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‘Blade Runner’ at 40

esquire.com

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Re: ‘Blade Runner’ at 40

#371

Post by retcon »

shadowofneptune wrote: post #202
kennywinker wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

> Weyland is a decidedly white name to go along with the Yutani part. British Leyland was a car company which broke up shortly after Alien came out. The implication in the W-Y name is pretty clear: A Japanese company bought out Leyland.

Whilst freak examples of effective period Japanese Anglo Saxon industrial cooperation have been known, [0] surely British Leyland is stretching too far. In fact BL's board did claim to Thatcher that they were going to build a new small family car with Honda about this time, but management only wanted more money to avoid hassle with the shop stewards.

[0] https://www.thisamericanlife.org/561/nummi-2015

Edited for clarity and language.

Re: ‘Blade Runner’ at 40

#372

Post by darkerside »

deltaonefour wrote: post #95
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.

There are three things that are important to the movie. - Pacing so you don't get bored. - Thematic depth - Atmosphere A lot of pretentious people like to ignore pacing as if their brains are made up of pure IQ and anything related excitement is beneath them. Make no mistake, we are all human and we all get bored. Pacing is important and it takes a lot of effort (and intelligence) for a director to maintain that leve…

I agree with some of this, including that there is value in a pacy story.

But there are some stories that simply take time to be told. And if you keep trying to hit plot points or make every moment superficially entertaining, you won't be able to tell certain types of stories.

Nowadays, when a movie is critically acclaimed and I am bored watching it, I actually get excited. What is it about this movie, that I'm bored by right now, has gotten so many people so excited??? This attitude has gotten me into many movies that I love that I don't think I would have had the patience for as a child or young adult.

The same attitude has led me to spend most of my reading time on classic literature, which has also been a blessing.

I'm sure this comes off as pretentious, but I assure you it is not.

"Pretentious- attempting to impress by affecting greater importance, talent, culture, etc., than is actually possessed."

I care about other people and want them to share in the beauty of the world. When the importance actually exists, it's not pretentious.

Re: ‘Blade Runner’ at 40

#373

Post by tomputer »

divs1210 wrote: post #111
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-not…

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

If I may add: the score produced by Vangelis.

Re: ‘Blade Runner’ at 40

#374

Post by Wildgoose »

CyanBird wrote: post #132
Retric wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

That's a good angle But that's the thing, jodos dune came as an aggregate of "non-movie" mediums, because jodorowsky was not a cinematographer by trade he was an avant garde theater person, giger, Dali, moebius, Foss, neither of them "were part" of the "movies" medium, they all and the rest of the crew were painters or writers or musicians, comic book artists, not cinematographers per se, in that sense what jodorowsk…

Star Wars.

No, seriously. Jodorowksy's concept was widely circulated in Hollywood but nobody would take the risk.

Enter George Lucas, just riffing on the original idea.

Re: ‘Blade Runner’ at 40

#375

Post by darkerside »

deltaonefour wrote: post #294
mos_basik wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He's referring to a painting. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Treachery_of_Images I'm not art critic enough to know even half of what's been written about the meaning of this painting, but I know that it's considered significant, and I immediately recognized the reference. Can't speak for him, but I guess the reason for including it may have been as an example of a work that was decidedly not Popular but (after m…

>He's referring to a painting. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Treachery_of_Images Most people don't know about this painting nor do most people know French... I'm sure you and him are aware of that. It could be that whatever the painting represents fits his point. But you have to look deeper then that because he is fully aware that most people on this site don't know about that painting nor do they know French.…

I've been following this thread, and you seem sincere and not trolling, so I will share with you that I think most people reading this thread can tell you are missing something big. It's OK not to understand everything, but to say you despise people who claim to understand something you don't us... actually despicable.

This site is for people to discuss and learn, and curiosity is basically a core value of it. It's OK to be young and immature if you are also curious.

BTW, if you share a Chinese saying that people can Google and be educated and delighted by, I think it would be welcomed. Even in Chinese.

Re: ‘Blade Runner’ at 40

#376

Post by NoGravitas »

sonofhans wrote: post #212
candiddevmike wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can anyone recommend some music that has the same vibe as Blade Runner's synth stuff?

The Hans Zimmer soundtrack to Blade Runner 2049 is quite good. It plays homage to the original, but is definitely its own creation.

My experience of Blade Runner 2049's music was that the only memorable bit was the explicit use of "Tears in Rain" from the original. Everything else seemed very generic and ephemeral.

Re: ‘Blade Runner’ at 40

#377

Post by EamonnMR »

tralarpa wrote: post #341
hodgesrm wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good quote. For me what distinguishes the film and makes it better than the original story is exactly the elevation of the replicants into fully sentient beings. Batty started out as a grifter in the original and became the center of the story in Ridley Scott's film.

I was surprised that the question of sentience and what it means to be a human was actually less pronounced in the original story than in the film. I would have expected something more challenging (if that's the right word) from Dick.

Maybe androids in Electric Sheep have almost a Capgras Delusion quality, especially in the scene in the fake police station. They seem human but they're lacking an essential emotional quality that makes them 'real.'

Re: ‘Blade Runner’ at 40

#378

Post by ethbr0 »

darkerside wrote: post #375
deltaonefour wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>He's referring to a painting. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Treachery_of_Images Most people don't know about this painting nor do most people know French... I'm sure you and him are aware of that. It could be that whatever the painting represents fits his point. But you have to look deeper then that because he is fully aware that most people on this site don't know about that painting nor do they know French.…

I've been following this thread, and you seem sincere and not trolling, so I will share with you that I think most people reading this thread can tell you are missing something big. It's OK not to understand everything, but to say you despise people who claim to understand something you don't us... actually despicable. This site is for people to discuss and learn, and curiosity is basically a core value of it. It's O…

> BTW, if you share a Chinese saying that people can Google and be educated and delighted by, I think it would be welcomed. Even in Chinese.

Exactly.

Re: ‘Blade Runner’ at 40

#379

Post by jerrysievert »

fartcannon wrote: post #69
jerrysievert wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

brazil delicatessen both very deep and dark in similar genres: dystopian future.

Brazil is everything. I've never seen Delicatessen but if it's like these other films, I'll check it out. Anything I need to know (culturally, or whatever) to fully appreciate it?

> Anything I need to know (culturally, or whatever) to fully appreciate it?

it has the best sex scene I've ever seen in a movie. no nudity, just choreography.

Re: ‘Blade Runner’ at 40

#380

Post by NoGravitas »

_carbyau_ wrote: post #254
samstave wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And Neuromancer! although the movie is 1982 and the book is 1984 - I put these two together as the founding fathers of cyberpunk entertainment, albeit the FATHER of Cyberpunk is PK Dick... BR created the visual dystopian cyberpunk world of the future without focusing on internet/online things... Neuromancer changed and set the tone for the internet to come. The thing is, that at 47, MANY MANY MANY of my contemporarie…

It is a curious thing that science fiction and science-that-comes-to-pass influence each other. This is why I like the idea of solarpunk. And yet, cyberpunk brings conflict/struggle which makes it interesting. Solarpunk so far seems like a boring utopian dream. While I'd rather that in my future, it won't sell or interest people.

I think it's a telling condemnation of our society that a utopian dream for everyone is considered "boring", and impossible to motivate people around.
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