This is why movies are made.

Rating: 10/10 (29 September 2006)

I saw Blade Runner in the theater when it was first released in 1982. When we left the movie, my wife and I were equally stunned: What had we just seen? We couldn't believe it; we were moved beyond all reckoning and it haunted us for days. We went back in a few weeks to see it again and saw things we missed, and understood more.
When Blade Runner was released on tape, we bought it, and watched it again and again. When The Director's Cut came out, we went to see that, and subsequently bought the tape, then the DVD.
To this day I pull it out every few months to watch it again. No movie has moved me as much as this one. No movie or book has made me question the meaning of our existence as deeply and profoundly as Blade Runner.
While the entire movie, each superbly crafted part of it, has touched me deeply, I have to say that the last segment when Rutger Hauer (Roy Baty) and Harrison Ford (Rick Deckard) are together is the part that has stuck with me the most and influenced me most profoundly.
Blade Runner packs a lot of information, emotion, philosophy and morality into a relatively short span with little explanation, rationalization or 'comfort bytes' to make it more palatable. It's kinda like reading a 20 page version of "War and Peace" or something. It's a lot to swallow.
Blade Runner is a phenomenon: It's entertainment, but it's not. It is science fiction as it is meant to be: a look into the souls of ourselves reflected through the mirror of our imagination of what we are to be.
Special accolades to Phillip K. Dick for the original vision, to Ridley Scott for directing the story with such skill that it could convey the message on screen, to Vangelis for matching the soundtrack with the visual mood, and to Rutger Hauer for an acting performance which grips me to this day.