Cinema Reviews

Blade Runner: The Final Cut Review

25th Mar 2015

Blade Runner, in its final form returns to screens once again courtesy of the BFI who also have a Home Entertainment edition looming. Ridley Scott’s science Fiction masterpiece is a stranger to few eyes. Filmwerk have covered the film recently in our Ridley Scott Podcast series spending almost 40 minutes in one show to delve deep into still just a few aspects of the film.

Quite simply, the film is a masterpiece. It has been thought of as such for some time and thanks to regular releases, various editions of the film, a blu-ray polish, theatrical re-releases, fan screenings, critics lists and general public consumption of the film at home over time – the film has dated very well.

But there are always new viewers through time who are being introduced to the film, and perhaps this release will allow them, and maybe others who have not seen it on the big screen to do just that along with all of the avid fans.

In the (now, not too distant) future. A small group of cybernetic humanoids, known as “replicants”, have broken free form their bondage and are on earth running amok. Replicants are built and designed to look like us, but are infinitely stronger. They also come, however, with an expiry fail safe built in. This means simply, they have a limited amount of time to live. Their leader Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) has taken particular exception to this issue, and wishes to take it up with their maker, Eldon Tyrell, the head of the Tyrell Corporation.

Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) is called in to duty as a Blade Runner (someone who hunts down and “retires” replicants) and is set on their trail.

As his job gets started he encounters Rachel (Sean Young) who works at the Tyrell Corporation, and what starts as a simply hunt and kill job becomes something a little more complicated.

The economy of the script is complimented by a strong visual style that utilises both heavy set design and visual effects. Blade Runner plays out like visual poetry from start to end. The cast are all superb in their roles and there is also a brilliant soundtrack score by Vangelis.

The presentation for 2015 looks beautiful. This is an example of a film that has been restored to achieve the maximum effect of the film’s sound and picture.

The theme of “what it is to be human” is tackled brilliantly and given no small amount of subtext in the visual definitions Scott sets up in his scenes. If there is a list of films that demand to be seen on the big screen then Blade Runner is easily a contender for the top of that list.