Blade Runner (Director's Cut) - Four Years to "Life"

Blade Runner
Director: Ridley Scott

Commerce is our goal here at Tyrell. "More human than human" is our motto. 
–Dr. Eldon Tyrell

They're my friends. I make them. – J.F. Sebastian

Nothing is worse than having an itch you can never scratch. –Leon

It's not an easy thing to meet your maker. –Roy Batty

I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shore of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time like tears in rain. Time to die. –Roy Batty

I was told specifically to watch the director's cut of this movie, which Netflix.com describes as such:

In a smog-choked dystopian Los Angeles, blade runner Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) is called out of retirement to snuff a quartet of escaped "replicants" – androids consigned to slave labor on remote planets – seeking  to extend their short life spans. This definitive special edition of director Ridley Scott's classic features his restored and re-mastered version with added scenes, plus an authoritative documentary about the making of the film.

This movie was made in 1982 (great year) and takes place in 2019. As we're now closer to the director's "future" than we are to his "present," it's interesting to see how he chose to depict it. What's more interesting to me is how evident the filming era is in the portrayal of the future. The hairstyles and clothing choices are all variations on what people wore in the '80s – the bright colors, the puffy sleeves, the shoulder pads, the teased bangs.

And like many visions of what the future would be like, there are non-human entities (here called replicants) that threaten to take over our way of life. Another recurring theme in futuristic movies (aside from Back to the Future II, which takes the opposite approach) is the darkness that seems to prevail. Both the scenery and the mood are much darker in this version of the future. It seems to be constant night, and the government and police presence are strong and oppressive. Many of the scenes in this movie take place in a dark, nearly abandoned, leaky old building, in which J.F. Sebastian lives with his toys. Nighttime rain adds to the feeling of dark depression.

Harrison Ford's character, Rick Deckard, is forced to rejoin the workforce in his old position as blade runner in order to capture and "retire" (read: kill) four of these replicants who seek to prolong their four-year existence. Unexpectedly, he finds love in one of them. And let's talk about these "love" scenes. I know as a viewer, I'm supposed to get that Rick doesn't want to love Rachael, but can't help it. And this, I assume, is why he more or less forces himself on her the first time. Fighting with himself internally causes him to restrain and kiss her despite her struggles. Because I saw little to no chemistry between the two – though to be fair, I find Harrison Ford lacking chemistry with most people, Princess Leia aside – I mostly found the love scenes uncomfortable.

I also wasn't a fan of the music. It seemed like an odd choice to set the tone of the movie, and often seemed out of place with the scene. I was, however, a fan of seeing a young Darryl Hannah in action.

My takeaway: Much like Rick couldn't win the internal battle with himself over his feelings for Rachael, you cannot choose who your heart will love. And in seven years you'll be able to pull out that shoulder-padded neon green blazer you just couldn't bear to toss out in '85!