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‘Blade Runner’ at 40

esquire.com

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Re: ‘Blade Runner’ at 40

#41

Post by shaftoe444 »

aresant wrote: post #23

The visual language Bladerunner invented has virtually defined SciFi for the past 40 years. If you enjoy it's worth digging into the work Syd Mead - the film's concept artist - created: https://www.flickr.com/photos/x-ray_delta_one/5642443624/in/... https://www.flickr.com/photos/x-ray_delta_one/5642443252/in/... https://www.flickr.com/photos/x-ray_delta_one/5641873923/in/... https://www.flickr.com/photos/x-ray_delta_…

These links are excellent and I hadn't heard of Syd Mead despite being a long time fan of this film. Thank you for posting.

Re: ‘Blade Runner’ at 40

#42

Post by mrandish »

jmyeet wrote: post #9

I am one of the 11 people on Earth that hates coffee. "Hate" isn't strong enough. Even "despises" I'm not sure goes far enough. It tastes disgusting to me. I can't even stand the smell. This has led me at times to wonder if I'm crazy or if everyone else is. I do notice a ton of people consume a ton of sugar in their coffee so it seems like many don't really like coffee. They like sugar. But I digresss. I have the sam…

I first saw BR in a theater the month it originally came out. It's hard to appreciate from today's perspective just how revolutionary it was. The film itself, especially the original cut, is flawed due to the studio making last minute edits which the director, cast and writers were against. Yet, it is still the one science fiction film that has been more visually influential than any other. It changed everything that came after it.

> I'd put it in the 80s Cyberpunk bucket

BR largely created that bucket.

Re: ‘Blade Runner’ at 40

#43

Post by deltaonefour »

Blade runner isn't even that good, thematically. But I get why it's considered the best.

It's because in most sci-fi movies a lot of effort is spent on the setting and thus the story while many times is good, often lacks the depth of their non-fiction counter-parts.

Bladerunner is one of the few movies that has blockbuster level visuals while maintaining a very serious story with a lot of depth. Gattaca is another sci-fi movie that achieves this as well, though the visuals in Gattaca aren't blockbuster level.

Re: ‘Blade Runner’ at 40

#44

Post by ur-whale »

AdamJacobMuller wrote: post #31
2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it still holds up. Very few films are as bold and original today. Everything is CGI focus group contrived garbage now. What good recent scifi comes close? Dune? Bladerunner 2049?

Maybe Dune, but, Dune is an unfinished sentence.

> Maybe Dune

I don't think Dune, the 2022 version will make it to the heights Blade Runner is at.

There are some scenes that give you Blade Runner level shivers (e.g. the Sardaukar assembly on Salusa Secundus), but they're few and far between.

And if you meant the original Dune ... nah, it certainly hasn't aged as well as BR.

Re: ‘Blade Runner’ at 40

#45

Post by muro »

willhinsa wrote: post #32
AdamJacobMuller wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Calling it the "greatest of all time" seems like a total exaggeration I was thinking this at first but I've struggled with a suggestion of a better, and critically more impactful/influential, movie in the genere.

2001: A Space Odyssey

The "ages" jumping weirdness just ruined it, IMHO. Beautiful middle part, though.

Re: ‘Blade Runner’ at 40

#46

Post by ajmurmann »

jmyeet wrote: post #9

I am one of the 11 people on Earth that hates coffee. "Hate" isn't strong enough. Even "despises" I'm not sure goes far enough. It tastes disgusting to me. I can't even stand the smell. This has led me at times to wonder if I'm crazy or if everyone else is. I do notice a ton of people consume a ton of sugar in their coffee so it seems like many don't really like coffee. They like sugar. But I digresss. I have the sam…

The xenophobia angle is really interesting to me. Despite being born after the movies release I always loved it. But I am also a huge japanophile and am unusual in the regard that I badly want cities as they are in Blade Runner and other Cyberpunk fantasies and was thus blind to the xenophobia, since I see the intended negative as desirable.

Re: ‘Blade Runner’ at 40

#47

Post by AdamJacobMuller »

fb03 wrote: post #18
HorizonXP wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have to ask then, what films do you like better than Interstellar?

I was also baffled by the "interstellar is trash" line. Maybe I watched it wrong.

I didn't love Interstellar the first time I saw it.

When I watched Inception for the first time I walked out of the theatre in love with that movie (and I still am), but, leaving Interstellar I felt confused and underwhelmed.

Perversely I think I was actually very overwhelmed by Interstellar because after seeing it many times in the almost a decade since it came out (oh my god how has it been 10 years) it's become one of my favorite films, but, there is just so much going on that it was difficult to connect with it on the first viewing.

Re: ‘Blade Runner’ at 40

#48

Post by melling »

duxup wrote: post #19

I hated that movie the first to I saw it. I was bored with it. Now I love it. I really enjoy how much time they spend establishing the atmosphere and characters. It all feels very real and has depth. I loath the speedy sci fi that tries to touch on atmosphere and then hurries along with their paper characters and so on. So much sci fi I encounter now feels little more than a long trailer with no idea how to end.

Yeah, I don’t recalling loving it either. Perhaps as a kid, it wasn’t upbeat enough for me.

In 1982, 2019 sure looked exciting though. Androids, flying cars, …

I hope kids today have a much more interesting future 40 years from now.

Re: ‘Blade Runner’ at 40

#49

Post by JeanMarcS »

Agentlien wrote: post #30
duxup wrote: post #19

I hated that movie the first to I saw it. I was bored with it. Now I love it. I really enjoy how much time they spend establishing the atmosphere and characters. It all feels very real and has depth. I loath the speedy sci fi that tries to touch on atmosphere and then hurries along with their paper characters and so on. So much sci fi I encounter now feels little more than a long trailer with no idea how to end.

I'm the other way around. I loved the atmosphere and the slow pace when I first saw it. But ever since I read the book I can't enjoy it the same way. I feel it just doesn't do it justice.

I'm another way around: I read the book then watch the movie not long after. I slept.

And everytime I try to watch it I get bored quick.

I think I would have much more apreciate it, the atmosphere et all, if I hadn't read the book before. And I realy regret it because I know it's a good movie.

Re: ‘Blade Runner’ at 40

#50

Post by phkahler »

modeless wrote: post #3

I had a professor in college who was obsessed with Blade Runner and had us watch it in class. I just didn't get it. I mean I love sci-fi, but Blade Runner was just OK. Maybe in the context of its time it was great, pioneering, all that stuff. But in the context of now, or even back when I was in college (closer to the release of Blade Runner than present day, yikes), it didn't seem that special to me. I guess now tha…

>> now that I have kids I'll soon be on the other side trying to convince them that the old stuff I like is cool and special

Nope. Kids today have access to everything under the sun. The classics still resonate with them. My kid loves Queen and Zepplin. Enjoyed the hell out of "They Live", the Matrix and many other classic movies. Not so much John Carpenters "the Thing" which even I found a bit slow these days.

A lot of this was discovered without my introduction too. Music in particular.

Share the movies without explanation. Classics are universal.

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