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DVD Review: Blade Runner: The Final Cut |
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Available December 18, 2007 Starring Harrison Ford, Sean Young and Rutger Hauer Directed by Ridley Scott Written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples Retail Price: $20.97 ISBN: B000UD0ESA
Review by John C. Snider © 2007
No feature film has an easy birth, but there are few that have had as troubled a birth as director Ridley Scott's Blade Runner. Despite its inauspicious beginning (it was an expensive box-office flop, and critics savaged the theatrical cut for being slow and difficult to understand) the film's reputation has gradually risen, and now, a quarter of a century later, it is considered one of the greatest genre films of all time.
Inspired by the Philip K. Dick story Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Blade Runner is the story of Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), a jaded cop in 2019 Los Angeles assigned to find and destroy a handful of rogue "replicants" (genetically engineered human slaves possessing high intelligence, enhanced strength, but only five-year lifespans).
The leader of the replicants is Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer), a violent and desperate man with the soul of a poet. Roy is determined to meet face-to-face with Tyrell (Joe Turkell), the ultra-wealthy bioengineer whose corporation designs and manufactures replicants, and demand that he and his fellows be modified so they can have more life.
Tyrell himself complicates Deckard's job by introducing him to Rachael (Sean Young), a replicant so advanced she doesn't even know she's a replicant.
The new "Final Cut" being released on December 18th is not the first time Scott has tweaked his cult classic. His "Director's Cut", which goes back to 1992, dropped the controversial film-noir-ish voiceovers, deleted the sylvan happy ending, and inserted other scenes originally left out of the theatrical release (most notably a daydream sequence involving a white unicorn). While the theatrical version has its fans (among them Mexican auteur Guillermo del Toro of Hellboy and Pan's Labyrinth fame), the consensus among both critics and fans is that the Director's Cut is the superior product.
But Scott, a notorious perfectionist, still was not satisfied. The new Final Cut offers further refinements, and has been digitally remastered so it both looks and sounds better than ever before.
What's so special about the Final Cut itself? Ironically, not a whole lot. Scott has trimmed a scene here, extended a scene there, but only the hardest of hardcore aficionados (or those who might have watched the Director's Cut very recently) will spot the editorial differences. The most impressive upgrade involved Scott bringing back Joanna Cassidy 25 years later to reshoot the death scene of her character, the replicant Zhora (the original version included a stunt double with a really bad wig).
Unlike George Lucas's clunky Star Wars Special Editions, Scott's Blade Runner: The Final Cut is a welcome improvement, one that respects both the artistic integrity of the film and helps preserve what is now an undeniable classic.
The Two-Disc Special Edition of The Final Cut includes Dangerous Days, an extremely thorough three-and-a-quarter hour making-of document, and three filmmaker commentaries (including one by Ridley Scott). Fans looking for a comprehensive rush should go for the Five-Disc Ultimate Collector's Edition, which includes every version of the film and several nifty gewgaws stored in a silvery "Deckard briefcase". Christmas is coming, after all.
Blade Runner: The Final Cut is available at Amazon.com.
Links Blade Runner: The Final Cut Official Website Blade Runner (Ten Movies that Changed Science Fiction) [May 2001]
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