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‘Blade Runner’ at 40

esquire.com

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Re: ‘Blade Runner’ at 40

#111

Post by divs1210 »

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 disagree.

Blade Runner seems to age like wine, and becomes more poignant with each re-watch.

It has a good pace, amazing visuals, asks tough questions, has some really good action sequences, etc.

Of course, everyone is looking for different things in movies and the experience is highly subjective.

Blade Runner will always be one of my favorites - right there with Contact, They Live, Jurassic Park, and other top-notch SciFi films.

Re: ‘Blade Runner’ at 40

#113

Post by lmm »

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #25
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…

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?

Ex Machina is absolutely up there IMO.

Re: ‘Blade Runner’ at 40

#114

Post by mhh__ »

bowsamic wrote: post #72

No one has captured cyberpunk so perfectly since. It is the ultimate visual and auditory expression of it. The sequel is also excellent

2049 choosing to include Joi elevates it a little beyond the original in that regard for me.

Replicants are more of a question about dehumanization whereas a true AI (with the projection to help the audience along) is much trickier. There's no flesh to hold and yet it seems to feel

Re: ‘Blade Runner’ at 40

#116

Post by mattmanser »

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_…

From the wiki page:

The visual style of the movie is influenced by the work of futurist Italian architect Antonio Sant'Elia.[51] Scott hired Syd Mead as his concept artist; like Scott, he was influenced by Métal Hurlant

So, err, no. Métal Hurlant was 1974, cyberpunk itself started in the 1960s.

It's based on a book from 1968 after all. Judge Dredd first came out in 1977.

It didn't come up with the aesthetic, it popularized it.

Re: ‘Blade Runner’ at 40

#117

Post by jmyeet »

kennywinker wrote: post #73
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…

> It's a product of its time too. I'd put it in the 80s Cyberpunk bucket where the noir surroundings and mega corporations are a product of xenophobia, basically. This is a super interesting critique of basically everything cyberpunk, that I've only recently come across. I still don't totally buy the xenophobia angle, because to me it just came across as a projection of hyper-corporate/capitalist. Like it's an extrap…

To be clear, you shouldn't discount the movie because it's intertwined anti-Japense sentiment of the time. It's simply more context.

You cannot separate art from the time when it was created. It's why you see a lot of countercultural themes in 1960s movies, for example.

Re: ‘Blade Runner’ at 40

#118

Post by Retric »

CyanBird wrote: post #105
nico wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is also the failed attempt of Jodorowsky to make a Dune movie: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jodorowsky's_Dune https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_(novel)#Early_stalled_a... The documentary is pretty fascinating. Jodorowsky managed to put together a stellar team, among them H.R. Giger, Dalí and the script writer who would later write Alien.

Yeah, it is thanks to these two movies that modern scifi and its visual development side of things exists basically

They popularized these styles but they existed in other mediums.

What’s fascinating is looking at all the different styles Dune the dune book covers had over time to see how various mediums influenced things. https://www.biblio.com/dune-by-herbert-frank/work/3104

Re: ‘Blade Runner’ at 40

#119

Post by bryanrasmussen »

jmyeet wrote: post #106
bryanrasmussen wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tyrell is of Scandinavian origin, Eldon Tyrell was played by Joe Turkel, the name in Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep was the Rosen corporation. I figure it was more fear of Germanic people than Japanese.

The Philip K. Dick book dates from the 60s so it doesn't really fit into the 80s Japanese xenophobia zeitgeist.

yes, nor does the movie. Eldon Tyrell is not Japanese, Tyrell is not a Japanese or even an Asiatic sounding name, Rachel is not Japanese.

Yutani is a Japanese name, Weyland-Yutani sounds like the merger of an Occidental and Oriental firm.

I was not supporting the Japanese xenophobia zeitgeist idea vis-a-vis the names, I was indicating that the name itself (in Blade Runner) did not support it and indicating that from the source material of the book it was not supported.

Re: ‘Blade Runner’ at 40

#120

Post by justin66 »

deltaonefour wrote: post #43

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 sc…

Nothing against Andrew Niccol, who wrote and directed Gattaca, but the same film with the same actors, directed by Ridley Scott, is really something to contemplate.
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