The movie is over....this ain’t the ride I was promised???!!! I walk out slightly stunned. Like most people back then, I expected something else. I t wasn’t like I didn’t NOT like it, so much as I didn’t get it. I watch it again. I like it more. Watch it again...I’m lovin it. It took about 3 viewings until I love this film. After 29 years I still pick up things in the BG that I missed on earlier viewings. That is the mark of a great film.
- Who else here was side swiped the first time you saw it???
- Who here loved from the 1st time?????
- Who only saw it the firts time on video????
:eek
Click to expand...
 
My buddy saw the San Diego sneak preview with Ford present.

I'm sure I just saw it opening weekend. I can't remember now what day.
I went back many times I'll say that.
 
I was living in a small town that never got the film in it's theater. I do think I may have seen it that year on HBO though. I also had an almost identical reaction to it. I think the 3rd time was the charm for me as well. I see something different in the film each time I see it. The first time though I wasn't prepared and felt offput by it. I came back for the visuals though, and later was absorbed into the rest of it.

Andy
 
CessnaDriver said:
My buddy saw the San Diego sneak preview with Ford present.

I'm sure I just saw it opening weekend. I can't remember now what day.
I went back many times I'll say that.
Click to expand...

Several RPFers were there for that.

Planet of the Apes soundtrack. I hated it.
 
First time I saw it was the second night it was playing at my local cinima, might not have been completely straight but went back the next night and loved it
 
I was only fourteen and that was one movie they wouldn't let me in to see. I heard it through the wall as I was watching Star Trek II.
 
I went opening night. Had a date with a girl, and everything.

Ahhh.... Mindy Sargent. A great night.

EDIT: I went to RAIDERS with her opening night, too :)
 
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My wife and I were there Opening day first show and the theatre had about 7 or 8 people.
 
Can't remember if I was there on opening night or went in the first few days. I thought it was interesting but couldn't take it all in. I loved it though and saw it again very shortly after (and then again and again and here 30 years later I still watch it frequently, lol).
 
I did..and fell asleep. Boring movie to me and still is (yet I can sit through 2001 over and over..go figure).

Same thing happened to me with Excalibur. Went with a couple of friends at our theater near the beach on Maui. I ended up leaving the theater to go to the beach to try and score tourist chicks.
 
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My Dad and I went to see it at a second run theater. I was around 14, and I enjoyed it, as I had seen movies like "The Big Sleep" and "The Maltese Falcon" in theaters. I LIKED The Narration, I know a lot of people don't, but to me it ads to the 1940s detective noir it was trying to capture.
 
I now have the set of the different versions on DVD/Blueray.

I like the theatrical version with the naration and edits the best.:love

I enjoyed the other versions - but I liked the atmosphere of the naration.

Gordon
 
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