"I was disappointed and seriously confused. I actually thought I'd made a pretty good movie," stated Ridley Scott.
When the movie was released in 1982, the movie was both a box office and critical bust. Scott's vision of Los Angeles circa 2019, based on a Philip K Dick story, "Do androids dream of electric sheep?" quickly became a cult classic and hugely influential within the sci-fi genre.
It's influence was solidified by the movie "Blade Runner" being inducted into the Library of Congress's movie collection and Scott released a director's cut in 1992, that removed the narration of Harrison Ford's character, Deckard, added a dream sequence and removed the "happy ending" that had been chosen years before from test audience screenings. Scott has not released his definative and final cut earlier this month at the Venice Film festival.
"Blade Runner: Final Cut" is what Scott has stated he intended the film to be when he first made it. He has stated that the film had been changed from his original vision due to repeated test screenings with audiences, something that was very common in film making those days. He added that maybe they had blown the release of it somehow back in 1982 and although he is not a fan of remakes, he jumped at the chance to do the film as he had intended it to be.
Not only was the dark story of hunting rogue replicants by and ex-cop a large step away from traditional sci-fi, the sets and look of the film have led it to stand the test of time with audiences for years. It also featured and excellent cast, Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer in his 3rd U S role, Daryl Hannah and Edward James Olmos. None of those actors seems to feel that the film should have been changed drastically when it was first released and enjoyed working on a film they felt was special even when they were making it.
Olmos stated that he felt the movie was rudely received in the U S when it came out and that it took the rest of the world and over twn years for it to be seen as one of the best sci-fi or dramatic films released. He added that it still holds it's own as a very fearful world where technology destroys the human race.............. it is happening now to a degree.
"Blade Runner" had always been a favorite of mine and it is a film that each viewing reveals more within the background. Against the backdrop of today's forward direction of technology, I think it does show what could be a very dark future for this planet, one we may paint for ourselves.
No comments:
Post a Comment