Many qualities - above all it makes you think

Rating: 10/10 (16 July 2005)

English is not my first language, so bear with me.
I guess the overall quality of "Blade Runner" is intelligence. It is a movie that makes you think and it is made by thinking individuals. It tells you not to trust the surface, and this is always a bold thing to do for a movie - given that it is, by definition, composed of surface only.
The cast is perfect, Rudger Hauer as the leader of a group of "replicants" (androids) and Harrison Ford as "blade runner" Rick Deckard, charged to hunt them down, above all others.
Daryl Hannah really is her part - a desperate replicant, while Sean Young as Rachael, the female attraction for Harrison Ford played her extremely interesting role well enough, but is still the weakest link in the chain in my opinion. Ford has subsequently played many inferior roles in movies. In this one he is the right character and he's - ever trying to be sure of himself, while being corroded by doubts - brilliant.
What's also special about the movie is the atmosphere. Ridley Scott didn't get to use computer generated special effects back in 1982. Flying cars were not easily put on celluloid. Don't expect an orgy of special effects, that's not the focus of this movie. There is a lot of action going on but it focuses on people, not explosions. In spite of some minor logical glitches Scott manages to compose a credible scenario, a sinister vision of a might-be-future with a few subtle flashes of dark humor. On a side note: you might want to stock up on umbrellas before 2019, according to Ridley Scott we are in for rain.
Of course the movie would not rank among the best movies without the soundtrack by Vangelis, which is a masterpiece by itself. Together photography and music form something exceptional.
Unlike with many inferior sci-fi movies, there is more to "Blade Runner" than just atmosphere, special effects and a great sound track. The movie makes you think about some of the big philosophical questions concerning the individual as well as society. What is life? What's special about humans? Why is one life worth more than another? How shall we deal with death? And what's the role of society in all of this?
The movie - especially the director's cut - does not try to answer or appease in the end. All it tells us is that we can't get away from these questions, no matter where we go, be it to an "off-world colony" or just "north".
"Blade Runner" is the best film of its kind and one of the best I know overall. This one should not be "lost in time like tears in the rain" so quickly.