Incredible in more ways than one

Rating: 10/10 (18 February 2006)

I was 22 years old the first time I saw Bladerunner at a drive-in movie and being quite drunk at the time I really didn't get much out of it.
20 years later, I don't drink any more and I revisited this movie and I can honestly say I can't think of another science fiction movie that stands up to it save maybe Alien, ironically.
A movie that puts us in the middle of internal and external conflicts. Internal in that Harrison Ford, the best of the best in replicant executioners still struggles with that fact that he kills. It doesn't matter that what he kills isn't really human, he still feels his own humanity as he does the awful deed of ending a replicant's life.
It's revealed to us early on who these replicants are but amazingly we don't find out their reason for escaping their assigned occupations. In a very crafty fashion their mission reveals itself in the people they are looking for. More life, the wish of everyone, is their only true goal.
Outside of the movies plot, there are two things that stand out with Bladerunner. The first is that this movie's atmosphere as put forth by special effects and set designs stand up with the best out there today. They blend together in such as way as to elicit that eery aura we all feel sans The Day the Earth Stood Still.
But the one thing that stands out and has always stood out is the absolute perfection of Sean Young in make-up. To this day I've never seen a more beautifully scuptured face with absolute perfection in her coloring and features. She's made up in such a way that she literally pounces out of the screen. She has never received the credit she deserved for this film and it's a shame because no character in any science fiction movie has put forth a more perfect performance than her.
Rutger Hauer of course provides us with a performance that was worthy of a best supporting actor Oscar and had this come out today he would have gotten it.
Daryl Hannah, perhaps the weakest link in the cast still puts forth an acceptable performance as one of the replicants. It would have been a lesser movie without her.
The filming of facial expression, the interaction between all the characters and the final scenes which actually promote full circle motivations is fascinating.
I've spun Bladerunner on the platter a good 20 times since watching it again in 2000 and I must say, I never get tired of it because it's difficult not to appreciate a masterpiece.