only to swap it when I saw that beside it there was a 5 disc set !

But this set is also available in a numbered edition, in a copy of Harrison Ford's briefcase !

- but only in the US - SO unfair:-)  OK, so I'm a geeky fan as far as this film is concerned - if they have a 5 disc set for Fellini's 8 ½ I'll buy that too. I also bought the two disc set of Scorsese's introductions to American and Italian films (which I'd seen on UK TV when they first came out). And in the latter he reveals that 8.1/2 is one of HIS all-time favourite films too.

Blade Runner hadn't been very successful commercially in 1982, but in the 25 years since then it has become revered by many and there are various web sites dedicated to it. A young reviewer writes about yet another version of the film shown on a big screen, which she says it really needs to fully appreciate it's visual quality. Scott went to the Royal College of Art before becoming a director of TV commercials, an excellent training - he made about 2,500! And won a number of prizes before directing features, e.g. the first Alien, before making Blade Runner. When he was introduced to the art director for Blade Runner he said: "Bad luck for you"; Scott had been chosen for HIS eye, which encompassed all aspects of the design. He was frustrated that, due to US union rules, he couldn't be his own camera operator (as he was used to being making commercials in the UK). Though he had a talented cine-photographer, he story-boarded the film and set up a lot of the shots himself - many of which are little works of art in their own right.

NYFF Revew: Blade Runner: The Final Cut

By Katey Rich: 2007-09-30

I've never been a huge sci-fi fan, but still: never having seen Blade Runner is downright embarrassing. Aside from the fact that there have been about 50 different releases of the film in my lifetime (okay, two), it's one of those movies that gets referenced and revered so often, you may as well be talking about Citizen Kane [ which was one of the influences on Scott, as well as Metropolis and film noir. TW].

... Simply put, Blade Runner is something that really ought to be seen on the big screen. The coppery glints in the eyes of the replicants, the crowded streets of multi-culti 2019 L.A., the giant smiling billboards passed by flying cars-- none of it seems in proper perspective when you see it from the couch.

That immense difference is a testament to what Ridley Scott accomplished in making this film. At a time when the future on film was either in space (Star Wars) or a comedy (Back to the Future), Scott was brave enough to show a world not all that unlike our own, but with everything that makes it unlivable and nothing that makes it worthwhile. In the same way the noirs stripped the sheen off the late 1940's, a post-war boom era in which there were supposedly only bright things ahead, Scott's neo-noir gives us a future in which the things that are supposed to have made humanity better, somehow, made us less human.
...
What's great about the film, though, is it couldn't be made today-- in a time where comic book movies are all the rage and hyper-active nerds are taking over the cinema at last, a sci-fi movie with this concept could never be so slow, so meditative, so resolutely weird. A tiny walking Napoleon programmed by its maker to greet him at the door each night? A killer vixen robot who does cartwheels before she maims?

... The 5-disc DVD set will likely be worth it for diehard fans, containing four separate versions of the film that will make easier the kind of side-by-side contrasts I wish I could have accomplished here. What's important, though, is that the New York Film Festival wasn't just engaging in marketing synergy when it included this film; Blade Runner deserves another big-screen bow, even in the age of CGI special effects, because its accomplishments remain, in many ways, unmatched. Replicants may live only four years, but Blade Runner seems destined to live to 2019 and beyond.

Cinema Blend

The extended making-of documentary on disc 4 is fascinating, a master-class in film-making (one young director says he wore out his video version trying to understand how Scott had created this stunning film). One lesson is the incredible amount of determination you need to make the film they way YOU want it within the Hollywood system. But it also shows what a collective enterprise it is and that Scott was generally very lucky with his cast and crew, many of whom made their own quite significant contributions, e.g. Rutger Hauer's to the ending of the film.

The film's appeal is international and cross-generational (see the review above); at a restaurant with a group the other week I found that the young French guy opposite me was also a big fan of the film. Sadly science fiction doesn't seem to be too popular with women - his Brit wife hadn't been very impressed (but see the review above).

However this film is as far above the usual run of SF films as Philip K. Dick's books are above the average SF novel - the film is based (tenuously) - on his book: "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep". While the story differs greatly, when Dick saw some sequences showing the sets and special effects he was amazed that they'd seemed to have tapped into his brain because that was as he'd imagined it to be.

On the other hand DON'T buy "Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull story" - it's rubbish (OK SOME people seem to like it - see Guardian for viewer's responses - very divided):

Another film I am amazed that got made. A totally trite load of trash by a less than talented troupe of players the like of which I have not seen for a long time. Did nothing, said nothing, was nothing. British cinema generally is so much better than this. A case of a tried and tested player trying and testing us the audience to the point of total tedium.

The Guardian

 The best review (I think) is a marxist one, which quickly dismisses it and goes on to talk about the book:

World Socialist Web Site

OK, this is supposed to be a quick diary for a change - and I have more discs to watch :-) Oh, I nearly forgot, important themes in the film are: what we are doing to the environment and ourselves, and the power of big corporations ! :-)

Happy viewing - whatever you watch.

For more on the film see:

http://www.bladezone.com

http://www.brmovie.com

http://scribble.com/uwi/br