By Michelle Lerner
After twenty-five years Ridley Scott has an almost perfect film on his hands. Recutting his cult classic film BLADE RUNNER for a third time, he has hit the nail firmly on the head.
Gone is the distracting meant-to-be-noir Harrison Ford voice over. Gone is the oddly tacked-on happy ending. What remains is an unrelenting dystopian nightmare of the future, set in a filthy drizzling Los Angeles.
Harrison Ford, in a grim and powerful performance, plays Deckard, an ex-cop, who when he was on the force, was a Blade Runner. That is; someone who tracked down replicants and killed them. Replicants were made by humans and are like humans, but better, and work on slave colonies in space. At the beginning of the film four have escaped and made their way to earth. Deckard is the best at hunting them, and is brought back to hunt them down. He doesn’t want to, but he has no choice in the matter.
As the story unfolds, you feel yourself sucked more and more into the weird paces and lights of this creepy future world. Part of what makes the film so strong is not only the story, but also the details of world. The production design, music and costumes are so carefully thought out that you more then buy it, you believe it. Everything feels shabby and lived in. There is almost no natural light, and when there is, it trickles through dusty windows haphazard and meek. The bright lights come from floating ads and neon buildings. And everything is wet all the time. Scott has a good time with geography to. It’s always very hard to get a sense of where characters are to each other in a space. This creates a sort of claustrophobia in even the largest room. When the film was done, we all gasped for air outside the theater, whether we meant to or not.
Deckard spends most of the film drunk and badly in need of sleep, hardly fighting condition. When sleep does come, it is short, fitful, and ends abruptly. Unlike modern sci-fi adventure films, where the hero always has the last word and everything is clear and correct, here there is a lot of murk. From the first replicant he finds dancing in a club, to the last, the glorious Roy, each killing becomes more difficult. The film is very violent. You feel every gouge and punch that Deckard takes and makes like you got hit yourself. But it’s the air of violence that makes the film so tense, rather then the gore itself. Violence comes when it’s unexpected, and when it does it is rough.
Roy is the leader of the escaped replicants. Played with manic glee by Rutger Hauer, he is a fallen angel, quoting Milton and searching for revenge on his creator, Tyrell, who he calls “Father.” When they meet Roy kisses him and while doing so pops his head open like a watermelon, crushing it from both sides. Roy is so dangerous yet so enticing that Tyrell, who should know better, lets him get close. When Roy and Deckard meet during the bloody final battle, as they must, you can’t believe that Deckard can possibly beat him. And he doesn’t. Instead, Deckard is rescued, painfully. As he waits for the deathblow, listening to Roy talk about some of the amazing things he has seen, he gasps for air believing every breath will be his last. But Roy times out. Replicants only have a few years of life span; more life is what Roy has been looking for. But it’s his time not Deckard’s.
Deckard has Rachel, another replicant, who he supposed to kill, waiting at home for him. Played elegantly by Sean Young, she is more human then a human, if that is even possible, full of life and emotion. She was built that way. She saves Deckard and he falls in love with her. The slowest scene in the film by far is their love scene. There are also standout performances by a very young Daryl Hannah as a violent creepy pleasure replicant, Edward James Olmos as a blue-eyed dandy of a Blade Runner, Brion James as the brutal Leon, and William Sanderson as the toy-building geneticist J.S Sebastian. His eerie lair filled with weird toys is one of the highlights of the film.
Without the narration, we make the leaps and jumps along with the film, and that works much better. Trying to figure things out is half the fun of watching a film like this. And I was very happy with the new ending, which may or may not be happy itself. The restored film is absolutely beautiful, and unlike other recent recuts, (paging George Lucas and his ridiculous changes) the newer technology truly only enhances the visual effects to the benefit of the film. It’s playing in limited release now, and will be out on DVD in time for Christmas. I was with a world-weary eleven year old, who declared it the coolest movie he had ever seen.