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Blade Runner - The Final Cut (5-Disc Ultimate Collectors' Edition) (Cardboard Edition) [1982]


RRP: £29.99
Our Price: £14.98 (subject to change)

Superb presentation of a classic film
Review date: 2008-10-03 Rating: 10 out of 10

It seems like overkill. A five disc box set focused on a single film. Six different versions of the original film, plus an exhaustive array of extras - documentaries, commentaries, out-takes, interviews, concept art, screen tests. Surely only obsessives and the professionally interested could possibly want all this?

But this isn't like other dvd sets. No dull, half-baked `documentaries' that tell you nothing more than star A thinks director B is a great director, Director B thinks star A is a top chap, and everyone thinks the guy who deputy managed Computer Effects Team C did a super job. No commentaries by extras that appear on screen for all of ten seconds. What you get here is a magnificently put-together Blade Runner archive, an exhaustive history of a landmark film.

The various cuts of the film itself obviously represent the bulk of the content - all with excellent picture quality and superb 5.1 sound. The Final Cut, Ridley Scott's latest tinker, isn't significantly different from 1991's Director's Cut, but includes a few restored shots and some subtle reworking of a couple of scenes that had continuity errors in the original, and has been carefully cleaned up for modern displays and audio systems. The Directors Cut is also included, alongside the original US and European theatrical versions and the `uncut' video release, all on a single seamlessly branched disc. Finally, there is the workprint version, a voice-overless cut of the film whose surreptitious distribution in the late eighties provided the impetus for the Director's Cut release. Each is accompanied by a brief introduction by Ridley Scott, and a selection of voice-over commentaries by a wide variety of production personnel, including Scott himself, special effects genius Douglas Trumbull and the man who literally wrote the book on Blade Runner, Future Noir author Paul Sammon. Obviously the interest level varies over the course of each commentary, but it's hard to fault the inclusion of such an impressive range of key names in the Blade Runner story.

Those same names also feature in the documentary that stands as this set's centrepiece. The four-hour Dangerous Days documentary really is a benchmark for how these things should be done, and covers every aspect of Blade Runner's production history with admirable depth and detachment.

Finally, there is a disc of supporting material that includes a wealth of extras, including audio interviews with Phillip K Dick and almost an hour's worth of deleted scenes, edited together to produce a kind of `alternative' Blade Runner cut. One can quibble over a couple of further features that would have been welcome - a documentary focusing on Vangelis's music is notably absent, and I would have liked to see something discussing the film from a more academic viewpoint - but really, complaining about what isn't here seems churlish when so much is included, and presented to such a high standard.

The quality of the film itself is of course a matter of taste - personally I think it's a magnificent visual experience that lacks a compelling narrative, instead falling back on superficial nods to existentialism and philosophy to offer an illusion of depth. Rather like a Metropolis of the Eighties. But what isn't in doubt is that this set is a milestone - a perfect example of how classic films should be treated. If only more key films could be given such a lovingly curated release.


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Reviews


THE 'FINAL CUT' / 'DIRECTOR'S CUT' LOSES EVERYTHING THAT IS TRULY GREAT ABOUT BLADE RUNNER --- ITS HUMANITY!!!!!!!!!!!
Review date: 2008-07-14 Rating: 8 out of 10

Blade Runner's 1982, 'Theatrical Cut', is a deeply human film. So: do what I do: put up with the unsubtle voice-over and end the film when Rachael and Deckard enter the elevator to escape - press STOP, then, and end it.
This 1982 version of Blade Runner - viewed like this, in my humble opinion - is a truly amazing film: brimming with humanity in a desolate, nightmare world that is sadly becoming more and more of a reality - for all of us - here on the real, awful Planet Earth, 2008.
I feel - very, very strongly - that Director Ridley Scott had the future of the world in his hands . . . but . . . NOW . . . with 'The Final Cut'. . . he has ruined it for all of us!

Blade Runner - No 5 - All Time List 2008
Review date: 2008-04-08 Rating: 10 out of 10

I'll quickly start by mentioning cuts of the movie - I've watched the Director's Cut and the Final Cut - literally with one or two exceptions (Tyrell eye scene anyone) they are blink and you'll miss them changes. Only fan boys would spot the difference - or someone with better eyes than myself! I'm yet to watch the voiceover cut or work print which I am hoping will add a little something to the experience - even if the directors / final cut is supposedly the better version of the movie.

Now the movie itself, because lets face it, who would care about numerous cuts / releases etc of a film if it was rubbish - thankfully Blade Runner is not. It's anything but, you can read a synopsis yourself and I'm not repeating myself but effectively Harrison Ford is a Blade Runner who is reluctantly ordered to hunt down and kill four replicants who are illegally on earth. Now that might sound like Sci-Fi rubbish, but it's easy enough to pick up when the film starts and without ruining the film in anyway you don't want to know too much more.

Blade runner offers a bleak view of the future, but it's a mysterious journey set completely within a film-noir world on dark alleyways, dodgy characters and rain. The film is magnificent; I challenge anyone to say they got bored watching it, because there is not a dull moment. Without doing a thesis on is Ford/ Deckard a replicants and really giving the advice not to even worry about it, just know that with Blade Runner you are guaranteed an edgy, atmospheric, action pack movie which touches some great themes and one that you won't want to look away from and when it finished you'll be looking on the internet about the film, then watching the next version of the movie.
The fuss is justified.

I purchased the five Blu-Ray Briefcase DVD box set from America - and whilst I am happy to get all five DVD's Blu-Ray the box set isn't worth the extra money in my eyes - a really cheap and nasty toy car and unicorn and some sheets you'll never look at - whilst the briefcase is cool - it's too bulky to fit anywhere in a normal persons DVD collection. On a plus side the Blu-Rays are of awesome quality - you can't believe this film is over 25 year old when you watch the clarity of the picture and listen to the quality of the sound. I'd advise someone to get the 5 Blu-Ray non box set version from the US. The amount of extras is second to none and if only film studios could give us a Blade Runner style set for some other classic that deserve the treatment.

The reality dysfunction we can remember for you
Review date: 2008-04-06 Rating: 10 out of 10

I've just watched the new edition of Blade Runner and feel like saying a few words on the film. Why review a 25 year old film? For the same reason it's been reissued. It's a pretty important film.

What I have to say fits under three headings.

1. Plot
You know the story. Dangerous criminals are on the streets of LA and only one man can stop them. Several chase scenes and a few fights later, he does, rescuing a beautiful girl in the process. It's a basic thriller plot, used in hundreds of films for a very good reason. It works. It's got very little to do with the Philip K Dick book the script is ostensibly based on. The only thing worth saying about this aspect of the film is that it's very well done and makes for great entertainment. Think 'Total Recall'. Remember it's the plot I'm talking about here. Score 8/10.

2. The Setting
Everything to do with the look of the film: sets, costumes, artifacts, design, lighting and camera are incredibly well done and make this film one of the most influential ever made. Not necessarily original, but influential nevertheless. Here we get a taste of the world Dick made, where technology has developed fangs and claws and makes life difficult for the people it's supposed to help. It's a believable future and we're half fascinated, half repelled by its depiction. The detail is astonishing and the production interacts very effectively. This is why we remember the film. It's Armageddon with a cobra stare we can't turn away from. Score 10/10.

3. The Themes
The film is loosely based on the Philip K Dick book 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep'. Dick is a major novelist with a lot of very important things to tell us if only we could forget he was a science fiction writer and listen. Dick's world is consistently one in which machines have demonstrated they have no humanity even should they be simulacra. The book is full of astonishing concepts that the film has ditched to make room for the chase scenes and perhaps that's unavoidable. But considerable play is made in the film on the nature of the android/replicant characters. Much ink has been spilt determining who is or is not an android/replicant among the major characters. Ridley Scott has emphasised Deckard's replicant nature when he remade the film (Director's Cut). But the physical nature of these characters is relatively unimportant. Dick's theme, carried over to the film, is: what is human? In a world where a replicant can only be discovered by means of an intricate psychological test, and real humans are behaving more and more like machines, the meaning and value of 'human' becomes important to define. Humans are not automatically humane, just as replicants are not automatically automata. The film emphasises this by showing the only characters who act with humanity to be replicants. It's not profound but it's moving. Score 9/10 (loses a point for leaving out so much of the book).

The Edition
The choice is a 5 disc, 4 disc, Final Cut or Director's cut edition. If you're a fan you've already got the 5 disc edition. If you're studying film you'll buy the 5 disc edition for the workprint and the rare chance to see how the film was shaped and adapted through the production process. In my view the Final Cut, though beautiful to look at, was not worth the effort. My choice was the 4 disc edition, which contains all the fabulous extras and my preferred edition, the original theatrical release, which stays a tad closer to Dick's vision than the Director's Cut. And it's the best value for money as well.

There's so much more to say but I'll just go and watch the film again.



A great film finally gets the packaging it deserves
Review date: 2008-02-15 Rating: 10 out of 10

Ironically for a film commonly (and in my view, rightly) viewed as a masterpiece of cinema, 'Blade Runner''s afterlife as a movie has relied on people watching it at home.

After it got a negative reaction at previews, the studio pressured director Ridley Scott to tack on a highly unconvincing 'happy ending' in which, after two hours of urban grimness, Harrison Ford and Sean Young drive off into the countryside to live happily ever after. They also got Ford to record a would-be hard-boiled voiceover, a task he hated and which he deliberately sabotaged by doing it in an absurdly deadpan and rather boring voice. The result pleased the studio, but not the cinema audience. 'Blade Runner' didn't do well at the box office.

However, it was one of the first films to be released on home video cassette, and it was the home video audience that made the film famous. It soon become one of the biggest-selling and most-rented video cassettes, and it was in that format that most people, including me, first saw the movie. Few people outside Hollywood realised that the film was meant to have a darker ending and no voiceover - we just loved it because of the mood, the look, and the performances, especially Ford's melancholy detective and Rutger Hauer's gloriously perverse and rather touching replicant.

In the early 1990s, a preview print of 'Blade Runner' was discovered in a studio vault that differed from the released version in many ways, notably by lacking the tacked-on ending and Ford's narration. This was the notorious 'Workprint', familiar to all fans of the movie by now. Shown at a Los Angeles cinema, it broke box office records. The film was rediscovered and hailed as a masterpiece. Warner Bros and Ridley Scott quickly rushed out a new version, not the Workprint itself but essentially the original movie with the happy ending and voiceover removed. Scott also added a brief dream sequence of a unicorn, which in context altered part of the meaning of the film in an important way. This was the much-hyped-at-the-time 'Director's Cut', the first time a movie was given that grandiose title. But it was far from perfect. Pressures of time and cost overruns had led Scott to cut a few corners, and all the versions of 'Blade Runner' had more than the normal share of continuity errors and just plain patch jobs. (One notorious one was where Joanna Cassidy's character is shot - it's all too clear in the Director's Cut, as elsewhere, that it's not her but her stunt double who falls through a series of glass windows on her way to the sidewalk.)

The DVD of the Director's Cut was one of the first DVDs to be made, and it was a disgrace. Wobbly, low-resolution and based on a rather scratchy print of the film, it looked like somebody had set up an expensive video camera at the back of a projection room and videoed the movie being projected onto a screen.

At last, Warner Bros have delivered on a DVD of 'Blade Runner'. The film has been properly transferred to disc and some discreet and tasteful reshooting and retouching has been done to clear up the most glaring and annoying of the film's glitches; thanks to motion control technology and green-screen, a 25-years-older Cassidy finally got to play her own head as her character is gunned down. The Final Cut finally looks and sounds like the masterpiece it is, Ridley Scott's most human and affecting movie.

The bonus discs in this Ultimate Collector's Edition are a feast. Nostalgia buffs get the chance to watch no less than five different complete versions of the film - the glorious Final Cut, the original US version, the slightly more violent International version (the one I first saw), the not-quite-there 1992 Director's Cut and the famous Workprint, the most different of them all. There's a mammoth making-of documentary with contributions from everyone, including a mellow Harrison Ford (he famously didn't enjoy the shoot much, and failed to get on with Scott). There are half a dozen smaller featurettes as well. Whatever awards are handed out to DVD makers, the reissue producers of this 'Blade Runner' set should get them.


Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Sean Young
Rutger Hauer
Harrison Ford

Creators:
Harrison Ford (Primary Contributor)
Sean Young (Primary Contributor)

Director(s):

Recording label: Warner Home Video
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
EAN: 7321902208350
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 5
Format: Box set, Collector's Edition, PAL,
Release date: 2007-12-03
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Audience rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 114 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1982
Language: English (Original Language)
Language: Spanish (Original Language)
Language: German (Original Language)

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