Films of Ridley Scott

UPDATE - After watching the original cut on a whim, all I have to say is...wow. Ford's VO is so obnoxious and stupid it ruins such a beautiful film. Thank God for the Final Cut.

The Sci-Fi genre is easily one of my favorite genres to watch. These movies usually offer one of two things: either a completely different world in which the director immerses the audience into full of wonder and excitement, or a futuristic look at the way our world is progressing and different possibilities of how certain aspects of society, if not all of mankind, could turn out to be. These type of social commentaries are always interesting to watch and give the audience an insight into the world of ethics. Blade Runner is one such movie.

Genius minds like Fritz Lang, George Lucas, Stanley Kubrick, and Ridley Scott have all contributed immensely to the Sci-Fi genre. Scott first made his impact with a little film called Alien. All throughout the 70's, many filmmakers were trying to bring back the classics that the 50's brought about like Forbidden Planet and The Time Machine, but attempts like Soylent Green and The Omega Man failed commercially and failed at what they were attempting to do. But at the end of the decade, Ridley Scott entered with his sublime masterpiece. How was he to top that after shaking the genre forever? With this of course.

From the get go however, Blade Runner was plagued with way too many production problems. Harrison Ford and Ridley Scott did not get along. Producers were pushing ideas on to the film that made no sense and dumbed the film down. Companies backed out of financing the movie. It seemed like a disaster. Scott did manage to salvage a great movie and managed to polarize critics, whether it was a masterpiece or just another sci-fi piece. And from there everyone knows the stories about the future releases of The Director's Cut and so on. Finally the Final Cut came out in 2007 and Scott's true vision fully realized. But enough about the history. Why is the movie brilliant?

The visuals from Blade Runner, much like 2001, hold up even to this day. They simply blew most people away and had a truly unique view of the future and how globalization will affect us all. The cinematographer knew what he was doing and the dark, surreal atmosphere is the stuff of brilliance.

Harrison Ford gives one of the best performances of his life here as the confused and torn Deckard. Without the stupid VO, he really shows that he has the acting chops to be a serious actor. All the supporting cast were great as well, especially Rutger Hauer who seems like he was born for this role.

The movie keeps up enough ambiguity to have viewers constantly questioning what is real and what is not. The obvious big moral issue is over genetic engineering, or cloning, and the religious and moral debates that ensue over the topic. It's definitely interesting to see these clones have some of the same feelings as real humans and how its unclear whether what our scientists are doing are moral or not. All these issues make Blade Runner as relevant as the day it came out, reinforcing its status as a classic.

I could go on all day about the magnificence of Blade Runner, but most of it has to be viewed for yourself. One of my closest friends watched this once and said it felt generic to him and he didn't see its significance. But I respect his opinion. You are either going to see Blade Runner as one of the best sci-fi movies ever or just another run-of-the-mill movie. If you find it as something special though, you will most likely have the same thought running through your mind: utterly mind-blowing.

I came in expecting to be disappointed, but the end result was not that at all. I'll admit, it becomes cliche ridden at times, and Denzel gets ridiculous later on as well, but the entertainment was consistent throughout and you almost never get bored, except at certain points (I mean it's almost 3 hours long and a Scorsese film this is not). So come in to this movie looking for entertainment, not substance.