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Cinema Junkie by Beth Accomando

Blade Runner: The Final Cut

Harrison Ford is back in Blade Runner: The Final Cut (Warner Brothers)

Ridley Scott's Blade Runner has been a hugely influential film even though it was something of a financial flop when initially released in theaters in 1982. Scott's dark, dank, claustrophobic vision of the future has informed much of the cinematic science fiction that followed and has colored Japanese anime from Akira and Ghost in the Shell on. But Blade Runner took a while to develop its devout cult following. Now director Scott serves up Blade Runner: The Final Cut (opening November 30 for a limited two-week engagement at Landmark's Ken Cinema), which, depending on how you count, is the fifth and he claims the last version of his seminal sci-fi film. The Final Cut will be available in a special edition DVD next month but the studio decided to give the cult favorite a theatrical release to build some buzz as the holiday shopping heats up. But I don't care if this is just some kind of promo gimmick for the DVD release, I'm thrilled to be able to see Blade Runner in all its splendor again on the big screen.

Eliel Lopez
December 07, 2007 at 04:03 AM
I've always liked this movie. I wonder what the Japanese woman on the electronic billboard is saying; does anyone out there know? Thanks -----

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Beth Accomando
December 07, 2007 at 07:44 AM
This according to IMDB: In the strange Japanese advertisement shown on the side of a blimp, in which a Geisha-like woman is swallowing a pill, the loud speakers play a line from a Japanese Noh play, saying "Iri Hi Katamuku," literally "the setting sun sinks down." I don't speak Japanese so I can't verify this. Hope that helps.

Elle
December 07, 2007 at 10:32 AM
In addition to the mega dvd collection, there's going to be a new version of the soundtrack: Vangelis Blade Runner soundtrack It features two CDs of previously unreleased music by Vangelis, including a full CD of tracks from the movie and another CD of new compositions by Vangelis.

theunrulyone
December 17, 2007 at 10:22 AM
I personally think the film makes it seem like Deckard is a replicant, but I like to view Blade Runner in light of the identity issues it raises. Questions like: What is it to be human? Or, what is it to exist? With that in mind, I like to think of Decakrd as a human who is struggling with his humanity. He kills machines and feels nothing for them, making him kind of a machine himself, but they are only robots so it is perfectly human of him to not care about the replicants. If Deckard is a replicant, though, there are some major incongruencies that need to be resolved. The first and foremost being: Why do the cops let him run around with a gun if he's a replicant? How could he have worked with them before?