BLADE RUNNER IV
Harrison Ford in Blade Runner
The DVD version of "The Final Cut" comes on two discs. The second disc offers only a three-hour-plus documentary, Dangerous Days: Making Blade Runner. While Dangerous Days has some interesting information, its length is off-putting, especially considering the rather wan film it explores so deeply. The first disc contains the film, and it is certainly a visual stunner — Jordan Cronenweth’s cinematography is remarkable, though, again, there is no ’signature’ visual moment that raises Blade Runner above dozens of other sci-fi movies. On the downside, Vangelis‘ score, like all his film music, is overwrought and pretentious.
The DVD also has some minor bonus features and a trailer, but the meat of this disc is found in its three audio commentaries — even though none is particularly stellar. The best one is probably Scott’s, despite a number of self-congratulatory remarks and the director’s tendency to roam off the mark. He provides some useful background information, but ultimately he seems to be stuck too deeply in self-backpatting to be of any real service. In other words, the commentary is more self-centered than film-centered.
Another commentary is provided by the visual-effects guys. This one is simply dull, filled with technospeak and minor recollections. Its only bright spot is the claim that the tower explosions in the opening scenes were leftover shots from Antonioni’s Zabriskie Point (made over a decade earlier) that had been sitting around in a vault and were superimposed on the model set of the futuristic city.
The third commentary features the film’s producer, Michael Deeley, and its screenwriters, Hampton Fancher and David Peoples, among others. Fancher and Peoples spend much of the commentary trying to be smart asses, mouthing a poor man’s Abbott and Costello routine about who wrote what. The first time that occurs, it’s mildly amusing; pretty soon it becomes a bore, in addition to being both boorish and pointless.
Producer Deeley, however, makes the most insightful comment on all three of the commentaries when he affirms that the original, with the voice-over, is the best version. He says that he often argues with the film’s diehard fans as they point to later versions as proof that the voice-over was superfluous. Deeley’s response is that the later cuts work only because the fans originally saw the film with the voice-over and have carried over information gotten that way into subsequent versions. To the first time viewer, though, the later versions leave too many plot holes and is too slow moving to make one ‘go with the flow’ while ignoring the logical inconsistencies made more understandable by the voice-over. He’s correct, but other than that point Deeley has little of substance to contribute. Indeed, all the commentaries suffer from a penchant for dealing less with the actual film and more with what they each intended the film to be, a flaw recapitulated from the intervening years of critical miscriticism.
All in all, Blade Runner is a barely watchable film, mainly on the strength of its technical achievements. Nowhere is it near great, much less the masterpiece its fans claim it to be. Like its source novel, Blade Runner has a few good ideas, lots of bad ones, a thin plot, trite and leaden dialogue, and poor characterizations made all the worse by mediocre-to-bad acting, from the always overrated Harrison Ford and the abysmal Sean Young to the over-the-top Rutger Hauer (aptly demonstrated by his silly soliloquy), the lifeless Daryl Hannah (whose portrayal — along with Hauer’s — does nothing to engender sympathy for the Replicants), and the quirk-infested Edward James Olmos.
Add in the chemistry-less love story between Ford and Young, the muddled plot (especially in the later versions), and the far-too-long sequences designed to simply show off the visuals and inner workings of Tyrell’s corporation, and Blade Runner turns out to be a classic triumph of ’style over substance.’ Even that cliché grates, despite its aptness. (Granted, it would not surprise me if claimants of the "Deckard as Replicant" posit point to the pithy love story as proof that both characters are non-human, but Occam’s Razor points instead to the simpler interpretation that it’s just bad acting and writing.)
Ultimately, Blade Runner falls far short of its claimed greatness simply because it is never sure of what it wants to be — and that’s another strike against its ‘visionary’ claims. It has too many feet on too many boats that diverge: is it sci-fi, is it existential, is it film noir, is it a character study? In truth, Blade Runner has elements of all these and more, but not enough of any of them to make it work as a whole. In fact, the film’s chief failing on all scores is that Ridley Scott had no vision for the project, grafting elements from Alien and many of the other films mentioned in this essay, trying to take what worked from each, thus ending up with a film that is a thematic mess — and a dull one, at that.
Sure, Blade Runner has plenty of visions, but no single vision; in its own myopia, Blade Runner’s dystopia founders. I doubt that any further recuts can cure that ill.
© Dan Schneider
Note: The views expressed in this article are those of Mr. Schneider, and they may not reflect the views of the Alternative Film Guide.
2 Academy Award Nominations
Best Art Direction-Set Decoration: Lawrence G. Paull, David L. Snyder, Linda DeScenna
Best Effects, Visual Effects: Douglas Trumbull, Richard Yuricich, David Dryer
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Tags: Blade Runner, Darryl Hannah, Film Reviews, Harrison Ford, Ridley Scott, Sean Young
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