Blade Runner, The Final Cut

Bowman9991 writes "A new promotional website is up and trailers for Blade Runner: The Final Cut have been released. I've been waiting ages for this one. SFFMedia has some details about the Blade Runner Ultimate Collector's Edition on HD-DVD and Blu-ray with new footage. It's slated for a December 18th release. Apparently it's also being released in the cinemas again in the US."

Comments

Best movie news this year

[empaler]

Yay for Blade Runner! The plot may be a bit iffy, but the style is awexome.

I know I am probably in the minority

[Shivetya]

but I want the voice over.

If not something I can select then please include that version. For some reason I like the version of the film I saw first, the voice over to me put me in the mood. Very 50s like and that is what I best remember. I actually never liked subsequent releases simply because of that feature being missing. Yes I know the arguments against but we are irrational beings and well...

Re:I know I am probably in the minority

[ximenes]

This is included in some of the versions, but as you mention hasn't been on DVD before this. A far cry from someone who refuse to release the markedly superior initial versions of three films in a decent DVD format. Of course those movies in question have been forever tainted for me by the next two.

The story is that Blade Runner was repossessed by its creditors prior to release and changed, against the wills of various people who were involved in its making, in substantial ways for its theatrical release. Hence the Theatrical Version, which didn't do very well from a commercial standpoint -- possibly because its artistic vision was compromised.

Then there's the Director's Cut, which Scott has claimed does not really amount to such as he didn't have sufficient time to work on it.

Hence the interest in the Final Cut, which is claimed to be a real director's cut finally.

I'll withhold judgment until I see the Final Cut, but at this point it could be pretty good. If not, then the Director's Cut still exists and I'll try to forget that I ever saw the Final Cut. But there is the risk of the Final Cut ruining the movie in such a concrete way that I'll never watch the film again (see the director's cut of Donnie Darko).

Being against revisionism in cinematic works is one thing, but being against the restoration of a previously mangled work is another. Having said that, it's common for people to have an attachment with whatever version of a work they are originally introduced to. People tend to prefer the film version of a novel if they saw it first; they may prefer a remake over the original; etc. This is the peril of being introduced to derivative or inferior works before their superior counterparts, you have to actively discard what you saw first and it can be difficult.

For instance, if you saw Psycho (1998) before Psycho (1960) you may very well have ruined one of the best films ever made for yourself.

like tears in rain.

[Anonymous Coward]

"I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion, I watched C beams glitter near the Tan-Hauser gate."
"All these, memories will be lost; like tears in rain."
"Time to die."

Final?

[aldheorte]

So is this the final director's cut or the final ultimate collection or the final on HD-DVD or the final but we'll add some new useless commentary in the next edition final, no truly final cut? I jest, but the continual trotting out of new editions of old movies to get people to buy the same thing over and over again is a tad ridiculous. I can acknowledge that there might be a theater release and a director's cut for timing reasons, but once that's done, it's time to move on and create something new.

Also, does anyone else share the feeling that the extra commentaries and features on DVDs are pretty much completely worthless? I remember thinking that it was very nifty when I first got a DVD player, but after watching a few, I haven't watched any in years. The only ones of any value I have seen are sometimes animated shorts that go with animated films. If anything, special features generally detract from the enjoyment of a good movie as you struggle to reconcile how a group of such insipid and insincere people could have pulled it off.

Re:Final?

[Scrameustache]

Also, does anyone else share the feeling that the extra commentaries and features on DVDs are pretty much completely worthless? Some are worthless, some add value.
I highly recommend the commentary on Robocop, with the director, writer and producer. It's hilarious.
I also really appreciated Whedon's commentary on the last episode of Firefly (objects in space), but some of the commentary on the other eps were, well, pointless.
I was glad to see the "making of" of A Scanner Darkly, I was sure they had some kind of automated process doing most of their rotoscopy by algorithm, turns out they did it by hand, the maniacs.

Where the fuck is Deckards goat?

[Oktober Sunset]

If Deckard doesn't have a goat, a penfield mood organ and a close relationship with Mercer, then I don't wanna know.

Re:How many final cuts are there?

[Basehart]

I'm wondering whether it will even sync up with the original Vangelis soundtrack. They had some new music accompanying the trailer I saw on youtube. I'd bet that without Vangelis the film wouldn't have become the classic it has.

I finally buckled last year and bought the Gongo Records version of the soundtrack on Ebay and it was glorious to hear the original soundtrack although I do hope that Vangelis can one day release an "official" pristine remastered version from the master.

In the meantime there are a few versions to choose from here.

Re:Flash video has its uses

[netik]

There's nothing wrong with Flash Video. The upcoming flash release will have H.264 support for HD Video. It's just not out yet.

The best quality to bitrate ratio you're going to see right now is either DIVX or Quicktime H.264.

Re:How many final cuts are there?

[mattpalmer1086]

Sorry to reply to myself, but I just realised you had a much better point than I gave you credit for.

Since these replicants can plunge their hands into liquid nitrogen without harm, and apparently have an assortment of other enhanced physical capabilities, there must be some much easier tests than emotional response.

Re:am i the only one?

[Dun Malg]

The week previous we had watched apocolypse now redux..this has hands down got to be one of the worst movies of all time..it is long, it is pointless and it is very very boring My wife jokes about how no one in this town reads. You must be one of them. You know, people who, when you strike up a conversation and ask "do you read?", they say "yah, I read like, USA Today, and magazines and stuff". I'd bet you've never read any classics, like The Great Gatsby, or Heart of Darkness, unless you were forced to by your high school English teacher--- part of the 58% of americans who never read another book after graduating high school. Perhaps you might've gotten more out of Apocalypse Now if you had read Heart of Darkness, or at least had a more developed education and were capable of being intrigued by complex questions of morality. I suppose you were disappointed that it didn't have as much action as Rambo II, or The Kingdom. Clearly, you are the class of person they're aiming at when they green light another movie with Bernie Mac or Tim Allen. People like you are the reason Lost is going to irritate us with inane "didja see Lost last night?" chatter for 3 more fucking years while Firefly got the axe after only one. People like you are how Phillip-Morris, McDonalds, and Hummer dealerships stay in business.

If you get the idea that I am perhaps insinuating that you're stupid, that's because I am.

Re:am i the only one?

[callmetheraven]

Perhaps you might've gotten more out of Apocalypse Now if you had read Heart of Darkness,
You should also read "Dispatches" by Michael Herr if you want to understand Apocalypse Now. The movie is a blend of the two books.

Re:Damn the critics...

[Lord Flipper]

BUT THEN SHE WOULD TAKE IT OFF THE WALL AND KEEP ON ADDING TO IT.

You bring up a very interesting notion. One of the things that is very similar between artists and children is that they can walk away from something; It is done, or 'finished', whereas most of us keep refining, 'adding to', the older we get. My mother painted late in her life, also. I don't recall that she kept adding to her oils. But I did have a few lady friends who would occasionally show me their paintings that were nearly 3D what with the thickness of the layers of oil in places. It was rather astonishing. Or peculiar. Or maybe just a graphic example of 'A woman's work is never done.' Who knows?

Alan Nourse title

[brassman]

I read Blade Runner in Analog magazine, back in the 70s. The producers of the "Electric Sheep" movie could have had two great movies, but they only bought Alan Nourse's story because they wanted its title -- which they wasted. The title is integral to Nourse's story, which was about a guy making his way as a smuggler in a devastated society, one where surgical supplies were especially precious and hard to get... supplies such as scalpels.

No, I'm not joking. The story was called Blade Runner because the lead character actually smuggled blades, the way a gun runner "runs" guns or a rum runner "runs" rum.