A lot can be gleaned from a person simply from their preference between Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner and Tony Scott’s Top Gun. Both films from the brothers Scott were made early in their careers, but they demonstrate the diverging artistic paths the two would embark on. Now, regarding a person’s personal preference, it says more about an individual than it does about the artist merits of either film.
Both are excellent in their own rights, as are the directors who shoot them. One is the work of dark, moody genius, the other giddy, high-octane, quasi-gay, and yes, genius. If we have to explain then you probably don’t understand.
For our money, we choose Blade Runner. Which is why, it makes us giddy as shit, that Ridley Scott has been laboring on this film for the better part of 25 years. We can’t wait until the new release is available and we’re hoping to see it up on the big screen. That he’s gone back and re-editing the movie twice, that the movie has finally found an appreciative audience, that film lovers are finally going to get to see Ridley’s vision makes us weep tears of celluloid.
For anyone, the story of Ridley Scott and what is unquestionably his masterpiece, is a story worthy of a Hollywood movie, ironically enough. It is the story of perserverance in the face of obstacles. Wired Magazine sat down with the director to talk about all things Blade Runner: The Final Cut in their newest issue.
Fresh off his second successful movie, an up-and-coming director takes a chance on a dark tale of a 21st-century cop who hunts humanlike androids. But he runs over budget, and the financiers take control, forcing him to add a ham-fisted voice-over and an absurdly cheery ending. The public doesn’t buy it. The director’s masterpiece plays to near-empty theaters, ultimately retreating to the art-house circuit as a cult oddity.
That’s where we left Ridley Scott’s future-noir epic in 1982. But a funny thing happened over the next 25 years. Blade Runner’s audience quietly multiplied. An accidental public showing of a rough-cut work print created surprise demand for a re-release, so in 1992 Scott issued his director’s cut. He silenced the narration, axed the ending, and added a twist ? a dream sequence suggesting that Rick Deckard, the film’s protagonist, is an android, just like those he was hired to dispatch.
But the director didn’t stop there. As the millennium turned, he continued polishing: erasing stray f/x wires, trimming shots originally extended to accommodate the voice-over, even rebuilding a scene in which the stunt double was obvious. Now he’s ready to release Blade Runner: The Final Cut, which will hit theaters in Los Angeles and New York in October, with a DVD to follow in December.
At age 69, Ridley Scott is finally satisfied with his most challenging film. He’s still turning out movies at a furious pace ? American Gangster, with Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe, is due in November ? building on an extraordinary oeuvre that includes Alien, Thelma & Louise, Gladiator, and Black Hawk Down. But he seems ready to accept Blade Runner as his crowning achievement. In his northern English accent, he describes its genesis and lasting influence. And, inevitably, he returns to the darkness that pervades his view of the future ? the shadows that shield Deckard from a reality that may be too disturbing to face.
Go read now. (Via)
Also check out the newly redesigned opening credits for Blade Runner: The Final Cut
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