I Finally Get It

Rating: 10/10 (2 February 2008)

I had seen the Director's Cut (a misleading title) of Blade Runner and was slightly underwhelmed. I mean, sure it looked great, but the supposedly deep story just didn't grab me. Then I got the five disc briefcase for Christmas and immediately put in the Final Cut. Wow. It's all clear now.
Blade Runner is one of a precious few pantheon of science fiction film that has become even more prescient as time passes (the other that comes to mind is 2001: A Space Odyssey). Look at the L.A. in this film, then look at present-day Los Angeles. Subtract the flying cars and robots and you've got the same city (horribly polluted and overpopulated with many ethnicities mixing language and cultures). We follow Deckard, a specialized cop known as a Blade Runner who hunts down androids known as replicants. These machines look like humans and, if given time to mature, emote like humans. They are used as labor and sex slaves, but die out after a 4 year period so their emotions do not develop (this too has ties to the modern world. Planned obsolescence is the reason your electronics never last more than a year or two). When a replicant starts to piece things together before it dies, Deckard must take it out before it harms humans.
As the film progresses, we can see that Deckard doesn't particularly like his job despite the fact that he is the best Blade Runner in town. The replicant Rachael (played by Sean Young) seems to trigger a re-evaluation of his life, and he takes no pleasure in hunting the group of dangerous androids he's been hired to "retire".
This film is Sir Ridley Scott's masterpiece, and the one that best shows his talents. Like his idol Kubrick, Scott knows how to light a scene just the right way, and his use of smoke and blinds and fans and anything else that distorts light is what gives the film its noir feel. He drops clues all along the way to that paramount of questions: Is Deckard a replicant? Every clue can be construed to fit either side of the debate, and it proves that there is no wrong answer to the question.
The Final Cut essentially omits and touches up more than it adds. Most "director's cuts" are excuses to throw in material that was cut for a reason (and a good deal of them are done without the director's consent). Here, Scott digitally touches up a few technical flaws, but he doesn't go crazy like Lucas. Also, we get the complete unicorn scene, which is crucial to the film's big question, as well as sticking with the DC's omitted voice-over narration (which is such a blessing, by the way).
In the end Blade Runner is a masterful look at that which makes us human. Roy Batty's final act gives us all the insight into replicants we need and his final speech is perhaps the single most moving moment in science fiction. It serves to underscore the whole film, and it sends chills down my spine every time I see it. Blade Runner is one of those precious sci-fi films that actually challenges you to think, and it almost single-handedly founded the film genre of cyberpunk, which had been present in literature but hadn't crossed over. Cyberpunk is unquestionably the most thought-provoking sub-genre of science fiction, and this film is its masterpiece. Many people award a film they like a perfect 10, but this is truly a cornerstone that has influenced directors, actors, and entire genres of film.