What a day this has been. Most of it has been spent shuttling back and forth from the house to the hospital. My wife's kidney stone started acting up again and sent her into premature labor again. So they got that under control and now she's waiting for them to schedule the surgery to just remove the stone. Terribly exciting.
The good news is that this is the hospital we will eventually have the delivery at and the maternity ward seems very nice. The doctor's we dealt with today were great and I have little worry about the upcoming delivery. Now if we could just get that surgery scheduled. Unfortunately the Urologist doesn't have any block time at this hospital. But due to insurance, it's the one we needed to use. Ah the joys of red tape.
But enough of that.
So a group of interntational scientists were polled to select the best sci-fi films. Sounds like a pretty worthwhile cause to me. The funny thing is that I was contemplating a retro review of Blade Runner for today's ramblings as it's one of my favorite films. Coincidences can be handy things.
My wife and several of my friends have absolutely no idea why I like this movie. They think it's boring. And annoying. And boring. But they're crazy. After all, my wife chose to marry me and my friends hang out with me, so we can see where that leaves their judgement abilities.
My experience with Blade Runner dates back to a birthday party during my teen years. Several of my friends wanted to rent it as it had just come out on VHS. My folks were hesitant to let us watch a rated R movie so Dad attempted to screen it before letting us watch it. I got to wander in during the shower scene as well as the scenes where Roy blinds Tyrell and shoves the nail through his palm. (To this day the 10th anniversary edition is one of my least favorites due to those last two scenes.) While we didn't get to watch the movie, it was nice to reverse the roles a bit and embarass Dad much like parents do when they catch you watching some risque bit in whatever random cheap horror movie you've thrown in for the weekend.
It wasn't until several years later that I finally got to see Ridley Scott's vision of Philip K. Dick's story. And what a vision it is. I suspect it was this movie that initiated my love of Scott's work. He's still one of my favorite directors in Hollywood. His dirty rain-drenched LA is still one of the best realized dystopic futures on film. The world he's created has been imitated so many times that it's starting to lose some impact as modern filmmakers continue to show us the same scenario over and over. But at the time, it was raw and visceral in its appeal. Here was a world where humanity was at the end of its rope. The replicants they'd created to serve them were taking over a little bit at a time.
The movie follows Deckard (played by a young Harrison Ford) a Blade Runner - someone charged with hunting down replicants (androids) that have illegally made their way back to Earth. Along the way he interacts with Tyrell, the creator of the replicants, Rachel, the newest model, and the four replicants that have returned and are his targets. One of the biggest differences between the film and the book is Deckard's identity. In the book, he's human. And the moral of the story comes through the empathy humans are capable of and replicants aren't. The book's replicants are inhumane creatures out strictly for their own self interests.
The movie, however, casts just about all the main characters as replicants, including Deckard. And they are much more sympathetic. The few humans that exist are, for the most part, the self centered ones that we have a hard time accepting. Both versions explore what it means to be human. Both ask questions about why we are here, but they certainly arrive at the answers along very different paths.
There is much to treasure about the movie. And there are several versions to chose from. The original theatrical cut features an recurrent voiceover by Ford that fills in little bits about the world as well as giving us a better view of the character we're following. The 10th anniversary edition adds in a bit more gore. The Director's Cut gets rid of the voiceover, adds a scene that sheds a little more light on Deckard's replicant nature and chops the happy go lucky ending of the original version. This movie is begging for a Criterion collection in much the same way that Brazil did. There are many beautiful moments captured in the film. Rutger Hauer's Roy Baty is probably one of the most memorable "villains" in cinema. His last moments are among the best Hollywood has to offer.
The score is also a wonderful piece of work. Vangelis helps to fully create the world we're visiting. For the longest time I used to fall asleep to the soundtrack.
So that covers some of my feelings on Blade Runner. I love this movie. I don't mind the slow pace as it allows me to appreciate the world I'm being shown. I can sit and think about the natures of the characters I'm seeing. I can come to my own conclusions about what it means to be human. This is what cinema can do when it's done well.
As for the rest of the scientist's list? Safe choices all. They're movies that probably every sci-fi fan has seen. I must admit a couple of the films have escaped my viewing - not by choice though. I really need to track down a copy of The Day the Earth Stood Still...
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