Cinema review
Directed by Ridley Scott
Starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, Edward James Olmos, M. Emmet Walsh, Daryl Hannah
Release date 23rd November 2007

LA, 2019. Reluctant ‘blade runner’ Rick Deckard (Ford) is pulled out of retirement to track down and kill a gang of escaped androids known as replicants…

Unlike the replicants of its story, Blade Runner is a movie that is forever being blessed with new life. No less than seven versions of the film are in existence (five of which are being released in a DVD package following its cinema run), and Scott oversaw this painstaking restoration that tactfully improves upon the 1992’s director’s cut (which Scott claims was rushed). Are we really to believe, though, that this will be the ‘final’ cut?

Thankfully, this is no George Lucas-style re-writing of history. The small tweaks here are barely noticeable unless you’re examining every microscopic detail, yet they subtly attend to the small flaws in the original.

And so, in the only piece of re-shot footage, it’s now Joanna Cassidy who crashes through panes of glass as Deckard gives chase rather than the blatantly obvious stunt double of the original. Deckard’s exchange with the snake dealer is no longer out of sync thanks to Ford’s son Ben lip-synching the dialogue and having his mouth digitally placed on top of his father’s. The mystery of the ‘sixth’ replicant is now resolved as Captain Bryant explains that “two” of the runaways were fried by the electrical field. These, and the other tiny alterations of the Final Cut, are true to the spirit of the original movie rather than just being about parading fancy new CG technology.

Perhaps more importantly for the viewer, the print has been digitally restored from the original negative. The result is that Blade Runner looks better than it’s ever done before – and this was never a movie that exactly slacked in the visual stakes. The film’s powerful vision of 2019 LA refuses to date, and its neon-lit fusion of Eastern and Western cultures is as breathtaking now as it was in 1982. Alongside Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (to which Blade Runner owes a large debt) and Akira (which owes a large debt to Blade Runner), the film presents one of the definite sci-fi cityscapes in cinema history.

Perhaps understandably, some critics at the time dismissed Blade Runner as an exercise in style over substance, of special effects over story. Yet however stunning the movie looks, it’s backed up by a real sense of sadness, fear and longing, heightened by Vangelis’s haunting synth-noir score and a collection of career-best performances.

As Deckard, Ford showed he could pull off a much darker hero than Han Solo’s loveable rogue. Deckard is essentially a professional hitman, but he’s someone who still shakes after ‘retiring’ a replicant and ultimately he’s prepared to risk everything for love. Watch carefully, though, and you’ll spot the odd Solo-esque moment creeping in - “I’ve had people hang up on me before…but not when I was being so charming…” Deckard deadpans after Rachael hangs up on him.

In fact, the film contains a surprising amount of wry humour that is at odds with the film’s reputation as a dour experience – just listen to Deckard’s nasally impersonation of a journalist as he gawks at Zhora undressing, or check out the quivering nose of one of Sebastian’s toys as Pris creeps about his apartment.

Many of Blade Runner’s characters are only on screen for a handful of scenes. But thanks to Hampton Fancher and David Peoples’ smart, quotable script (“Wake up. Time to die!”) and terrific performances from the likes of Daryl Hannah, Joanna Cassidy and Brion James, you can’t help but empathise with these broken characters, even when they do terrible things in their desperate quest for more life. Even Sean Young, as Rachael, has surprisingly little screen time, but she crackles with the sex appeal of a classic femme fatale, so that you never doubt her rather fast-moving love affair with Deckard for an instant.

It is Rutger Hauer as the replicant’s leader Roy Batty who gives the movie’s truly iconic performance though. In the Dutch actor’s hands Batty is simultaneously psychotic, charming, feral and, ultimately, tragic. “I’ve seen things you people you people wouldn’t believe…” Batty tells Deckard in the film's most memorable speech. As the credits close, you can’t help but echo Batty’s sense of wonder, however many times you’ve seen Blade Runner before. A masterpiece. Matt McAllister

VERDICT: 10/10
The contender for Best Science Fiction Film Ever Made now looks even better.