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(Another) Cut of Blade Runner

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the god-i-love-that-movie dept.

dereferenced writes "Director Ridley Scott is set, once again, to re-edit Blade Runner for the Special Edition DVD due for release later this year. He discusses his plans for the new version briefly in an interview in Empire Magazine, excerpts of which can be read here. It's getting so it's hard to count all the different versions of Blade Runner out there; We have the original theatrical release, the Home Video version originally released on VHS, the Director's Cut, and now the Special Edition DVD, to say nothing of the various LaserDiscs, and pre-release screenings. I can't wait for the next version where, in addition to being a replicant, we find that Deckard was actually the first female president of the United States."

2 of 304 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Ridley Scott by jeroenb · · Score: 5, Informative

    First of all, Blade Runner's importance is obvious from the influence it has had on other more recent major Sci-Fi movies. Think about The Fifth Element (the huge cityscape with flying cars, seen it in BR) and The Matrix (Gothic style buildings, lots of rain, style of clothing.)

    And he got it right the very first time, but the PHBs didn't like the unicorn dream that is so vital to the story (they thought it would be deemed "too artsy" by the general public), the open ending (it's supposed to end when they step into the elevator, not the ridiculous happy ending... I mean why would anybody live in cities like those when other places still exist and are within reasonable distance?) and they also forced him to put in the stupid voiceover, which just doesn't fit here.

    So then he did the Director's Cut, which fixes these issues but is still not perfect (especially the parts where they're messing with how many replicants they're looking for - this has to do with some original scenes where Deckard chases some other replicants, they were removed because of budget but in scenes shot earlier they're mentioned in the dialogue. Supposedly there were fixed retakes of those scenes but somehow they didn't make it into both the original and the Director's Cut...) So more PHB messing, this time involving budget :)

    The other versions of the movie were the broadcast version which removes some profanity, an international version which is more violent (more gore when Batty kills his creator for instance) and some workprint versions which were shown to test audiences' responses - which is probably why so much was changed before the movie made it to release.

    All in all I think Ridley Scott had a clear vision of how he wanted this movie to be straight from the start. So what if it took him a while to get it into a final product? Is Linux finished yet? :) (Besides, I don't mind seeing it in a theater again :))

  2. Re:Needed by AtaruMoroboshi · · Score: 5, Informative


    Actually, you've got that wrong.

    The Criterion Collection edition of Brazil has three discs:

    1. Terry Giliam's directors cut, which WAS the theatrical release!

    2. Disc of extras, including some great documentaries on the controversy surrounding Brazil.

    3. The studio's version, which ended up being sold to the TV markets!

    The Director's cut has commentary from Giliam, while the TV cut has commentary from a film critic, who discusses all the differences between the two cuts and how the film's meaning changes because of the different edits.

    Great set, it was the first thing I bought on dvd.

    .