Blade Runner - Director's Cut

Before Minority Report and Total Recall I and Total Recall II, I had never heard of Phillip K. Dick.  Now I find out he wrote the books on which all of these movies were made.  Including their granddaddy, Blade Runner.

This was one that I remember as significant but could not remember why.  The initial scene of the explosive city brought it all back.  Turns out this was a movie that people watched a lot over the years, a cult classic.  Why?  Probably because it set the standard of the dark world so followed in Batman, Total Recall, Dark Knight and so on.

There's an interesting division between the world up top, flying over, and the street level thuggishness of the below.  At one level its a detective story of the search for the Replicants in the shadows.  On another level, there is lots of classical imagery (King Lear, Jesus Christ).  Mixed against the commercialism of the future world.  I liked the commercial backdrops, particularly the old style ones of TDK, Pan Am.

Screening a bit of the theatrical cut, the narration there is not part of the Director's cut.  The narration helps to understand the story but it gives it an old style Sam Spade quality.

This was one that stood the test of time.  The story line drags a bit with the Replicant love/hate.  But the cinematography more than makes up for it.

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