Ridley Scott's Stylish Dystopian Masterpiece!

Rating: 10/10 (2 June 2017)

Ridley's visionary portrait of a futuristic Los Angeles 2019 (more like Tokyo City, Japan to me) with its looming video-screened high-rises, neon- lit blimps, and rain-spattered noodle shops where the ordinary JOE's eat.
As one of Britain's finest ever films, "Blade Runner" went from cult classic to an universally acknowledged masterpiece. It's probably the most visually dense film, with every frame brimming with detail and vitality, every bit of chiaroscuro adding to the film's melancholy mood. And it's one hell of a Cinema landmark, which at the same time, works as a blissful 'aide-mémoire'—that some films just deserve a second freaking chance!
At its initial release the film was a flop. To be fair, the theatrical cut of the film contained an unnecessary Harrison Ford voice-over as well as an ending that felt a bit too conventional for a film as bold as Blade Runner. Possible Reasons: It was the 80's and let's fact it, Ford wasn't exactly Robert De Niro who can god-smack the film's audience with just his narration skills and set the tone for it entirely. The rest of the blame can be given towards the studio executives whose moronic views, unnecessary edits and constant interfering almost ruined one of 80's most famous leading member of the Brit-pack: Ridley Scott's career. However, as Ridley began to work on a cut closer to his original vision and the film began to be seen by more and more people, it became considered one of the pinnacles of science fiction in film.
For Ridley, this was extremely ambitious. Even today there's something about the scope and detail of the world that comes across as maddening and innovative. And the problem with ambitious creations is that not everyone is going to get it. While other Sci-Fi films from the same year (The Thing, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial) offered film audiences heavy doses of suspense, action and adventure, Blade Runner is a film where characters espouse philosophical treatises while behaving strangely.
Even to this day I'm astounded by how many people love this film given the fever-pitched insanity of the final act. Rutger Hauer howls like a wolf, taunts Harrison Ford in singsong, drives a nail through his hand and then gives one of the most iconic (and, if we're honest, indulgent) monologues in cinema. Even while I giddily enjoy the last few moments of the film, I sometime ask myself how so many people can end up loving something that is this esoteric and bizarre.
The film is saturated in melancholy, overshadowed by death and peopled by ghosts. Visually and bionically, it is awash with haematological whispers.
It shows a gritty, Noir-like, rain-soaked vision of a Dystopic future Los Angeles in which government sanctioned bounty-hunters (Blade Runners) are used to track down and "retire" human-looking robots known as Replicants. Loosely based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick, director Ridley Scott's film is a complex, thought-provoking meditation on what it means to be human. With its striking visual imagery, moody soundtrack and advanced special- effects, Blade Runner is that rare Science Fiction movie that spends as much time setting a mood as it does discussing its big ideas. And while it may not be as exciting or revolutionary as more action-oriented movies like Star Wars or The Matrix, its cerebral nature and thematic ambiguity is what has made it a cult classic and landed it atop many critics lists of the top Science Fiction movies of all time.
Most Film Directors, who have finished a Science-Fiction film, tend to choose something a little more down to earth for their next project. Ridley, coming off with the Academy Award winning — "Alien (1979)" — launched himself into something even more stylised and visually dense: "Blade Runner (1982)" — Hailed for its production design, depicting a "retrofitted" future, it remains a leading example of the Neo-Noir genre. Although the film under-performed in North American theatres, but has since become a cult classic.
It's a movie that announces its impending awesomeness with authority. And style. Even, Ridley himself regards Blade Runner as "probably" his most complete and personal film.
Quick, go and watch this movie before it's 2049!