Solid Block of Ise

If you would say that I’m border-line obsessed with Blade Runner then you would be right on the money. I’ve had an ongoing love-affair with this movie for at least fourteen years.

I think it all started when I read the book by Philip K. Dick, “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” in my early teens. I had no idea that Blade Runner was based on this book, even less had I even seen said film. I’d seen some screenshots in magazines and was mildly intrigued by the visual aspect of the movie, but it pretty much stopped at that. I was too young as well to be able to fully comprehend the complex themes of the book, and at the time I felt most of Dick’s writing was rather weird and bizarre.

Hindsight being 20/20 I now know that I really wasn’t the target of the book. At thirteen you’re just too young to be interested in weighty philosophical subjects about humanity wrapped in amphetamine-fueled writing.

My first contact with Blade Runner was ironically it’s soundtrack. Written, produced and performed by the greek master Vangelis it hooked me immediately with it’s deep atmosphere. Intertwined was soundbites from the movie, and at this point I just knew I had to see the movie. I was now around sixteen or so, and I greedily devoured everything I could find on Blade Runner. Finally, I managed to see the original european theatrical cut. I’m a bit fuzzy as to how I saw it, but I think one of the TV-channels ran it. Yes, while that may sound cheezy this particular channel shows a lot of good movies, without commercials and in proper widescreen. They even did this back in the early nineties as well.

After that, my obsession snowballed rapidly and since then I’ve become something of a walking encyclopedia on Blade Runner. I wouldn’t say that I’m fanatical, and I don’t know every stupid bit of fact there is. But I do know a lot, and it’s easily one of my favorite films of all time. I’ve read the behind-the-scenes book by Paul M. Sammon (called Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner) and I’ve even bought the book - twice! I lost my original copy when I moved back from USA to Sweden, and a year ago I re-purchased it. It’s a bible of information regarding the production of Blade Runner. I recommend it to any fan of the movie.

To say that I was excited when I heard about the Final Cut of Blade Runner being produced would be a mild understatement. I’ve eagerly waited for it’s release for at least a year, and today I got it. Me being crazy I of course bought the Collectors Edition, with five (!) DVD’s including every other version of Blade Runner (especially the elusive Workprint) as well as documentaries and other tidbits. I was never a fan of the Directors Cut from 1992, it didn’t have quite the punch of the theatrical cut and even though I agree that a lot of the monologue is superfluous I really did like it included. Another thing I didn’t like with the Directors Cut was it’s DVD-transfer. It was one of the first DVD’s and as such is sub-par compared to… well, pretty much anything. The visuals are muddy and the audio is a horrible 2.0-mix. In fact, most every release of Blade Runner on video, DVD or even Laserdisc has been mistreated in one way or the other.

But the Final Cut promised to remedy all this, and I look forward to popping it in the DVD-player and firing up the receiver later tonight. Not only will it be an audio-visual experience for me, but I look forward to seeing if or what is different in the Final Cut. I think Blade Runner finally has come full-circle in a format that makes it’s qualities justice. When I get HD-gear I’ll probably repurchase the Final Cut in HD-version, but so far I’m not HD-ready yet.

None the less, I’m very excited right now!

A shot of the Collectors Edition:

License

This work is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 2.5 Sweden License.