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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."
Yay for Blade Runner! The plot may be a bit iffy, but the style is awexome.
My entire adult life, every few years there are expanded cuts, director cuts, ultimate cuts, supercuts, etc. of this particular movie. I'm waiting for the best boy & gaffer cut after this one.
Gaff knew who the replicants were, and he marked Deckard as such. I don't see the need for having somebody come out and say it...
Have you been touched by his noodly appendage?
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...
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
I'm just sayin'.
ah.clem
"Life is not magic." Dr. Ron Weiss - "If we don't play God, who will?" Dr. James Watson
Does Rachael shoot first in this one?
torrent plz
Silly wabbit, DVDs weren't invented yet, it was VHS.
Just wondering.
'Once scientists, even the dim-witted social scientists, get muzzled, the Western Civilization is finished.' - oldhack
Now I can stop calling girls Rachel in bed and instead dry hump my HDTV...this will save me tons of money on hookers that look like Sean Young.
How many cuts are there going to be released? Okay, so we get another 2 minutes of unseen footage? Oh, we *finally* know Deckard is an android? Please, make us buy another overpriced DVD with promised new scenes and remastered video. I'll go ahead and add this one to the other 2 copies that are sitting on my shelf.
"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."
Yeah, I know, I'm old. Do you guys even know what a drive-in is?
;-)
Yes, its a parking lot equipped with a large movie screen and speakers at each parking space. People either (a) drink lots of booze with their buddies or (b) get laid in the privacy of their car with fogged up windows. Either way people do not remember the movie.
I much prefer the original narrated version. The Director's Cut release a couple of years back just removed the narrative and reversed the order of 2 scenes - and was worse for it. As for Ripley Scott changing his story about Deckard being a replicant - he's full of it. Rutger Howard's character would have figured this out. Him leaving Deckard alive at the end of the movie would be pointless if Deckard were a replicant.
but movie trailers are not one of them. I'd like to see this trailer in quicktime, perhaps even HD. It's unfair to subject the brilliant cinematography to the muted color gamut and harsh artifacts of youtube.
Admittedly, the paper unicorn is not present in the original cut, nor the unicorn dream. Nonetheless, subsequent releases made it quite clear that Deckard is in fact a lesbian. Why are we still debating this?
-konstant
Yes! We are all individuals! I'm not!
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.
I had read the authorized sequels to 'Do Androids dream of electric sheep': Blade Runner 2: The Edge of Human, and Blade Runner 3: Replicant Night by K. W. Jeter they paint a very interesting tangent to the movie and much closer to the story. It seems the movie may be following that plot line.
Sorry about the writing. Robot fingers, you know? Cliff Steele in DOOM PATROL #23
I just thank god I had the common sense to go see Alien at a drive-in.
:-), but I did see 2001 in a theatre after seeing it many times on a TV screen. I loved the movie, but on the big screen the greater details makes it obvious that some backgrounds are painted, messing with my suspension of disbelief. The african savannah scenes stuck out and my attention was drawn to implementing special effects and away from the story.
Seeing old movies in the theatre sometimes diminishes them. I'm not referring to Alien, its not old - I was a teenager at the time
If Deckard doesn't have a goat, a penfield mood organ and a close relationship with Mercer, then I don't wanna know.
What if Tetris was invented by Nazis?
You can see the brush strokes on the sun!
What if Tetris was invented by Nazis?
The best of this movie is Vangelis.
Minti: What's that huge shuriken in your back?! Kin: It's the instrument of my victory.
Roy said fucker, not father.
Oh, and Han shot first.
Power to the Peaceful
Too bad Deckard as a replicant invalidates one of the greatest moral points of the movie.
Everything clever I considered putting here I got from other slashdot sigs.
How many times is this dead horse going to flogged ? it cruel. Read the book, and dont buy this 'final director cut'
I waiting for the holodeck version thats way way better.
...and perhaps they could slap on a cheesy voiceover explaining that, if you'd read the book, you'd realise that the VK test questions were founded in the ficticious religion of Mercerism and had precious little to do with psychology...
In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
Deckard as a replicant with implanted memories is a crude, movie-friendly way of getting over one point of the book..
... in which Deckard isn't a replicant (probably - but he meets other unwitting replicants) but discovers that pretty much everything he knows and values is artificial (his religion, his favorite DJ, his pet animals...) so what is the difference?
Besides, the main evidence for the "inhumanity" of the replicants is their inability to participate in the bogus empathic communion of the fatalistic Mercerist "religion" which has been invented to keep the earthbound dregs of humanity content (the VK test is clearly inspired by Mercerism).
In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
They will keep going until we stop buying. it was a great film, on several levels
To bad they didn't do the sequel back then like was planned ( if they do one now, it will be ruined )
Personally im holding out for the uber directors cut.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
I saw _Star Wars_ (the first time it got rereleased...) in a cinema, and had only ever seen it on television before. There's a film that works really well on the big screen. That first scene where the Star Destroyer flies over is mindblowing --- it's just so big...
These days, unfortunately, I don't go to the cinema much; too expensive, too many commercials, too annoying. I just wait and buy the DVD budget release instead. It's usually cheaper than a cinema ticket would be.
How many Star Wars versions do you own?
Deleted
Saw it at the Ziegfeld in NYC. It looks and sounds incredible. Changes are quite minor, no Lucasing here. The best part was the remastered picture and audio. If you are a fan, you'll love it. If you are a nitpicking wiener, you'll hate everything, so stay at home and register your complaints on a message board.
Escape Pod Films: Sketch Comedy and Web Series
Maybe you find it boring, but it is FAR from pointless. That's why people still love it after all this time. Personally I love it because Ridley Scott puts so much detail on the screen, always giving you something interesting to look at while simultaneously giving you time to think about what's going on in the movie. It's not all slam-bang action. This is the kind of movie that's only boring if you try to watch it passively. Put some effort into watching it and it's far more rewarding.
"Slow down, Cowboy! It has been 3 years, 7 months and 26 days since you last successfully posted a comment."
I read the parent post...and I have to say, it was one of the most boring posts of all time. I'm sure when it came out it was , ooo look at the commentary and opinion..but seriously..this post dragged and dragged..and my friends and I had this theme of reading "classic posts". The week previous we had read the first beowulf cliche joke..this has hands down got to be one of the worst posts of all time..it is long, it is pointless and it is very very boring does anyone even care about the post? i doubt it
i emailed my local theatre chain asking about blade runner. they responded that they had no clue about a theatre re-release. turns out that it is only being screened in new york and LA.
so, the theatrical release note is quite a bit misleading.
The Digital Bytes has a page clarifying the details about exactly what is contained in each of the various sets that are being releasing.
The good news is the original version is finally available on DVD.
The bad news is that it is only available as part of a collectors edition.
The good news is that the 4-disc set is fairly reasonably priced at $35.
Commentary track on Repo Man DVD is teh awesome. You finally find out what was in the can of "Generic Food."
And I have seen BR:FC (at The Landmark theatre in West LA...4K projection for the win!) and it is unbelievably cool. It is tighter and flows better than the so-called "Director's Cut" which was basically put together based on notes from Ridley Scott, jotted down hastily on the set of Thelma and Louise. This time Scott and his longtime DVD producer Charles de Lauzirika actually were hands-on throughout the entire process, from start to finish. This has been 8 years in the making. They shot new footage of the lovely and talented Joanna Cassidy for face replacement during the death scene, which originally was an obvious stunt double. BTW she looks 99% like she did 25 years ago...I saw her at Comic-Con in person and she's amazing.
Unlike George Lucas' periodic childhood rapings, this is The Final Cut. Accept no substitutes.
For all your BR fannish needs, go to http://www.bladezone.com/. Beats the official website all to heck and back.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
This was an artistic decision on the part of Ridley Scott. He felt the line was more in keeping with the religious awe of the scene. Both lines were separate takes shot during the filming. I am still partial to "fucker" (it sounds more like Roy Batty's righteous indignation at being born a slave and deliberately given a four-year lifespan) but it makes sense.
If you have problems with the change, take it up with Ridley Scott. And four out of five versions you get in the super-bitchen set have the original line, so buy the big box and have it your way.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
Bladerunner ages remarkably well, especially considering movies from the same area. What disturbed me most last time I saw it, were the CRT screens. If only that was remastered, and the story set forward some 10 years or so, it would be hard to identify it as a movie from 1982.
I was hoping you'd list other films you hate so I could beef up my Netflix queue. I'm sure I'm not the only slashdotter who loves both flicks
this is the last time. now they start merging it with other movies to release as a set. expect "Sling Blade Runner, Special Robot People Edition" and "The Blade Kite Runner, Oppressive Android Regime Edition" in the spring
Gosh, thank you for that! I don't think I ever would have understood all of this without your insight. So .... okay, there once was a man named deckard, who's wife, not by him was peckered. He said with a grin, Pearl Harbor again! And his life is now sullied and checkered... no wait. How does Afghanistan fit into this again?
Karma: Bad is the liberal way of saying this guy won't drink the kool aid here on slash dot. I wear my Karma with pride
Blade Runner was one of the worst mastered DVDs out there. For anybody who saw it in the theatre, especially the limited run 35mm print from around 2000, it's apparent that Blade Runner is one of the most beautiful films ever shot. The DVD was too dark and grainy, non-anamorphic and the sound plain sucked ass. It's probably the film that will get me to buy Blu-ray.
(1) you get to copy stuff, right?
(2) the CAD used to be worth less and it's too much effort to change the printing presses in the US
and, the real reason,
(3) because they can!
Isn't government protected capitalism wonderful!
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
wrong fucktard! I'll take your nerd card, Deckard had an electric sheep, but he bought a real goat. Get further than the first page before you try to get smug on someone next time fucker. PWNED.
What if Tetris was invented by Nazis?
Well, duh. There was never any reason to re-edit "Apocalypse Now." The changes just made the plot wander all over the place even more than it already did. Go back and watch the real, original cut.
Breakfast served all day!
This is actually a diabolical marketing scheme for Blu-Ray. The Blu-Ray version of the movie uses branching to offer "Blade Runner" the way YOU like it. Push a button on your remote and Deckard is a replicant. Or, make him a human. In a hidden Easter egg, Sean Young runs away with the unicorn.
Breakfast served all day!
If you get the idea that I am perhaps insinuating that you're stupid, that's because I am.
If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
Lousy maple-sucking puck-slappers, coming here taking all the good jobs...
If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
Actually, replacing Harrison Ford with some toast would probably improve the acting in most of his movies.
Please stop stalking me, bro.
I'll go buy this one, simply because I want the theatrical release on DVD. I'll watch the new cut, but I doubt I'm going to like it. Making Deckard a replicant simply places too many holes in the story to work around. Plus it ruins the "moral basis" for the story.
And finally, here's the really hard point to work around, at least in my mind. And that's the fact that Harrison Ford has stated in a number of interviews that when the movie was being made, Ridley Scott assured him that Deckard was in fact human.
I think Ridley's changing his mind now simply to milk that ol' cow even more.
I want a new quote. One that won't spill. One that don't cost too much. Or come in a pill.
I can't believe they edited this version to make it so the Replicas always fired first... Is nothing sacred?!
Long one of my favorite movies, but I was very small when it was in the cinema. Being able to see it in that environment was well worth the price of admission, as no home video system can quite compare. Plus, I have to admit, being in an auditorium packed with people who loved the film was a great experience: no talking, no crying babies, no cell phones, just total admiration for the film. Dead silence except for a cheer at the beginning and at the end.
News for Geeks in Austin, TX
Up next! The super-duper, mega, final-FINAL-THISTIMEWEPROMISEITSTHELASTONE, all-of-the-footage-of-the-actors-in-their-trailers-between-scenes-included, do you really think those suckers will buy the same movie one more time?, edition. In a gorgeous, leather bound, sweatshop made, tin box with little tiny replicas-ants? of the characters inside.
Oh, and a map of middle-earth, because damn, we've got to do something with all of these things!
To boldly use to and too two times and get it right too! They're not gonna believe their eyes when they see it there!
I preferred the narrative too. I thought it lent a sort of gumshoe quality to the mood at the start. I feel you're a little confused though "about a great many things" to quote a bad guy from another galaxy. "Ripley" (Ellen) was a character in another movie - also by *Ridley* Scott. Rutger *Hauer* played the android Roy Batty. In the final scenes on the roof top, Batty came to realise he values *all* life, not just his own artificially short one. It makes perfect sense for him to save Deckard's life, replicant or not.
Not only was Deckard a replicant in the Philip K. Dick story the movie is based on, another bladerunner comes looking for Deckard. In the original release, the audience is left to wonder if Deckard may have been a replicant. In the 1991 cut, the decision is made for us by the inclusion of the unicorn "dream sequence" - which also clears up why Gaff leaves the paper unicorn for Deckard to find at the end - which implies he knew Deckard was a replicant, and had seen his dreams (or maybe even provided them). When I saw the dream sequence in the director's cut on DVD, I thought I'd sat on the TV remote and switched to a TV channel - it was badly integrated. The plot in the film is simplistic compared to the plot of "Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?", but works really well.
I'm looking forward to getting a new copy of this - the current DVD is a really bad print - it doesn't even fill the frame in some scenes. I just hope Holden doesn't shoot first.....
You should also read "Dispatches" by Michael Herr if you want to understand Apocalypse Now. The movie is a blend of the two books.
You can have my SIG when you pry it from my cold, dead hands.
Or A.I. for that matter, I'll bet. Tell me, did you think the creatures at the end of A.I. were aliens too? Before it was excusable if you didn't get a movie, these days there are forums and reviews all over the Internet that can clear that sort of thing up for you BEFORE you post!
"...Well, there's egg and bacon; egg sausage and bacon; egg and spam; egg bacon and spam; egg bacon sausage and spam..."
Fight Club - the commentary track with the author, Chuck Palahniuk, is the most amazing I've ever listened to. You learn SOOOO much about the story that you didn't know -- like the fact that the author knew people who would pee in soup, or the whole apartment-explosion thing was based on a real story. (His friends had linoleum on their kitchen floor and were using gasoline to peel it up. Fridge clicked on, BOOOM sent everyone out into the back yard.) Highly recommended. Mallrats - the track with Kevin Smith and crew. Jason Lee, Jason Mews, Ben Afleck, Scott Mosher. It's seriously laugh-out-loud funny the WHOLE way through. This page has the commentary available for streaming, apparently. Give 'er a listen. :)
Actually, all of the Kevin Smith stuff is awesome that way.
I got the idea that SirSmiley is too stupid to be able to insinuate that.
Apocolypse Now Redux boring? Wow.
I, for one, can't wait for Blade Runner, The Final Cut.
Don't underestimate the power of The Source
What impressed me was how well most of the "low-tech" (e.g., not CGI) special effects held up. I know they did a little cleanup for this release, but, by and large, the models / matt-paintings / fog still make for a very impressive show.
It was also interesting to see all of the actors basically at the peaks of their careers. Most of them subsequently demonstrated that their acting ranges were pretty narrow, but Scott got pretty dead-on performances out of all of them.
The film really is the best of Hollywood dystopian science fiction noir police dramas involving implanted memories.
Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachtani?
www.fogbound.net
...fucker.
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
You know everyone has an opinion. My opinion is that I like the original version, not the directors cut, the second directors version, the laser disk version, the version without the narration, the version released only in Nambia, the version released to the airlines, the tv version or any of that. Does that make me an idiot because my opinion differs from your self described superior opinion? Calling people illiterate or otherwise belittling their opinions to prove how smart you are or how superior you believe your own opinion to be is just sad. It's a movie, buy the super deluxe version and pull it off your shelf every once in a while and lecture your cat about how your opinion is better than anyone else's opinion. I'm sure the cat will be impressed.
Enjoy your Karma, after all you earned it. Feel your Karma Joe, feel it burn.
at my new project MovieLandmarks.com (yes, we need more locations and contributors)
Remember Lexington Green!
The "classics" tend to be horrible books(with the possible exception of the Crucible, which was a play). I'm sorry, but Nathaniel Hawthorne's prose should be considered a deadly form of psychological warfare.
Please, for the good of Humanity, vote Obama.
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.
"Ain't no right way to do a wrong thing."
Thank you for that, even though I work with a bunch of really smart people not a one of them can carry on a conversation deeper than what's put out by hollywood these days. They have no idea what a thought experiment is, don't understand what a moral dilemma is or why movies such as Apocolype Now and Bladerunner are great movies. It really saddens me and makes me lose faith in my fellow countrymen.
"Some books contain the machinery required to create and sustain universes."-Tycho
I wonder if they'll clean up the pixelation?
[blade runner] is pointless
;)
All movies are pointless! Life is pointless!
I'm sorry, I just hate that particular criticism of anything. It's so... pointless
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. ....
Hmmnn... You bring up a very interesting notion. It's kinda like Computer software...
.
- aqk
F U
Computer software, yes. Your comment can be taken a couple of ways, by me. Neither of which might be as it was intended. But, I don't want to paint the world of software development with one brush. It is diverse, and all that. But I have seen a large number of apps that, after versioning iterations, shoot themselves in the foot, and forget to do that "one thing really well" that made them 'great' at one time. (This is pretty subjective, so I won't list my personal examples, but we all see this at some point, I think). Perhaps that what you meant?
Of course, on the other hand, some apps roll with the punches of the OS they operate with (I'm thinking of DiskWarrior, on the Mac) and actually do their one or two things better, and faster, almost in spite of the two steps forward, one step back, changing nature of their OS environment. I use Windows a lot also (and like it, go figure) but don't understand its evolution enough to draw similar examples, but I have faith they exist. It's the nature of the business, and the individuals need to tinker (which can really pay off, or really blow up), it seems.
"(1) you get to copy stuff, right?"
Apparently not, actually, considering the CRIA threats sent to demonoid.com recently (thus causing Demonoid to block all Canadian users so as to avoid the legal trouble of having the CRIA after them)... Hey, CRIA assclowns, did I mention I want my fucking CDR/DVDR "levies" back?
Look, nobody is forcing you to buy this. If you want the Director's Cut and no frills, buy the single disc release which has been available for a year for $10 or less. If the print has run out or you want more extras, buy the two-disc set, it's only about $15. If that's not enough, there's also a 4 disc set. For us movie freaks they are offering the 5 disc set.
The previous release had horrible image quality. This new release fixes that, and you aren't forced to buy the extras. What exactly is your problem here?
I'm sorry, but it appears you never read the "story". Its actually a novel called Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
And Deckard's humanity is central to the story. He can and does join with Mercerism, something no Android can do.
Sure, the question about his humanity is raised but it ends up more as a comparison. His deadened humanity vs. Roy's life-affirming artificiality.
Its better to support your arguments with facts rather than recycled hearsay.
I thought the point of the movie was that it didn't matter if Deckard was a replicant or not.
Is that a ding I hear? GET BACK IN THE MAGIC HOUSE!!!
Yeah, why can't things just go out of print, like they used to? That was much cooler.
Or 12" LaserDisc.
Until DVD, it was the highest-quality video you could have in the home.
Chip H.
Sounds like an advertisement for a award-winning avant-garde hairstylist
Yes I have read it although it was along time ago. Yes it is called "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" as I mentioned later in my post.
"recycled hearsay" hmm as I said, I read it some time ago so apologies if I mis-remembered some of it. I do seem to remember there being a very large question over Deckard's origins though. And didn't another cop from Russia come looking for Deckard? (perhaps for this reason). Maybe you're right - I shouldn't comment if I'm not sure. The curse of late night posting.
The commentary on the Spinal Tap DVD is absolutely worth it.
The original cast (the band) does the whole thing entirely in character, as if they were watching an old documentary of themselves. It is hilarious, and like having an entirely new Spinal Tap movie that is nearly as good as the original.
Best commentary track ever.
Well, yes - I agree there is a very large question about Deckard's humanity. It does start out as a doubt whether he's a replicant. But I think the question ends up - in the novel- as "Is Deckard's strained and weak humanity, better or worse than Roy Baty's manufactured humanity?" I'm pretty sure that the original film asks the question of Deckard's humanity but leaves us doubt - and room for thought. The second film seems to want to remove the doubt and the room it creates for thought.
I agree: the subjects of "what is life then exactly?" and quality versus quantity (of life) were central to the theme - Roy craved more, and Tyrell pointed out to him (in the film) that "the light that burns twice as bright, burns half as long, and you have burned so very brightly". I guess at this point, Batty figured that Tyrell had burned way too long, and in any case, was a smug git, and crushed his skull..
You are quite right about the re-cut, and I felt the way the doubt was removed was pretty crude too. If you've ever watched Star Trek IV and noticed the random stock footage of some humpback whales added at the end, this is how the dream sequence seemed to me - "and now some footage of a white horse we found on the cutting room floor of "Gay Cowboys Eat Beans III", which we've slowed down and drawn a unicorn's horn on". It's so out of whack with the style of the rest of the photography, there may as well have been a big flashing sign across that scene saying "remember this bit - it's an important clue"...
Annoyingly, I can't find my copy of the book - I'll have to go and buy another and read this again though.
Really? I saw a lovely restored 70mm print 2001 in, well, 2001. It was absolutely amazing, and a far superior experience to watching it at home on DVD for me. Some of the mattes were showing their age, sure, but the sheer screen-filling majesty of it was phenomenal.
"I Know You Are But What Am I?"
You sound like an elitist who thinks that people who don't read books are stupid. The truth is, intelligence comes in many forms, and it's not always literature. Plus, some people don't have the time to sit around all day reading books. Perhaps you should stop thinking that you are better than everybody else just because you read more books than they do -- at least that's the impression I'm getting here.
Heh. You left out "Sour Cream and Onion" and "Blade Runner 2007 Live Ultimate Edition w/ Halo 4 preview".
Computer software doesn't get added to, they just re-write it in .net so that it runs much much slower and looks like they've added something to it.
thank God the internet isn't a human right.