Blade Runner ---- **** (out of 5) (1982)
Cast: Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, Edward James Olmos, M. Emmet Walsh
Director(s): Ridley Scott
Screenwriter(s): Hampton Fancher, David Peoples
Released on: June 25, 1982
Reviewed on: January 24, 2004
Rated: R - for violence, nudity, and profanity
The plot begins as BLADE RUNNER takes us into an awesome, futuristic world in the year 2019. The city is Los Angeles, and it is represented as a bleak, smoggy, overcrowded, and gloomy environment where cars can fly and giant ships constantly float through the city, projecting nonstop commercials and advertisements. In the early 21st century, we learn about a new breed of humans called Replicants that were genetically engineered to provide slave labor in Off-world colonies. After the Replicants rebelled, they were ordered illegal to own or create, and a new type of law enforcement official called a Blade Runner was born. These cops were hired to seek out any remaining Replicants on Earth that may have somehow escaped from the Off-world colonies and kill them immediately. When a small group of four Replicants escape from the colonies and slaughter 23 humans, a former Blade Runner named Rick Deckard must come out of retirement to eliminate the threat.
To start off, I must commend the fantastic work done on this film to give it a futuristic feel. The 2019 version of LA is technologically beautiful, yet abysmally lonely at the same time. This added a great deal more to the overall BLADE RUNNER experience for me.
The plot begs for it to be an action flick, but it turns out to be more of a romantic, philosophical detective story. Most classics aren't spawned from explosions or gunfire. They usually come from the film delivering a great message and not trying to be visually impressive escapade, but an artistic and thoughful one. The same goes for 2001: A Space Odyssey, which also proved to be an outstanding sci-fi adventure based on this same idea. However, for me as a movie-goer, BLADE RUNNER beats out 2001 because of a quicker pace. 2001 makes the list as one of the slowest films I've ever seen, even though it is awe-inspiring through and through.
BLADE RUNNER can be a dark, bizarre, and sometimes very grim story of a lonely man that finds love in one of the oddest places and experiences an internal conflict on whether to tell himself that Replicants are dangerous and he must kill them, or to admit the pain and misery they have gone through. I viewed the Director's Cut of BLADE RUNNER, so I was spared the violent Hollywood ending that I've read up on and left with a sad, yet fulfilling climax that provokes your inner thoughts about reality and mankind. This film is an epic within its genre and one that I consider to be a truly enjoyable piece of sci-fi art.
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