AmateurMovieReviews.com

By Simon Woodhouse

Above everything else, movies are a vehicle by which a story is transferred from one group of people (the film makers) into the consciousness of another group of people (the audience). With this basic premise in mind, does it really matter if a film has surround sound, or crystal clear photography? I would say no, because the story is the most important aspect, not the medium by which it's being told.

Last night I went to a one-off screening of Blade Runner at my local cinema. The quality of the film wasn't very good - it had probably been lying in a studio film vault for twenty years, and the sound was pretty basic too. But did it make a difference to the story? Not one bit. When a movie is right it's right, and no matter under what circumstances you see it, the greatness will still shine through. I've watched the film umpteen times on video and DVD, but it's twenty four years since I first saw it at the cinema. And despite what I said in my opening paragraph, it's such a visual film that watching it on a TV (no matter how big) just doesn't do it justice.

As was popular with Sci-Fi films at the time, a few paragraphs of text open the movie. From this we learn about replicants, genetically engineered people who are basically slaves in the year 2019. But they're also very smart and very strong. This sometimes makes them a threat to their masters, and so they're only used on off-world colonies, and outlawed on Earth. The penalty for ignoring this rule is death. This is where the film's main character, Deckard (Harrison Ford), comes into things. It's his job to find and kill any replicant silly enough to come back to Earth.

In this vision of the future however, Earth is in a bit of a state. The film is shot against a backdrop of constant darkness and rain. Set in the city of Los Angeles, it paints the metropolis as an overcrowded hellhole full of the sort of people unable to qualify for a ticket off of Earth.

Into this world of permanent night comes four replicants, compelled to return to Earth in order to find more life. You see, replicants only have a four-year life span, after which they simply drop dead. This makes them more controllable, and stops them developing human emotions that might compel them to not want to be slaves anymore. Though reluctant to do so, Deckard is forced to track down and eliminate the four renegade replicants. This requires a degree of detective work, but he also relies on his gut instinct. However, in what is a rather clever sub-plot, he becomes romantically involved with a replicant called Rachel (Sean Young). She's a prototype, and allowed on Earth only because she's the prodigy of genetic engineering genius Eldon Tyrell (Joe Turkel).

Originally released in 1982, Blade Runner didn't do too well at the box office. At the time, Star Wars was dominating the world of Science Fiction movies, and Blade Runner couldn't be more far removed from that trilogy of films. But to most hardcore Sci-Fi fans, Blade Runner is the movie against which all others are measured. Directed by Ridley Scott (the man behind Alien), it's a dark, humorless vision of the future, and has none of Star Wars' talking robots and furry humanoids.

As the movie progresses, Dekard hunts down the replicants one by one. But their leader, Roy (Rutger Hauer), isn't going to give up without a fight. He's not prepared to accept a four year life span, and so is trying his best to reach Tyrell, the only man who can help him. Eventually he does, and this meeting is one of the film's most powerful scenes. Inevitably the movie's climax involves a face-off between Deckard and Roy. This takes place in an abandoned apartment block, a setting that typifies the state of the Earth as a whole - run down and decaying.

For a Sci-Fi film, Blade Runner contains some beautiful dialogue. And though Harrison Ford is the star, it's Rutger Hauer who steals the show. His every line is delivered with just the right amount of emotion. He's threatening, but at the same time vulnerable, which is an unusual thing for a Sci-fi movie, a genre in which baddies are bad and goodies are good and there's no middle ground. Daryl Hannah also delivers a fine performance (probably the best of her career) in the role as Pris, the sinister replicant girlfriend of Roy. Complimenting the actors and the script, a series of lavish sets give the film a real sense of place. Whether it's Eldon Tyrell's bedroom, Deckard's apartment or the bustling Los Angeles' streets, all the settings blend in to form a complete picture of life on a totally urbanized planet Earth. So you've got good acting, a great script and wonderful sets, what else could you want? Well, there's also a sublime soundtrack courtesy of movie-music guru Vangelis.

All these attributes come together to create what is arguably the greatest Sci-Fi film of all time. Often imitated but never bettered, Blade Runner hasn't lost any of its potency in what is nearly twenty-five years since its release. No Science-Fiction fan's movie collection is complete without a copy of this film. Re-released in 1992, the movie is now available in a Director's Cut, and though this isn't vastly different from the original theatrical version, it does contain a subtle clue as to Deckard's true identity. I'm not going to tell you what that is, as trying to spot it will add yet another level of enjoyment to an already excellent film.