The past in the future

Rating: 7/10 (9 November 2010)

The Los Angeles of the near future will, apparently, be very similar to the Los Angeles of the recent past. Yes, it's always raining, but otherwise Ridely Scott's 'Blade Runner' is set in a world recognisable from the novels of Raymond Chandler or from Roman Polanski's 'Chinatown'. The fact that the plot is about androids seems a minor detail, until about two thirds of the way through, when the film becomes darker and stranger. Themes resembling those of 'Logan's Run' start to emerge (the idea of premature mortality), and although the film ends with an action sequence, it's not shot quite like a conventional all-action finale, with more of an emphasis on mood and less on viscerality. The scene is accompanied (as is much of the rest of the film) by a soundtrack that unquestionably belongs in 1982 (when the film was made), but the overall effect is actually quite moving. Still, although more ambitious than Scott's earlier 'Alien'', 'Blade Runner' is also less perfect. Some details feel like oddities, thrown in for effect without making perfect sense, and Harrison Ford (in the lead role) struggles to convey complex emotion (although he is not playing an android, but allegedly a human). But it's certainly a brave and distinctive movie, and not without intelligence either.