The Final Cut
Posted By Ardellis on November 28, 2007
We saw Bladerunner, the Final Cut Monday night on the big screen.
Normally, I don’t get all ga-ga about it when a director recuts a film. Sure, I enjoy seeing a director’s cut of a film that I loved, because it’s fascinating to see what the original vision had been, and often it really is even better than the theater release. But sometimes (*cough* Star Wars *cough*) the filmmaker just hasn’t learned to leave well enough alone and insists on trying to fix something that ain’t broke.
The original theater release of Bladerunner, for the record, ain’t broke. It’s a brilliant piece of filmmaking, and a milestone in SF cinema. And we’ve had a director’s cut of it already. But, still. It’s Ridley Scott.
And it’s fabulous.
All these years of watching the film on the small screen, I’d forgotten how wonderfully drearily beautiful this was. The darkness. The constant rain. The claustrophobia of all those buildings looming over the streets. The desolation of a decaying society. And Rutger Hauer’s tragic, desperate Roy Batty. And Harrison Ford’s gritty, determined Rick Deckard.
I think I need this DVD. I think I need a giant, HD TV to watch it on.
I’m jealous again. Sigh. I loved this movie. I still pull out my old VHS copy from time to time, the original one with the voice-overs which I missed terribly when they were deleted from the first director’s cut.