Still a classic

Rating: 10/10 (22 December 2001)

I first saw this movie on a rented Betamax video when I was about 8 or 9. It came across as a really sinister and bleak sci-fi movie at the time. I enjoyed it as a young kid, but guess I didn't really understand fully the themes behind the movie. I saw the vastly superior and definitive Directors Cut many years later and I instantly rated it as one of the best movies ever. And this is why:
To fully understand how good this movie is, you have to put it into the context of it's era. When it was released it broke new ground and became what is still up to this day an unrivaled benchmark in sci-fi cinema.
It was the first film to depict with such lavish splendor the nightmarish vision of future Earth. Set in post apocalyptic Los Angeles, the film tells the tale of Deckard (Harrison Ford), a semi retired cop who is persuaded back into his role of a Blade Runner (special units trained to identify and kill outlawed androids, or "replicants", who illegally return to Earth). His task is to hunt and destroy a band of off-world androids, led by Rutger Hauer, who fight their way back to Earth to confront their maker, the ingenious Tyrell, head of the monstrous Tyrell Corporation.
The film is dark and broody. The photography is exquisite throughout and Vangelis' musical score is a now a classic masterpiece in itself. Director Ridley Scott's melancholy vision is so stylish and smooth that the film is able to emerse you into its chilling future world from the very first shot. Visually, this is one of the most gorgeous films I've seen.
Deckard's character is similar to that of a film noir private detective. He comes across as a somewhat washed up and helpless soul lost in the polluted rat race. This film provides Rutger Hauer with his defining moment on film, a role I think he has failed to live up to since. With his fellow replicants, he seeks answers that only his creator can provide - all replicants all built with a lifespan of only four years and they are determined that their fate can be altered.
The reason the film is so popular is that it asks so many probing questions which, in 20 years of movies since the film came out, have rarely been asked since.
The themes look at humanity and the meaning and life. Should we really create "people" and choose their fate and mortality? If we choose to play god then we must be answerable to those who we create. Is there any real difference between life created naturally and that in a laboratory? And so do we really now what we are? Or why we are? Or who created us?
The film is inspired by the Philip K Dick novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" Although this movie introduced me to reading countless Dick novels, I've deliberately resisted reading this one. Consequently, I can't comment on how it compares although I know the book is substantially different in places.
The movie is quite slow paced, although "smooth" is a better word. Die hard action fanatics might not like this film although sci-fi lovers will embrace it instantly. In the current age of computer generated effects this film is looking only very slightly dated, but that shouldn't put people off. Even now, the ambience of Blade Runner is still unsurpassed.