Time to die

"Blade Runner" is a very strange movie. I practically grew up with it. Everyone in Sweden seems to have seen it, and it used to be very popular, especially among women. Disjointed images of the movie have stayed with me ever since I first saw it: the dark alleys filled with Chinese, the owl, the marching dwarfs at J.F. Sebastian's home, the dying replicant who talks about Orion, Vangelis' music... When I saw "The Final Cut", I realized that I remembered all of the movie and most of the lines - and yet, I didn't remember the plot! Is this how an animal sees the world? A long succession of disconnected images, some weird, some pleasant, some threatening...but nothing to tie them together. Have I finally answered that old philosophical question: How does it feel to be a bat?

When I was younger, both my father and myself were *seriously* confused by another thing concerning "Blade Runner". Somehow, it seemed different every time we saw it! That was before I realized that there are several versions of the movie (seven versions, actually). My favourite version is still the original one, with Deckard's voice overs ("at that moment he loved life...all life...my life"), and where Deckard and Rachael get away at the end. Apparently, most people involved in making "Blade Runner" hated the original, which explains the long series of alternative versions.

According to Wikipedia, "Blade Runner" wasn't much of a success in the United States. Perhaps the movie contains too little action for an American audience? Frankly, it hasn't much of a plot either. The point of "Blade Runner", I think, is artistic. It's not really a movie. It's a work of art, a piece of poetry on the widescreen. The strange but beautiful music by Vangelis underlines this. Perhaps that's why Ridley Scott insisted on constantly remaking "Blade Runner". He saw it as more than a commercial movie. It's his private little painting or symphony. Indeed, this might be why "Blade Runner" affected me the way it did: I never remembered the storyline, since it's not really important, but I did remember the images, the atmosphere, the strange characters...

For those who never seen "Blade Runner", here's a short summary of the plot (with spoilers). The main character, Deckard, is a police officer specialized in killing robots known as replicants. The robots look exactly like humans, and are used as slave labour or involuntary soldiers on distant planets. Some of the replicants escape from captivity and turn up in California. During Deckard's mission to intercept and kill them, he realizes that Rachael, the woman he loves, is also a replicant, but unaware of the fact. The police want Deckard to kill Rachael as well. Deckard refuses. In some versions of the movie, he and Rachael gets away, while in other versions, their ultimate fate remains uncertain. In "The Final Cut", it's even implied that Deckard himself might be a replicant!

But, as I said, the plot is really the least interesting part of this production. Deckard is actually a quite incompetent cop! What makes "Blade Runner" so fascinating are the strange people, the ambivalence of the robots (are they evil? or just misunderstood?), the dark alleys, the music...

Incidentally, this is a review of the "5 disc complete collectors' edition". I don't have it, but judging by the editorial review, it contains all seven versions of this intriguing film...