80s cyberpunk piece sees visionary Ridley Scott taking Phillip K. Dick's inspiring source material and spinning into cinematic mastery

Rating: 9/10 (15 May 2016)

Ridley Scott's cyberpunk thriller Blade Runner inspired by the short novel by Phillip K. Dick is a film with a reputation that grew following its trouble history with its studio. The debacle started with Scott facing studio interference that lead to re-edits that neither him or lead star Harrison Ford were satisfied with, especially with its dour performance at the box office. The ordeal was followed with re-edits that made their way into the Director's Cut Edition released on home media ten years later. However, it wasn't until Scott polished with the film with a final makeover, renovating the picture to his most satisfying form known as the Final Cut in 2007. What comes of the final product is a stylish futuristic sci-fi piece showing the director operating at arguably his finest fashion. Scorching with a dazzlingly rich visual heft and narrative that breathes a chock load of ambition. It is blistering sci-fi spectacle blooming with elements that have carried influence on many cyberbunk entries in later years including 'Dark City', 'Ghost in The Shell', and 'The Matrix' to name of few. Now that is a definition of a groundbreaking picture. Harrison Ford plays Rick Deckard, a local police officer in the futuristic city of Los Angeles in 2019, a city rattled by crime and economic depression. Deckerd is assigned to a daunting task of assassinating four emotionless androids known as Replicants. These otherworldly beings are humanoids who are disguised as regular humans. And the worst part, they happen to be responsible for the theft a spaceship. When he closes in the leader of the group Rachael (played by Seana Young), the only one born with emotion, Deckerd begins to question his identity.
In age when science-fiction was the household for mainly aliens, intergalactic warfare, and post-apocalyptic settings; Blade Runner offered something not entirely seminal but highly underpopulated in the genre, and expanded upon it with ideas not many, if any, filmmakers dared to attempt before. This is where the visionary mind of Ridley Scott is poured into with no restraint of ambition. Set in a futuristic society completed with an eye-dazzling visual design that many (especially back in the day of its initial release) could describe as groundbreaking, the film transpires with a plot stitched together with a plethora of twists and turns that leave audiences' head throbbing with questions of Deckard's identity. Is he the man he always believed he is, or is there a secret hidden within his transparent being? As the events unfold into a steadily paced game of cat-and-mouse with sudden bursts of intense gunplay, conspiracy permeates the grim atmosphere to the point where the most intriguing elements lie not within the questions that are answered but the ones that are left unanswered. The story, uprooted marvelously from the script by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples, is handled with grace and moves at pace that may prove to be too sluggish for some, but nonetheless allows the for the characters to build and for the plot to bulk up for the cutthroat climax. If you grab a hold of the Final Cut edition, you avoid the unnecessary Harrison Ford narration that bears seemingly no significant purpose. And as for Ford, fresh from his debut in the 'Indiana Jones' franchise', the actor puts on a performance that is more than desirable. There is a fair steam of charisma smoking through his performance. Sean Young remains solid in her role, but nothing that knocks for sheer impression. She just does enough to show she is talented and fitting for the role.
Blade Runner is a profoundly engaging cyberpunk piece that broke many grounds for establishing powerful elements that have inspired many entries of the genre today. And the accomplished ambition of Ridley Scott's directorial methodology is what holds the film as one of the most influential sci-fi flicks of its generation. Now that is a fine achievement for a film uprooted from a tortured history.