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What's New in Blade Runner - The Final Cut?
tripper700 writes "25 years since its original release, a definitive version of Ridley Scott's science fiction masterwork Blade Runner, Blade Runner: The Final Cut, has been released. So what exactly has changed? And is it worth all the fuss? SFFMedia describes each change in detail. Is it just a patch up job attempting to cash in on a cult film? Or like an oil painter retouching a masterpiece, or a novelist polishing prose, is Ridley Scott simply trying to perfect his original vision?"
When "Tron - Final Cut" is released, it's gonna smash every box office record for the next 10 years. Just you wait.
512 MB RAM, 20 GB disk, 200 GB transfer, five datacenters. $19.95/month.
The original version isn't always kept available. The original ending of Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove is available only on an old laserdisc; no subsequent DVD issue had it. The only version of Star Wars available on DVD is the Special Edition. Now, you are right that the changes are few, but they are infuriating. Lucas claimed that in adding digital special effects he was only making the film closer to his 1970s dreams, that's fine. But having Greedo shoot first was a significant change to Han Solo's characterization, and really it seems that Lucas was looking more to direct marketing of the film towards a gullible child market than preserve a solid artistic vision.
The box set released in a few weeks will contain five versions of the movie.
Workprint version - pre-release test screening version
US original cinematic version
International original cinematic version
Directors cut - 1992 version - approved by Scott, but he was not directly involved
Final cut - Scott had complete control over this version
There are some great articles around that detail the whole Blade Runner saga--definitely worth looking up. In short, due to the original production being over-budget, ownership of the movie went to the underwriters, who decided to add in the voiceover and happy ending after the movie tested poorly. This was a rush job, and both Ford and Scott were against the changes. When the first Director's Cut came out, they reverted some of the stuff back, but again, it was a rush job, so Scott didn't get an opportunity to really go back over it the way he wanted to (apparently he wasn't even really involved in this). There was supposed to be a big 20th anniversary release, but there were still legal wranglings over ownership. Finally, for the 25th anniversary, the ownership issues were sorted out, and Scott was given ample time to really sit down and polish the movie the way he wanted to originally. Since technology had advanced so much, they took the opportunity to clean up the effects a bit (using the original assets--no Special Edition crap here). The end result of all of this is the Final Cut.
This guy's the limit!
I can't tell whether the movie would hang together well without the voice overs because I can't get them out of my head.
IMHO, "I don't know why he saved my life. Maybe in those last moments he loved life more than he ever had before. Not just his life, anybody's life, my life. All he'd wanted were the same answers the rest of us want. Where did I come from? Where am I going? How long have I got? All I could do was sit there and watch him die." is the best line in just about any film ever.
This one line makes anything else in the film worth enduring (not that the film isn't good without the line) and is the crux of the entire film. I guess other people see it in other lights but it's hard for me not to see the entire film leading up to this one line. I just can not accept that this film is about anything outside of the questions that artificial life will dwell on in the future when we produce it. I think it's great that science fiction discusses these questions. All of the robot/alien junk is just crap in comparison to the hard questions that will arise from our journey from natural human beings into a synthetic society where anything goes. With the stem cell debate being what it is we are kinda starting to ask these questions today in a round about way.
Still, see the film for what it is but it's still fantastic that all of the crap about cops and killing skin jobs and the Tyrell corporation comes down to one beautifully made point about our inevitable future. These questions are neat to address in fiction but warns us of the moral puzzles we will have to solve in the future.
I'm left wondering everytime after the movie; what will we decide and who will we answer to when the question becomes more than hypothetical.
That's science fiction to me. Again, just my humble opinion.
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
"Meesa seen things, yousa wouldn believe!"
You're using her as bait, Master!
Arrrgh where were you when Roy Batty uttered his last words as his biological clock killed him right before that in the same scene? Were you in the theater bathroom taking a piss?
OK granted "C-beams" and the Tannhauser Gate whatever that is sounds like total bullshit but that was way better than the graceless and forgettable voiceover from Harrison Ford that followed.
All that proves is that Deckard is a god damned idiot. The reason he saved him was so that he'd REMEMBER HIM. So that he'd remember that there was a man named Roy Baty, who was as much a man as he was, regardless of his origins. By saving him, he guaranteed that he will never be forgotten in Deckard's eyes, and that, in and of itself is as close to immortality as anyone can truly get: to be remembered. Also, Roy's line before his death was far better imo.
And yeah, as was mentioned, Scott and Ford hated the voiceover and intentionally bombed it in the hopes that the studio would leave it out. They didn't.
That being said, I've seen the Final Cut. I live in NYC and had the wonderful opportunity to see it in theaters, and I'll be honest, it's the best, by far. The storyline flows much better than any of the other versions, it's visually spectacular (though a bit overdone with the flare effect on the Spinners), and overall it's so much more watchable and doesn't feel as if it's dragging on as much as the other versions.
I took my girlfriend to see it for the first time, and she freaked out and loved it from the word go. To be honest, I was happy she saw that version first, as she didn't have aspects of it ruined by poor production, or bad editing. So if you've never seen Blade Runner, go see the Final Cut and pretend the others never existed.
I would offer this argument: Lucas is a student of various American and World film genres, in this case I spotlight the American Western. If you've watched lots of Westerns as I have, you come to see certain concepts of morality in the old west codified and mythologized. One of those concepts is justice by the gun, self-made justice because the law is not available to protect you. Whoever "draws" first in a Western matters a great deal. Most of the heroes in Westerns had to follow a code whereby they waited until the other fellow made a move, and then they drew quicker and shot straighter. People who drew first without warning, without making it clear they were challenging you were considered killers and were subject to posse justice or retribution. Many characters plead "he drew first" as a socially accepted alibi. The fact that Han deceitfully plans the removal of his gun from his holster, misdirects Greedo and fires first in cold blood IMO was a very specific coded message from Lucas: Han was very much an anti-hero, redeemed only when he came flying with a star at his back (classic combat tactic) and saved Luke's bacon. If you remove the meaning of that scene with Greedo, you eliminate the arc of the character, there is no character development which IMO reduces the beauty and significance of the artist's vision.
And just to add on to your frigging genius comment (me without mod points... grr!), keep in mind that when Han flies in with the star at his back he's also the classic western character of the stealing, smuggling, black-hatted bandit who has always been the self-directed, rootless loner, yet has now found himself in the center of something far out of his control. The local authority has given him a badge which now legitimizes his previously criminal actions, and at the last second he decides to do the right thing, which erases his previous life and gives him a second shot in life as a reluctant hero with a checkered past.