Bladerunner

I suspect what I am about to write will upset a lot of people (well, a fair number of folk who read this blog anyhow). I recently watched Bladerunner - the director's cut - on DVD. I had hazy memories of watching it years ago, but clearly it failed to impress then as much as it failed to impress me today. Released in 1982, the movie is set in a futuristic dystopia only 9 years away from our present day and already looks dated(!). In the unlikely event that a reader doesn't know, Bladerunner is a sci-fi movie starring Harrison Ford as Rick Deckard, a bladerunner (sort of like a cop) tasked with 'retiring' - read: killing - 'replicants'. Replicants are human clones used in outer space to serve humanity, but whose abilities are starting to outstrip those of their creators and whose minds and bodies are in revolt over the fixed life span they are afforded.

Straight away it's clear there are loads of interesting ideas here, and they do convey well : moral ambiguity, identity and selfhood, social critique, the power of science (check out those Frankenstein references, bookish types). But for me, the themes were more interesting than the execution. Sure, the dated look can be forgiven - this is a curse which befalls all movies trying to conjour the future and indeed most of the cinematic output of the 1980s - but the script can't. My evidence? Take this: 'All those moments will be lost in time... like tears in rain... Time to die.' I'm laughing like Nelson from The Simpsons.

I'm sorry, I shouldn't mock. In spite of the obtrusive Vangelis score and eighties stylings, I did appreciate how Scott's direction evoked a feeling of paranoia and bleakness. Clearly no detail was left to chance, with impressive sets and a use of light and shade which recalls noir movies from Hollywood's Golden Age. I have also found myself asking the question 'Is Rick a replicant too?' so like it or not, something has worked on me - I'm a sucker for cinematic ambiguity. I wonder if someone other than Ford had been cast I would feel differently about the movie: I have always found him a rather bland screen presence, for all his generic good looks, and thought things got more interesting once Rutger Hauer and Daryl Hannah's replicants arrived on the scene looking like Aryan monsters on crack. Certainly the first half of the movie is very slow going and their screen presence is mesmirising when compared to shots of Ford looking, frankly, confused. But I'm finding it hard to write about this (overrated) cult classic without:

1. slating it completely and accusing the some of the setpieces of looking like something from the Spice Girls video 'Spice Up Your Life' (probably my issue, not Scotts. For all Bloom's talk of revisionary ratios I think Ridley has this one sewn up); or
2. trying to analyse it and sounding like a pretentious fool.

So, whilst I don't mind a bit of dystopian madness after work, I'm afraid I will have to give Bladerunner a big thumbs down. To be honest, I preferred Robin Hood.

Comments

[Lou]

You preferred Robin Hood?! Surely no one dislikes Harrison Ford that much..?