Blade Runner

[trekkiedane]

I'm currently watching the "X-tra Content" disc from the five disc box of 2007.

Normally I'd say that I actually don't dislike the voice-over version, (aka 'International Cut' or 'Criterion Version') [So kill me! -I still find it funny and cheesy in just the right way!] but I could never have been a fan of this film if the parts that apparently landed on the cutting room floor had still been in the final product (back then, not talking about the 'final cut' version of the film here!). I mean, 'cold fish' is funny, but 'I was hungry' isn't.

I'm about halfway through the x-tras DVD now and just wanted to share this experience, or rather; I wanted to hear if anyone here on the T-BBS had a similar "" experience watching the stuff that didn't make it into the final voice-over-versions...

Looking forward to watching the 'Workprint' later!

Oh! -and- RandyS, you still sick of it? -I've never been! -and in '82-3-4 I must've watched it a hundred times in the theatre -plus- I've been collecting versions of it ever since

 

[Deckerd]

I don't know what you're talking about, sorry. The cold fish and hungry things, I mean. They mean nothing to me.

 

[trekkiedane]

I don't know what you're talking about, sorry. The cold fish and hungry things, I mean. They mean nothing to me.

I take it that you've only ever seen the 'Director's Cut' and the 'Final Cut' versions?

There's a scene right at the beginning (of the 'international version' where Deckard is waiting for a seat at the 'White Dragon' sushi bar; the voice over goes something like this: "Cold fish, that's what my ex-wife used to call me" but in the discharged clip the voice over is: "I quit after my wife left me" (my bad, not: 'I was hungry' -but similarly uninspired imo.)

 

[Christopher]

I couldn't stand the voiceover version. Not only was the narration terribly written and delivered, but it dumbed down the movie. It wasn't until I saw the version without narration, the one that let me figure things out for myself rather than telling me what to think, that I understood what the story was actually about.

 

[trekkiedane]

^It was the early eighties, we weren't expecting much from SciFi in theatres back then (It was the 'SciFi is for pubescent boys' era!) I think that's why we didn't mind the voice-over, and at least it did tie in with most other noir 'detective stories' (from several decades earlier) which is -I suppose- what 'they' were trying to do with it; make it more mainstream.

 

[barnaclelapse]

I don't like the voice over version (and Ford clearly doesn't either), but I'm weirdly used to it and will often pick it over the other cuts.

(Shrugs)

It's just one of those things.

 

[stj]

There is one small virtue to the voiceover, which is that it really gets across that Deckerd is a burnout. Not, I gather, what Ford meant to do. Otherwise, belaboring the obvious while not commenting on the mysterious is inept.

 

[Mike Farley]

Some of the narration I like, some I don't.

I still think "They don't advertise for killers in the newspaper" is a great first line.

And I too liked "Sushi. That's what my ex-wife called me. Cold fish."

A lot of it's too on the nose, telling us things we can see for ourselves, but it realy does enhance the noir-ish detective feel of the movie.

I'll normally watch the theatrical or international cut, but if I could get that version, but have it end with the elevator doors closing then I would be a happy camper.

 

[RandyS]

I'm currently watching the "X-tra Content" disc from the five disc box of 2007.

Oh! -and- RandyS, you still sick of it? -I've never been! -and in '82-3-4 I must've watched it a hundred times in the theatre -plus- I've been collecting versions of it ever since

Nah, not really. It's been a year since I watched it. The only reason I said I was sick of it was because I had watched all five versions over a five a day period because back then, I wasn't familiar with all the differences.

I was actually thinking of pulling out the theatrical version again.

 

[MeanJoePhaser]

I like the version with the laugh track best.

"Bladerunner was screened before a live, studio audience."

I just hope technology advance to where they can insert a humourus sidekick for Ford, some wisecracking ethnic character, or maybe a wookie in a trenchcoat.

 

[trekkiedane]

^

I just hope technology advance to where they can insert a humourus sidekick for Ford, some wisecracking ethnic character, or maybe a wookie in a trenchcoat.

How about a little penguin shaped robot with Japanese features?

 

[Christopher]

How about an electric sheep?

 

[milo bloom]

I finally got around to watching the Final Cut this past Saturday and....


...I wasn't terribly impressed. Yes, it finally smooths out all the little hiccups and fixes some FX, but it just didn't sit well with me for some reason. My preference is still the International cut, with the voiceover and the extra violence and the "happy" ending.

In the recent "unpopular SciFi opinions" thread we had here, I even mentioned that my main motivation for buying that big 5 disc DVD set was to have a high quality version of the International cut, and the Final Cut was a nice bonus.


Speaking of nice bonuses, there's also an option to watch about 45 min of deleted scenes all run together, and in the order they would appear in the movie. It's pretty rough, but it's still a neat, alternate way of seeing the story.

 

[trekkiedane]

Speaking of nice bonuses, there's also an option to watch about 45 min of deleted scenes all run together, and in the order they would appear in the movie. It's pretty rough, but it's still a neat, alternate way of seeing the story.

That's what I did today, and the voice-over parts made me VERY happy that they didn't end up in the film, it was interesting though, to see them -especially the parts from the hospital.

 

[Christopher]

The "happy" ending doesn't really make sense, though, does it? I mean, the world of Blade Runner is implicitly a world that's in decay, a world that all the wealthy and qualified people are fleeing for outer space. And it's implicitly a world where nature has been virtually destroyed, which is why real live animals are prohibitively expensive for most people. So dropping in some aerial shot from another movie that's supposed to be Deckard and Rachael driving through idyllic woodland scenery (in a distinctly non-futuristic car that bears no resemblance to Deckard's, by the way) seriously undermines the film's worldbuilding.

Besides, maybe without the "happy ending" there might've been more interest in getting the sequel that Scott said in the commentary that he hoped to make. That could've been cool, to see a followup with Deckard and Rachael picking up where Batty and his group had left off, trying to find a cure for Rachael's (and Deckard's?) planned obsolescence and striking a blow for replicant rights. Although that might've been easier if Batty hadn't killed the experts in the field. His goals may have been admirable, but his methods were too extreme.

 

[trekkiedane]

Maybe I'm confusing things, but didn't the novel have that very concept in it; that there probably would be some place high up in the mountains where Earth wasn't totally ruined and where a life far away from the city would be possible -or was that perhaps just some daydream Deckard had?

It's been ages since I read it and the only Dick I can find right now is Radio Free Albemuth (which is a film I'm really looking forward to!).

 

[Christopher]

Well, if there is such a place in the movie's world, I'd say finding it should've been a whole other movie, not just something incongruously tacked onto the end of this one. As it is, it just comes off as a lame patch job to turn an ambiguous ending into a pat, artificially upbeat one.

 

[trekkiedane]

/.../ As it is, it just comes off as a lame patch job to turn an ambiguous ending into a pat, artificially upbeat one.

True, so true. Always disturbed me too.

 

[Mal]

It's been ages since I read it and the only Dick I can find right now is Radio Free Albemuth (which is a film I'm really looking forward to!).

OMG, OMG, OMG!
this is the best news ever!
ever!

 

[DarthPipes]

Speaking of nice bonuses, there's also an option to watch about 45 min of deleted scenes all run together, and in the order they would appear in the movie. It's pretty rough, but it's still a neat, alternate way of seeing the story.

The deleted scenes are fun to watch although the extra narration explaining EVERYTHING is awful. I do love the line Holden says to Deckard at the hospital in regards to Rachel "You stuck your dick in a dishwasher and now you're having second thoughts."