About mortality

Rating: 10/10 (14 March 2005)

This film is basically about mortality and the ensuing rage of the creature against their creator. The basic premise of the NEXUS-6 is that they are so perfect they are not allowed to last... because as they develop independent thoughts and, yes, feelings, they are a threat; consequently, they should be eliminated. A social analyst could write hours about this. But the film could be summed up in Roy Batty's final words: "I have seen things you people wouldn't believe [...] those moments will be lost in time like tears in rain..." Living four years as the NEXUS-6 or eighty as a healthy human being doesn't change things: the fact is that we all are we going to die, and everything's lost then unless we find a way to pass it on. Replicants cannot reproduce by themselves; art remains, and having read the original novel I recall a replicant there called Luba Luft, who was specially obsessed by art. And this movie is a work of art. Rutger Hauer could have been an early Gary Oldman, why he didn't find the success he deserved, I don't know. He was great as the demented, enraged, desperate but genial Roy Batty. Sean Young as Rachael is great too, with very subtle moments of quiet grief that are a real treasure. Daryl Hannah as Pris has a remarkable physical control, from the moment she stands like two minutes quiet as a statue, without even blinking her eyes, to the terrible moment of her death. And even Harrison Ford, having had a long chain of mediocre roles lately, is here in perhaps his best role ever. It's touching to see his face after Roy Batty's saving his life and then, as the dove flies, simply dying. It's as if he understood, and of course he did. The famous question of Rick Deckard being a replicant or not is finally solved in the director's cut: no doubts remain. Ridley Scott had then these shadowy, oppressive environments that made his movies so trademark. This movie transcends the "science fiction" genre and moves into deeper territory. No marvel it has become a cult movie. The director's cut is even better than the original (the removal of Harrison Ford's Bogart-like narration helps.) A jewel.