Blade Runner: The Final Cut

[ellen_datlow]

Yeah, sure it is. I don't think Scott will ever finish fiddling with it. However, I did want to see it on the biiiig screen at the Ziegfeld, so caught the 2pm show today. (which is why I was so late responding to all the comments on my previous post ;-) ).
This whole post is a spoiler so if for some odd reason you haven't seen the movie's most recent incarnations, do not read on.

First of all, the only change I could discern from the last "director's cut" was more graphic violence in the killing of Tyrell. I suppose there might have been a few seconds added here and there, but I didn't notice them.

I still love the movie--it's my favorite sf movie--and it's kind of lovely seeing Harrison Ford and Sean Young and Rutger Hauer and even Daryl Hannah in their prime.

I am not particularly willing to argue about the "is he or isn't he a replicant" issue because frankly, at this point, I don't give a rat's ass what Scott says. For me, if Deckard IS a replicant, none of the rest of the movie makes sense. To me the point has always been that the replicants have evolved towards humanity and humanity has moved more towards behaving like replicants.

(yes, of course I know about the unicorn stuff--I just....don't....care) :-)

Comments

[wolfsilveroak.livejournal.com]

Well, I know what Mark will be getting when it comes out on DVD to go with the other umpteen copies...

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

All I can say is that it's a good thing I don't have any interest in buying DVDs--I'm perfectly happy renting them--over and over if necessary...
If it comes to wherever you live on the big screen, though, it's worth it.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_stranger_here/]

the replicants have evolved towards humanity and humanity has moved more towards behaving like replicants.

I think that's a good thing to get out of the movie, and our instinctive understanding of that idea as it plays out on the screen is one of the main reasons Blade Runner survives repeat viewings as so much more than just a flat "robots want to be human" film.

Scott may have settled the question in his mind, but I've read somewhere that Harrison Ford and one of the scriptwriters had settled it the other way in their minds, so the ambiguity is very real.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

On a listserve I'm on last week we were discussing the ambiguity and one person claimed that Deckard was getting thrown around so much that he couldn't possibly have survived...forgetting "action hero" tropes...but what I definitely noticed this time around that bolstered my pov, is that he's not all that strong--he's certainly no "super cop"--so why if he was created to hunt other replicants, wouldn't they have given him some physical advantage over them?

[caias.livejournal.com]

Deckard has a great advantage. His investigative skills are incredible, which are more the key to the job, I believe.

Physical advantages would more and more tip off that he is not human (if one wants to believe that he is a replicant). Thus, a marked physical advantage might be a 'tell' in his implanted memories of his non-human state, which would interfere with doing his job.

Just a thought to throw out there, of course. :)

I prefer to think of Deckard as human, since otherwise it cheapens Roy Batty's final absolution as he saves Deckard's life; a replicant showing human compassion, saving his own soul when his attempts to get forgiveness from others only lead to murder.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

I think his investigative skills are good but no more incredible than any other private eye or cop on a cop show ;-)

But yes, exactly, regarding Roy's saving Deckard's life. There would be no point to that scene.

[deborahb.livejournal.com]

I much prefer the thesis that Deckard is human (to hell with the unicorn!).

Do you think Deckard himself has any idea, at the end, whether he's human or not? To my mind the ending hinges on his not knowing. Not sure we, the audience, can ever really know either.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

I agree completely!!

I don't think he does--how would he after all?--but I'm also not convinced it's something he thinks about too deeply, do you?

[deborahb.livejournal.com]

I think he decided to not think about it. I think he decided to pursue happiness -- in an almost desperate way -- while he has the time. However long that is.

Although, I could just be projecting... ;)

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

I agree with you.
Did you see the old one where the voiceover explained that Rachel, being a new model was not built to die after four years? I know that voiceover's not there any more but I still believe that --in my heart of hearts (yes, I'm a romantic--what can I say?) The weird thing is that that last scene in the first cut--where they're on a machine flying away --was sooo unnecessary--you know they're going to get away once Olmos walks away and they go into the elevator.

[deborahb.livejournal.com]

I don't think I've been able to keep all the versions straight in my head. But I do remember that hokey flying away scene. Gah! And the bit about Rachel having an extended lifespan does sound slightly familiar.

Will definitely have to check out the new(est) one.

[nick-kaufmann.livejournal.com]

I never got how the unicorn dream was supposed to mean Deckard is a replicant. To me, he's always been a human caught up in the system, and the movie is about Deckard learning he might be wrong to do what he does. Like you, I think trying to make him a replicant too makes no sense.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Ok then, just for those people who believe the unicorn dream/origami placed by the cop on the floor indicated that Deckard is a replicant...what do YOU think the use of the unicorn in those scene mean? ;-)

[nick-kaufmann.livejournal.com]

Personally, I have no idea. I always thought it was jarringly out of place, as if he'd stuck in an outtake from "Legend".

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

I've heard that Ford hated the idea that Deckard was meant to be a replicant (wouldn't have taken the part, possibly?) and so they told him that he wasn't (even though he was) to get the performance out of him.

No idea if it's true, of course. Just have read, etc.

I can't get my head around any reading of the film that doesn't have him as a replicant.

[livia-llewellyn.livejournal.com]

I thought the unicorn was meant to show Deckard that Olmos' character knew he was taking Rachel away, but that he was not going to pursue him - or at the least, that he was giving him a head start. I never thought of it as being "proof" that Deckard is a replicant, only proof that Olmos was choosing not to act according to the rules, just as Batty choses not to kill Deckard, and Deckard choses to leave with Rachel. To me, the unicorn = free will. Scott may insist that it means something else, but any good artist should know that once you release your work into the world, people have the right (free will!) to reinterpret it however they chose.

[sunpony.livejournal.com]

Hoorah for free will! For awhile I tried to go with the Decker = replicant notion, but it just never added up. The undertones of struggling for freedom and Batty's absolution depend, to me, on Decker being human, but QUESTIONING whether or not he might be a replicant. He is disconnected from his humanity and trying to survive, and that task becomes a much larger struggle for repossession of his soul. Decker is trying to find out if he really is a being with free will, struggling violently with conformity and purpose while looking for the clues that reaffirm his humanity. His love for Rachel, his emotional response to Batty's sacrifice, etc., all add up to that reaffirmation and acts as a springboard for him to launch his bid for freedom.

The unicorn scene really DOES look like a tacked-on outtake from Legend :-). I think that scene can still work with my thesis, however.

[sclerotic-rings.livejournal.com]

Remember when George Lucas rereleased the whole Star Wars series up to that point a decade ago, and John Waters put out a 25th anniversary rerelease of Pink Flamingos just to mess with the Cat Piss Men? Seeing as how we're now in the fourth (fifth? sixth?) rerelease of the "director's cut" of Blade Runner, when are we going to get a revised director's cut of Brazil?

(Of course, I have no right to talk about Blade Runner, seeing as how I'm responsible for the original cut and the subsequent collapse of the timeline (http://web.archive.org/web/20010717233745/http://www.hpoo.com/columns/hells/news46.html). And where did the last quarter-century go?)

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

I think I agree with you...the magic/freedom of a unicorn...

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Yes yes yes.. Also, even from the beginning he's started to burn out "retiring" replicants--He looks like he's affected by his killing the four in the movie (even though two of three were trying to kill him.

[wolfsilveroak.livejournal.com]

Oh that's a given}:P