Blade Runner

One of the best science fiction movies ever made, and a movie that opened the gate to a lot of other movies after it. We are such huge fans that we even swear by Blade Runner.

It has been 37 years since its original release, and still Blade Runner influences new science fiction movies. It is without any doubt one of the most discussed and debated science fiction movies ever made. Even today, there’s hardly a new science fiction movie that does not owe some credit to Blade Runner.

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Although it’s main genre is Sci-Fi, in Blade Runner you can also enjoy other embellished genres, such as Drama, Action & Adventure. It also has enormous amounts of Cyberpunk elements, since it show a comparison between society casts, difference between the high level and ground level. It is one of best depictions of “High Tech, Low Life” slogan.

While on one side, you can see the ‘aristocrats’ (Tyrell Corp.) living and hiding in their 500 store palaces, on the other hand, you have normal humans, living on street level, striving to survive from poverty, crime & diseases. On street level, one can find anything, from body parts, to body modification surgeons, to narcotics and prostitutes, while the ‘higher society’ strives to create androids so advanced, they could, one day, replace the human race. Androids who would even will have the possibility of multiplying.

It was, and up to these days, still is a wonderful comparison between different classes of society, as seen and put on cinematic form by Ridley Scott. Ridley’s vision of future, flawlessly visualized by Jordan Cronenweth cinematography, really creates a unparalleled depiction, which stays with you, and probably haunts your dreams.

As per actors, I can freely say, it’s one of master performances, both by Harrison Ford (Rick Deckard) and Rutger Hauer (Roy Batty). Ford gives us a police officer, who tries to understand and stop some rogue androids, while Hauer is one of rogue androids, who wants to become human! At the time, two very screen-filling actors, playing at the same movie. That’s a show worth watching. And it all culminates at the very ending scene, where you can see Hauer’s flawless performance. The original monologue in the script was as below:

“I’ve seen things… seen things you little people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion bright as magnesium… I rode on the back decks of a blinker and watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments… they’ll be gone.”

Not being emotional enough for Hauer, he re-wrote this part, which would become on of most meaningfull monologue of Cyberpunk:

“I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.”

In an interview with Dan Jolin, which can be found in “Ridley Scott Encyclopedia”, Hauer said that these words depict his characters (Roy Batty) will to become human, thus doing something so he could “make his mark on existence“. In other words, to show Deckard, by dying, what a real man is made of.