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Blade Runner

Blade Runner – Review by Stanley Kauffmann

To enjoy Blade Runner, you need only disregard, as far as possible, the actors and dialogue. (And the score) The script is another reworking of a threat to humans by humanoids —one more variation on the Invasion of the Body Snatchers theme.

"Tears in rain" - Roy Batty (portrayed by Rutger Hauer) in the 1982 Ridley Scott film Blade Runner

Blade Runner (1982): A Mix of Banality and Brilliance

Slovenly plotting and characterization, but consistently fascinating detail: exploitative violence and humanistic regrets: shallow formulas and philosophical questioning—this is the mix of banality and brilliance to be found in Blade Runner.

Blade Runner (1982) Ridley Scott and Harrison Ford on set

Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner: The Making of a Sci-Fi Classic

Interviews with screenwriters Hampton Fancher and David Peoples, industrial designer Syd Mead, production designer Lawrence C. Paull and director Ridley Scott. Articles & Interviews by Randy & Jean-Marc Lofficier for Starlog magazine, November 1992 issue.

THE SACRED AND THE PROFANE: EXAMINING THE RELIGIOUS SUBTEXT OF RIDLEY SCOTT’S ‘BLADE RUNNER’

Ridley Scott’s film “Blade Runner” is rooted in the myths and legends of Western culture and draws on a number of genres including film noir and science fiction. Central to the plot, though, is the Genesis story of the creation and fall. Gravett examines the religious subtext of the film, and discusses Deckard and Roy Batty’s relationship in terms of the biblical story of Jacob and Esau.

Blade Runner And Cyberpunk Visions Of Humanity

Ridley Scott’s 1982 film ‘Blade Runner’ appeared just before William Gibson’s quintessential cyberpunk novel ‘Neuromancer’ was published in 1984, and the two share enough features that one might well retroactively call Blade Runner the first truly cyberpunk film.

PHILIP K. DICK’S ANDROIDS: VICTIMIZED VICTIMIZERS

Late in his career, in the essay “Man, Android and Machine,’’ Philip K. Dick said the android is “a thing somehow generated to deceive us in a cruel way, to cause us to think it to be one of ourselves.”

Blade Runner Poster

Blade Runner: The Final Cut [Transcript]

Scott’s definitive Blade Runner: The Final Cut (2007, 117 minutes) was released by Warner Bros. on October 5, 2007. This is the only version over which Scott had complete artistic and editorial control.

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