Blade Runner

the architecture
the music
the mythic subtext
the film noir atmosphere
etc.

discuss...

[ Edited by: susane on 2004-01-20 08:58 ]

i found for many years it was impossible to get the actual vangelis music to the movie. i finally found what i thought would be it but it was some cheezy orchestra. so i got the whole thing off nap$ter and listen to it at least once a week.

all you FCC TC'ers can track me down now ;P

Cool topic! One of the all time great flicks.

Many of the same arty folks and the art director's brother also worked on "The Hunger" and some scenes really share the feeling of Blade Runner.

I dig the gritty view of the future that recreated the noir zeitgeist, placing an old idiom in a setting that doesn't exist yet but we can grasp immediately. I also enjoyed both versions, narrated and non-narrated, but prefer the non in retrospect.

Rutger Howard's and Shawn Young's best performances, maybe old Harrison's best, too.

The contrasting spaces that characters inhabit is cool, too. It's neat how a character's space went so far in defining that character for the viewer - really well styled.

So, two snaps up!

I'll add more when I've had coffee and have really warmed to the subject, but here's some first thoughts:

• my favorite movie
• my desert island movie
• I have the VHS and the DVD, and the must-have book "Future Noir: the making of Blade Runner", as well as the Romanian bootleg complete soundtrack
• if I had more money, I'd be collecting BR memorabilia, but it ain't cheap
• I have done tribute art to BR (see my website for an example)

...in short, life without BR is unimaginable!

:)
em.

One more for laffs: I kicked myself off the premier BR forum (BladeZone) because I couldn't stand that there were some members (including the moderator) planning to create and publish a "Blade Runner Technical Manual" which would describe the workings of the Esper image-processing computer, Voight-Kampff emotional-response detecting device, and Spinner flying car.

It was bad enough that these Asperger's Syndrome sufferers were constantly writing in saying they had the perfect script for the sequel, but for a bunch of dorks to say they could write a "tech manual" for anything more complicated than a pencil sharpener, never mind something that has never existed except as a fiberglass movie prop, was just too much. Shades of Klingon Dictionaries! It bugs the piss out of me when people try to write themselves into a great work of art's history.

"Hi, I've got this great sequel painting for the Mona Lisa!"

That's how much I love Blade Runner - enough to want it protected from the depradations of hypernerds.

em

There was a lot of talk of a special edition DVD to replace the crummy one that is out now.

It turns out that some private individual (not a film studio) owns the rights to the film now, and he hates it (why he owns it if he hates it is beyond me) and won't allow the DVD to be released. Apparently it would contain both versions of the film, restoried, further cut scenes, and all the other geek jazz we've come to expect from SpEd DVDs... but this jag won't let it see the light of day.

Drag.

we should send leon after him.

Has anybody played the Blade Runner computer game that came out in 1997? The games not of the movie but a storyline that pararell to the action in the film.

When I saw the movie upon its release (I was in college in Austin), I turned to my roommate, and said, "I KNOW this girl," refering to the aMAZingly beautiful Sean Young.
"What else do you think you saw her in?"
"I don't know; I can't think of any movies. I just feel like I KNOW her!"

Jump ahead a couple of years to a party in Houston, where I run into this darling boy on whom I'd had the biggest (unrequited)crush when I went to Interlochen Arts Academy for a month-long program during high school (GREAT arms!). I'd spent a heavenly, frozen month there (it was January in northern Michigan!) - pure delight for an artsy girl like me then. Randall was a sophomore dance major there; I hung out with him and his senior girlfriend most, despite my doing more the singing/acting/art thing (jack-of-all-trades 'cept ballet). At the party, he excitedly asks me, "Did you hear about Sean (the old girlfriend)?!"
"No, what?"
"She's this big movie star now; she was in Stripes and Bladerunner, and there's a big spread on her in Vogue this month!!"

It didn't even click about the Bladerunner deja vu thing 'til I told my no-longer roommate about the chance meeting, until she reminded me, "You TOLD me you felt like you knew that robot girl!"

She really was a ball to hang out with. My fondest memory was cracking her up with my satire of a modern ballet, danced in the basement of our dorm.

No, we didn't keep up...although I DID get to finally go out with Randall!!

Very sad story about the asshole who owns the film rights; very happy one about Sean Young. There is (or was?) definitely a special edition DVD, let's see if I can find something...yep, still available thru Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/6305842442/qid=1073610881/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/002-5638193-3200808?v=glance&s=dvd#product-details , but doesn't sound like the one spoken of by tikibars as I don't believe it has the narrated version - that is still unavailable for purchase as far as I know.

Sean Young, what can ya say? The skinny is Harrison didn't like her, and that his shall we say forcefulness in the "love scene" was him getting his anger out at her. Feh, who knows, I thought they had great chemistry. They needed "too beautiful to be human", they found her. And great '40s noir look about her.

I miss the narrated version myself and wish I had it too. I used to (taped off TV), but wore it out.

:)
em.

Here ya go.

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.12/philip.html

Love the movie, BTW. Daryl Hannah was extremely weird.

Nice story pablus, I do believe that's a keeper. And yeah, she was weird, wasn't she? I think Scott has a knack for getting actors to be things they've never been before - Harrison Ford dark, Russell Crowe dignified, John Hurt...um, with his chest blown open...

:)
em.

There was an article in May in Entertainment Weekly about their top 50 cult films. For the big photo at the beginning of the article, they rounded up all these cult movie stars and had them sit in a theater together. There was Leatherface, sitting next to Stephen Root dressed as Milton from Office Space, and some others I don't remember. But they got Daryl Hannah and dressed her exactly as the replicant with the black paint across the eyes- she looked exactly the same more than 20 years on! it was spooky.

Good topic J.D.

I couldn't truly call myself 'Futura' girl without admitting this is one of my all time fav movies.

On the subject of top movies, WIRED magazine listed it as THE best sci-fi movie of all time. I still have the article.

em

On 2004-01-08 15:16, atomictonytiki wrote:
Has anybody played the Blade Runner computer game that came out in 1997? The games not of the movie but a storyline that pararell to the action in the film.

my lil brother gave me that game back in '98. i am not really a computer game player, but i messed around with it long enough to see how well they distilled the essence of the movie. the main downfall was that i suppose they had to pay royalties to actors to use their images and personas, so they replaced harrison ford's style with a laughably geeky character.

my joke to my brother was he was the guy who got beat up in "blade runner school."

Great movie. I've been inside teh Bradbury building, the building that the robot maker named Bradbury lived in. That building actually is called teh Bradbury building in real life, it's here in downtown LA. It looks much smaller in real life.

Here's an interesting story about that building. the guy who payed to build it hired an architect and also hired a guy whose job would just be to make the decoraitve iron stuff for the railings. The rail maker started kissing allot of ass until the money man fired the architect and had the rail maker do the entire building. Because of this the place is like a big slab on the ouside, very plain, but incredibley ornate on the inside. Even the elevator is made of decorative railing. The rail maker used the money that he made to put himself through school to learn how to properly design a building. After he came out of school he did two more buildings that were very bland and no one ever remembered. Once he learned the rules of architecture, he was bound by them and his work became limited. Well that story wasn't so much interesting as it was long and pointless.

[ Edited by: suicide_sam on 2004-01-09 14:19 ]

heart did a video in that building too.

not that any of us care about that either :)

too bad deckard didn't have heart to shoot at.

but hey s_s, thanks fer the story - i have been wanting to visit that building ever since i heard it was existing.

atari was in blade runner too |||

And I used to live down the street from Heart's drummer! See, it all comes full circle.

On 2004-01-09 14:22, Johnny Dollar wrote:
too bad deckard didn't have heart to shoot at.

That would be tres cool, if Ann and Nancy Wilson could replace Daryl Hannah and Joanna Cassidy. Maybe in the game? Like in Quake where you have "mods". Ker-blooey!

em

On 2004-01-08 18:20, emspace wrote:
There is (or was?) definitely a special edition DVD, let's see if I can find something...yep, still available thru Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/6305842442/qid=1073610881/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/002-5638193-3200808?v=glance&s=dvd#product-details

This is a collector's set thingy with special packaging and some other extaneous junk to get you to buy it, but the actual movie, the actual DVD disc is identical to the crummy one you can buy in the normal package. No video restoration, no audio clean up, no multiple versions of the film, no additional special features.

Glad I bought the regular edition - cost me $18. To get all the dope, interviews, etc. better stick with the book "Future Noir".

thanx,
em.

I may have to close this thread down for excessive nerdiness, haha!

It's true, I am a nerd! what are the most important things to me after my family? Computers, music, and Blade Runner.

Oh, and that Tiki thing too.

:), em.

the future is NOW...

http://www.irobotnow.com/en_us/index.php

fear...

j$

Now that IS damn intresting..."positronic brain" being a term borrowed from Star Trek: TNG. I am of the opinion this is bogus. There are no photos, only some truly swell-looking 3D renders. Can draw energy from the sun and water? A terabyte of memory? I like a good-looking website as much as the next guy, but time will tell if these guys are shitting us or not.

emski

erm, emspace, that's the teaser site for the "I, robot" movie. It's alledgedly based upon the book by Iassic Asimov. But then again, it has Will Smith in it. Buzz on the movie is that it's a ok action flick, as long as you aren't misled by the title and expect "I, robot".

Now get out of my comic book store!

Heh, thanx Philot, I knew it smelled funny. There isn't even room in the skinny frickin' thing for a terabyte of memory, never mind a "positronic brain", whatever-the-hell that might be...my gullible!

:), em

Wellllll...I admire that flic tooo, (or why would I quote from it in the BOT) Here are some related trivia:

When I moved to Hollywood in 1982, I first moved in with Mark Mothersbaugh from Devo (I knew his German girlfriend) and through him I met Spazz Attack, who appeared in Devo's videos and was THE Punk extra at the time. He became my roomate, and that year appeared in a downtown street scene in Bladerunner, one can see his superspiked hairdo in that well published still of Harrison Ford jumping on a Taxi roof. I lost track of Spazz when he moved to Japan.

The following year I went to school at AFI and Jordan Cronenweth was our guest cinematography teacher, showing us how through miss-communication the interior lighting of the Nexus Corp. exec suite did not match Doug Trumbull's exterior mood...

From my Hollywood Hills room I had a great view over the Hollywood cityscape and at night I swear all you needed were the occasional gas flames shooting up, (because sometimes the blimp would be there), and you had BLADERUNNER...

And then I found the Bradbury building (what a namesake irony), yes, and right across from it the Million Dollar Building, where Trish emerged from the trash...

And much later, at Rocket Video on La Brea, I was brousing through the isles, wearing my long German raincoat, and found myself next to Ruttger Hauer. He looked me up and down, and remarked "Nice coat!", ...and left. Wow!

All those moments, frozen in time...

On 2004-02-05 20:55, bigbrotiki wrote:
Wellllll...I admire that flic tooo, (or why would I quote from it in the BOT) Here are some related trivia:

When I moved to Hollywood in 1982, I first moved in with Mark Mothersbaugh from Devo (I knew his German girlfriend) and through him I met Spazz Attack, who appeared in Devo's videos and was THE Punk extra at the time. He became my roomate, and that year appeared in a downtown street scene in Bladerunner, one can see his superspiked hairdo in that well published still of Harrison Ford jumping on a Taxi roof. I lost track of Spazz when he moved to Japan.

The following year I went to school at AFI and Jordan Cronenweth was our guest cinematography teacher, showing us how through miss-communication the interior lighting of the Nexus Corp. exec suite did not match Doug Trumbull's exterior mood...

From my Hollywood Hills room I had a great view over the Hollywood cityscape and at night I swear all you needed were the occasional gas flames shooting up, (because sometimes the blimp would be there), and you had BLADERUNNER...

And then I found the Bradbury building (what a namesake irony), yes, and right across from it the Million Dollar Building, where Trish emerged from the trash...

And much later, at Rocket Video on La Brea, I was brousing through the isles, wearing my long German raincoat, and found myself next to Ruttger Hauer. He looked me up and down, and remarked "Nice coat!", ...and left. Wow!

All those moments, frozen in time...

Sven, I loved your BoT quote, and your story is fantastic. You have warmed the heart of an old BR head. To quote Bong, "I think we could hang..."

aloha,
emspace.

I, too, am a big fan of BR. I had the luck to be on the WB backlot shortly after they wrapped filming and got to walk down that city street from the film. Not very spectacular in the daylight and half torn down, but it was thrilling to see the level of detail on the set. I'm a huge fan of Syd Mead's and it was cool to get to see all the little details he designed into the set, like the parking meters. Wish I could've taken one home! Of course, the film hadn't come out yet so we had no idea of it's cultural impact. Now, if somebody has a copy of the ultra-pricey Blade Runner Sketchbook they'd like to send me, just say the word!

Going on a tangent, has anyone seen the BR writer's next flick, "Blood of Heroes" starring Rutger Hauer and Joan Chen? It's a post apocalyptic movie about a team who play a viscous sport's attempt to make the bigtime. An honest flick. I think it played in theaters for a weekend, but I don't remember much advertising for it. Still, a good movie.

Syd Mead is like a god in our house. I think my wife actually has more books on Mead than I have on Tiki (and that's quite a few)

http://www.sydmead.com

-Z

I'm a big TRON fan, which Mead worked on, and he did some work on the TRON 2.0 video game which is eating a lot of my spare time right now.

Syd is also a really nice guy. A couple years ago I called the order number on his website and Syd answered the phone himself. We chatted about what he was working on and our alma mater (Art Center). I asked if he would sign the book I was purchasing. Inside the front cover it says "To Richard: The future IS fabulous!"

And it is.

Ok... I just have to comment on Sven's comment... Sven AND Mark Mothersbaugh being roommates? That's sort of like Elvis and Bigfoot being roommates! I'd have loved to be a fly on the wall in that household.

Based on this thread, I actually rented BR last week - it's one of those werid movies I hadn't seen previously in my 26 years. Right up there with Star Wars - none of which I have ever watched either. I've actually never had KFC either... come to think of it...

Anyway - I liked it! I can see how the DVD would be the way to go - the VHS I rented was so murky I could hardly see anything beyond the flames from the blast furnaces! Love the Joan Crawford-esque costumes on Sean Young.

On 2004-02-05 20:55, bigbrotiki wrote:
I was brousing through the isles... and found myself next to Ruttger Hauer.

Hmmm, It's interesting you never see BigBro and Ruttger Hauer together in photogrpahs...

[i]On 2004-02-10 16:46, Frenchy Polynesia Love the Joan Crawford-esque costumes on Sean Young.

That was in the middle of that early 1980's renaissance of 1940s looks (no, the swing revival of the mid 90s wasn't the first one! :) ). For more, check out Catherin Deneuve in The Hunger. Mrowwwrrr....
..and old Daniel Torres comics about Rocco Vargas.
...and Olivia Newtron Bomb in Xanadu! Oh no!

re: Rutger and Sven: LOL, Atomic!

On 2004-02-10 23:10, Atomic Cocktail wrote:

Hmmm, It's interesting you never see BigBro and Ruttger Hauer together in photographs...
"And you, my Sven, have shown very brightly indeed."

(AC, I too am LOL!!)

Ohhhhhhh Tikibars... The genius of Xanadu - that's another thread ENTIRELY!

Nothing like a god that sends muses to earth to inspire ELO and roller disco - my kinda god!