A sense of an ending

Rating: 9/10 (5 October 2017)

Ridley Scott directed the adaptation of Philip K Dick's novel 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.' Scott called it Blade Runner and had a dark dank rain-soaked setting of a futuristic LA of 2019.
Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) is called out of retirement to take out four Replicants, fugitive robots led by Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) who want to find their creator and get him to expand their lifespan.
Ridley Scott managed to capture a vision of a future that was regarded as too depressing at the time of the film's release. It was a film noir future that was accompanied by a moody jazz soundtrack. It had top notch visual effects and model work, some 1940s influenced set, costume and art direction. The use of lighting at times was exceptional.
In fact Ridley Scott's vision inspired a whole heap of filmmakers who wanted to make a grungy sci-fi film set in the future.
The film was at times a detective story with a narration by Ford, it had some strong violence such as when Deckard chases a female replicant, shoots her down and she crashes through plate glass windows. Then there is the fight scene between Batty and Deckard with Batty easily being the more stronger.
Yet the film is also a puzzle about identity, Deckard hunts out replicants who are physically indistinguishable from humans but then advanced replicants are created such as Rachael (Sean Young) who do not even realise they are cyborgs. In one of the director's cuts we are led to question Deckard's own identity because of an inserted dream sequence of an unicorn.
The film has a hauntingly scary and magnetic performance from Rutger Hauer, Sean Young is beautiful dressed up like a femme fatale. Ford is rather subdued compared to his more famous roles of Indiana Jones and Han Solo but in retrospect he pitched it just right.