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Blade Runner at 25, Why the F/X Still Matter

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the beware-the-thighs-that-crush dept.

mattnyc99 writes "Today marks the 25th anniversary of the release of Blade Runner, Ridley Scott's dark vision of the future that changed the future of filmmaking and still stands up today, argues Adam Savage of The MythBusters (and the F/X crews of The Matrix and Star Wars). Between the "lived-in science fiction," pre-CGI master models, futuristic cityscapes and tricked-out cars, don't you agree? And after we got the first official glimpse of him from Indiana Jones 4 this weekend, isn't Harrison Ford still the man?"

7 of 454 comments (clear)

  1. didn't know what a steier .222 looked like, found by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    http://props.steinschneider.com/blade_runner/bldru nbl.htm

  2. Re:Special edition DVD? by edawstwin · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.php?id=36328

    "Blade Runner: Final Cut will arrive in 2007 for a limited 25th-anniversary theatrical run, followed by a special-edition DVD with the three previous versions offered as alternate viewing."

    --
    I don't want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it by not dying. - Woody Allen
  3. Re:Special edition DVD? by Qhue · · Score: 3, Informative

    There is a trailer for it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fAm7qOY7Vg it was aired on the American Film Institute's top 100 movies special last week (where Blade Runner was added to the list as well) Apparently they are considering a re-release in theaters as a way to help recoup the costs of the reshooting they did earlier this year.

  4. Re:But Is Deckard A Replicant? Or Not? by way2slo · · Score: 4, Informative

    Many moons ago.... Scott gave us the answer and we posted it here:
    http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/07/09/205821 7

  5. Re:i love blade runner by elrous0 · · Score: 3, Informative
    Batty's assertion of his own humanity at the end is still one of my favorite science fiction scenes of all time. It's so subtle and simple, yet so powerful. Rarely do you see so much meaning condensed into just a few lines (and kudos to the great Rutger Hauer for his performance).

    There is a lot of good "grown-up" science fiction in movies out there for those willing to look for it. I would add movies like "12 Monkeys" and "Primer" (rare serious looks at the ramifications of time travel) as personal favorites, as well as (of course) "2001: A Space Odyssey," one of the few science fiction films to treat alien/human (or is it God/human?) contact in any serious way. "Gattaca" was also good, but a bit heavy-handed for my tastes. A lot of people hated "The Fountain," but I thought it was an interesting meditation on human mortality.

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
  6. Less than 12 parsecs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    This was expained in one of the Han Solo Trilogy books, about a young Solo working his way up the Hutt Syndicate.
    The Kessel Run is close to the Maw, a collection of black holes, that is between Kessel, a prison/spice production planet, and Nar Shadda, the smugglers moon orbiting the Hutt homeworld. Because of the gravitational pull of the Maw, smuggler ships that pass between Kessel and Nar Shadda have to skirt around the black holes to avoid the event horizons (even if it would take infinitely long to fall in). Faster ships can run closer, shortening their time and distance.

  7. Re:I want the voice over by Shrubbman · · Score: 4, Informative

    It appears to be included but to me the voice over was key to the movie, it let us in his head. I couldn't agree more. I couldn't DIS-agree more. While I certainly like the idea of having the voiceovers, the actual execution I personally find to be the most grating piece of voiceover work in the history of cinema. It just grates on me to no end whenever I hear Ford droning on in that bored humdrum monotone. Neither Ford or Ridley Scott wanted the voiceover to begin with, the studio forced their hands to put it in (some say Ford tried his absolute worst when recording it to try to force them to leave it out), and it IS NOT in the "Final Cut" version. Both the US and International theatrical cuts will be in the special edition box set, so yes you will get your voiceover in the special edition box set, just don't get you're hopes up for it being in the new "Final Cut" version that'll be in theaters this year.