Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.

I used to tell friends that if you wanted to see what the future looked like you should watch "Blade Runner". That was back during the Clinton Darkness and I don't think I'm quite so pessimistic these days. Even after all the years since 1982 "Blade Runner" still packs a visual and emotional punch. The look of this movie set a standard for probably dozens of subsequent films and introduced the mass public to the vocabulary used by "cyber-punk" writers such as WIlliam Gibson. "Blader Runner" was a ground breaker every bit as much as "2001".

"Blade Runner" is based in a book by old-school Sci/Fi author Phillip K. Dick, "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" Set in 2019 AD in a permanently dark, usually rainy, Los Angles, "Blade Runner" is the story of Deckard, a police officer who specializes in tracking and "retiring" rogue replicants (they call them "Blade Runners"). "Replicants" are genetically engineered artificial humans, like Bishop in "Aliens" (except more formidable and viscous). They're dangerous and they're not allowed on Earth. Deckard is played by Harrison Ford, who's "Star Wars" youthfulness was already beginning to desert him. Deckard is not so thrilled with his job and drinks a lot but he's still the best at what he does. He's drafted back into service to track down a group of four "skin jobs" who have hijacked a ship and are trying to get to their creator. Eldon Tyrell, head of the Tyrell Corporation is the genetic genius who invented the replicants they're "More Human Than Human." Just one teeny problem, to limit their dangerousness they have a built-in self-destruct system. Four years of life and.... that's it.

The band of replicants is led by Roy Batty, Rutger Hauer before his career sank into self-parody. Others are the dim-witted Leon (Brion James), Zhora (Joanna Cassidy), an alumna of an off-world "kick-murder squad", and Pris ("standard pleasure model") played by Daryl Hannah in her immediate post-Splash" days. Tyrell's mysterious "companion" is played by Sean Young, remember her?, back when she was a big deal before the "Catwoman" melt-down? Edward James Olmos in a bizarre turn as a rival blade runner, Gaff, rounds out the members of the cast you've probably heard of.

"Blade Runner" was directed by Ridlely Scott who had previously helmed "Alien" (The first one...) Scott's movies whether good or not-so-hot will be possessed of a remarkable atmosphere and visual style. This is true here in spades. "Blade Runner" imagines a dark, rainy, corporate, neon-lit, Japanese dominated future. Imagine Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" as written by a collaboration between William Gibson and Mickey Spilane.

The version reviewed here is a "director's cut" of "Blade Runner. Normally "director's cuts" aren't about too much. Often they're just compilations of scenes that were cut from the theater edition of the film for good reason and re-inserted in DVD releases for sales reasons rather than any valid artistic reason, Scott as much as admits this in his introduction to the "expanded cut" from the Aliens DVD box set. The situation is very different here. The original cut had extra sequences and a voice-over track explaining some of the action. The additional footage, the most egregious of which was a "happy ending" sequence pasted on to the end are gone from this cut as is the voice-over. I have heard that Scott and Dick were unhappy with these studio-inspired changes and that Dick threatened to pull his name. At any rate the changes, which make the movie shorter and it's tone darker are generally welcome.

The outstanding performances here are by Hauer and by Young. Ford is adequate but a bit on the mumbling and world-weary side. Daryl Hannah is kind of daft and punkie-poo as the "pleasure model" Pris. Considering his other roles, Olmos's performance in this role is bizarre and rather funny. Rutger Hauer does an excellent job making the murderous soldier-android Roy at once violently menacing and oddly childlike. This is shown best in the ending chase sequence where, after having failed to get the extra life he has sought, he explains to Deckard, as he looms over him like some kind of vengeful titan about how all of the memories of the marvelous things he's seen and done must soon vanish into time "like tears in the rain". His fellow renegade, Leon, reminds me of a knuckle-dragger at my old job. Sean Yong plays the mysterious Racheal like a beautiful yet brittle China doll who hides her fragility behind a 40s/50s style tough-broad facade. The remainder of the characters: scientists, hustlers and hucksters, etc, are suitably odd in appearance and action to blend in with the movie's look.

As you would expect from a movie based on the work of Philip K. Dick "Blade Runner" concerns itself with issues of consciousness and memory. If anything here can be expected to stir-fry your brain, this stuff is it. The title was changed from the original book of course, Dick rather went in for cutsie-poo titles, did you know the original title of the Schwartzenegger flick "Total Recall" was "We Can Remember it for You Wholesale?" The title itself is cribbed, with attribution, from another dystopic science fiction movie penned by William S. Burroughs.

Some of the effects in this movie were done by old-schooler Douglas Trumbull who worked on "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" and "2001". The model effects are still quite well drawn even with the passing of more than two decades. Most of the SFX work consists of cityscapes of future-LA. There's no zap-zap laser fights or anything. The production design and costume work are also delightful. Fifteen years from now, it seems that everyone who can has fled off-world so LA has a kind of grand old town swirling down the pot look. The costume work makes the characters look familiar but at the same time just a notch or two "off". Generally all the technical work is without peer. The score by prog.-rocker Vangelis, is spot-on as well.

The only serious complaint I have is the skimpy DVD extras and, once again, that cheesy dual-sided DVD format which I sincerely loathe.

If you're a Sci-Fi cinema fan and you haven't seen "Blade Runner" yet there is a serious hole in your education.

Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 9 - 12