Review of Blade Runner (1982) by Tony P — 07 Oct 2017

I had to watch this film after trying to understand its sequel Blade Runner 2049.

The film was released in 1982 but is based on a 1968 novel 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?'.

Directed by Ridley Scott who brought the sci-fi film Alien to the big screen in 1979 it stars Harrison Ford as an cop Rick Deckard whose assignment is to hunt down and indeed retire 'replicants'. Human looking androids. Four have made it to earth and 2019 Los Angeles.

So the film has visions of L.A. some thirty years into the future, around now at the time of viewing nearly (2017).

Much like other films most notably Back To The Future II it envisages a world of hovering cars, neon, electronic advertising of big corporations like Piccadilly Circus and Times Square and a dark, rainy city.

The art direction of the film is from an era when the dreaded CGI of the later Star Wars films hasn't arrived thankfully and makes full use of models and miniature effects.

For anyone that has watched Alien you will know of the human looking android character. I suppose this film follows 'replicants' like that.

Ford doesn't dominate the film. His co-stars include replicant Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) and Sean Young.

The nail in the coffin for the screenplay was Deckard falling in love with one of the androids.

I found the film hard going. I'm not sci-fi weary as I like the early Star Wars films and indeed the latest releases but the dark vision of 2019 is depressing.

I don't understand how this film has gathered such a cult following over the years. Apparently there is some debate over whether Deckard himself is a replicant. It sounds very negative but I'm not particularly interested.

The religious symbolism of the film reminded me of another I saw recently Mother!

Here the Batty replicant played by Hauer pierces his hand with a nail like the crucifixion?

One positive when compared to its sequel Blade Runner 2049 is the 117m or so running time compared to a near three hour run time for the sequel film.