My favorite movie of all time

Rating: 10/10 (20 February 2009)

Blade Runner posed question most of us were afraid to answer. The most predominant of which was what will become of us if we allow the media to control us. The film represents 21st century life as a dystopian wasteland controlled by the censor, were our lives are pre-determined and were we can't turn a street corner without being confronted with a garish advertisement, none of which was a real problem back in 1982 when the movie was released. Which is why today's audiences have managed to connect so wonderfully with this movie. The neo-noir classic has a visual flair unmatched by any other film, not only in it genre, but quite possibly of all time. These days, it's almost impossible to find a gritty science fiction motion picture that doesn't owe at least a small debt to Blade Runner's visual style. And yet this manages effortlessly to balance both its substance and its style perfectly. Each character is fleshed out perfectly, each giving depth and insight to the grand scheme of it all.
A blend of science fiction and noir detective fiction, Blade Runner (1982) was a box office and critical bust upon its initial exhibition, but its unique postmodern production design became hugely influential within the sci-fi genre, and the film gained a significant cult following that increased its stature. Harrison Ford stars as Rick Deckard, a retired cop in Los Angeles circa 2019. L.A. has become a pan-cultural dystopia of corporate advertising, pollution and flying automobiles, as well as replicants, human-like androids with short life spans built by the Tyrell Corporation for use in dangerous off-world colonization. Deckard's former job in the police department was as a talented blade runner, a euphemism for detectives that hunt down and assassinate rogue replicants. Called before his one-time superior (M. Emmett Walsh), Deckard is forced back into active duty.
A quartet of replicants led by Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) has escaped and headed to Earth, killing several humans in the process. After meeting with the eccentric Eldon Tyrell (Joe Turkel), creator of the replicants, Deckard finds and eliminates Zhora (Joanna Cassidy), one of his targets. Attacked by another replicant, Leon (Brion James), Deckard is about to be killed when he's saved by Rachael (Sean Young), Tyrell's assistant and a replicant who's unaware of her true nature. In the meantime, Batty and his replicant pleasure model lover, Pris (Darryl Hannah) use a dying inventor, J.F. Sebastian (William Sanderson) to get close to Tyrell and murder him. Deckard tracks the pair to Sebastian's, where a bloody and violent final confrontation between Deckard and Batty takes place on a skyscraper rooftop high above the city. In 1992, Ridley Scott released a popular director's cut that removed Deckard's narration, added a dream sequence, and excised a happy ending imposed by the results of test screenings; these legendary behind-the-scenes battles were chronicled in a 1996 tome, Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner by Paul M. Sammon.
Verdict: Blade Runner remains a dark masterpiece exploringandroid slavery and the decay of the human condition. Its visceral imagery of afuturistic and dystopian Los Angeles sticks with you for life. This raw, gorgeous,poetic masterpiece is one of the few films on my list that will have youreimagining the way you live your life. As time goes by, it's increasinglyapparent just how high this film towers.