Blade Runner: How wrong could I have been for 20+ years?

[Fire Walk With Me]

I received and watched "The Final Cut" yesterday, and found it to be a good balance of the other director's cuts. It still gives goosebumps and a sense of wonder, with the very strong message regarding "what is life, what is human, and why are the humans in the pic broken gods who don't care about their situation". The desperate bid for life and fulfillment, of meaning and value. The value of life itself, of anything alive.

It brought me to tears again. It almost always does. But...

Having watched the second DVD on the film's history and progress, one glaring bit was revealed... The character of Rachel was supposed to have actually fallen for Deckard. Sean Young was simply unable to project the intimacy necessary to sell that bit.

My interpretation had always been, since the film came out (I've seen it some 40 times over the years; close your mouth, the flies will get in) was that Rachel was a two-year-old in an adult's body, had just learned that she was not human as she'd thought, was rejected by her "father", and was desperate for safety and shelter. Deckard, someone who obviously has serious intimacy and ethical problems, simply took advantage of her vulnerability and forced her to become his lover. She had no choice. She had no experience. She obviously didn't click with him on any deeper level.

I'd thought that it was domination and physical/mental rape. Disgusting, and also goes to the Replicant's bid to escape total slavery and the complete rejection of their individuality and of the notion of their value as something alive.

However, as stated earlier, the DVD outtakes simply reveal that Sean Young was unable to pull off that bit of acting. It takes something out of the movie, but I'm not yet certain just what that would be.

Might anyone more eloquent than I have any insight into the matter?

[GCP]

1. I always thought she'd fallen for him

The most achingly beautiful part of the movie for me is when the female snake dancer replicant is killed - such beautiful music and imagery.
Added to that, Roy's "time to die" moment.
One of my most favorite movies ever. I even liked the voice-over version.

[Fire Walk With Me]

14. Agreed. The second DVD goes into those things.

Rutger Hauer added the line "All those memories, will be lost...like tear, in the rain"... And they added extra (plexi)glass to the scene where they view and turn over the snake woman's body, along with moving in several neon signs, to really light it up.

Brilliant.

[Ikonoklast]

2. Deckard was a Replicant.

Possibly.

Watch the film from that perspective.

Kinda changes everything.



I need to watch "The Final Cut". The various 'director's cuts' always seemed to miss the mark, somehow.

[Fire Walk With Me]

5. The "Unicorn" dream is present in The Final Cut.

Yes, Deckard is a replicant. And certainly less human than Roy.

It says in the extra DVD that the first cut was some four hours long, and the financiers began slashing out all of the detail and subtleties (and plainly, anything that they didn't understand). The Unicorn scene was intended to be in the original version.

TFC is worth watching, if you're a big fan of the movie. The "making of" bits were fascinating, and revealed story trouble that I'd also glossed over.

[Ikonoklast]

12. That's why he was so good at his job.

Devoid of emotion, compassion, humor.


When I first saw the film, I was certain that at the very end that truth would be revealed. It was inferred throughout, and at that only very obliquely.

[Fire Walk With Me]

13. It thankfully doesn't cater to those who need facts spoonfed to them.

And I am so thankful that this is the case.

[Hawaii Hiker]

18. I know Ridley Scott has said in interview that Deckard was a replicant

but I don't get it...He didn't have their strength, he lived longer than the others, etc??

Best line from that movie was "The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long, & you have burned so very brightly Roy"....

I still like the version where Deckard narrates it...Plus that version ends different to...

[Fire Walk With Me]

20. In the original voice-over at the end, it was said that Rachel had no fixed retirement date.

As replicants were made with differing mental and physical capacities, I'd imagine that they could also be made with differing life spans. :shrug:

[flvegan]

3. I've never seen Blade Runner.

Yet, I'm drawn to threads about it like a fly to roadkill.

[GCP]

4. It's iconic - you have to see it at least once!

[bicentennial_baby]

6. Same here, I even started a thread about it recently

:D *highfive*

[LeftyMom]

8. Okay, we have to correct this before your insufficient geekiness contaminates my grandchildren.

:eyes:

[bicentennial_baby]

9. Movie Party at LM's!!!

:woohoo:

[LeftyMom]

10. Okay, everybody show up and I'll break down and buy a TV.

And a couch.

Yep, I have a $300 mixer, and no sofa. How's that for priorities? :D

[bicentennial_baby]

11. Hehe, I understand...Let's just get some futon mattresses

and camp out on the floor :D

[tigereye]

17. you have to see it!

it's iconic and beautiful. Anyone who's ever read a William Gibson novel (or read Phillip K Dick and other cool sci fi) has to see it. It set the tone for so many later films.


Sorry, it's just one of our favorites here. We've seen it more times than I can count - although not 40 like the OP.

[LeftyMom]

7. What????

OMFG. We'll watch it at my house. :eyes:

[democracyindanger]

15. Seems like she could pull it off in No Way Out

But then, Sean Young's a bit wacky. The story goes that she wanted the role of Catwoman in the Batman sequel so bad, she started going around in a Catwoman suit and hassling studio execs.

[Fire Walk With Me]

16. I remember that; yes, she showed up uninvited to casting calls, fully dressed

as Catwoman.

Her obviously nervousness and attempted swag in compensation in Blade Runner made her perfect as a being not quite certain of what it is and what its place is.

I'd thought it intentional!

[DarkTirade]

19. I knew they'd actually fallen for each other...

but that's because someone wrote a sequel to it and I read that sequel before I ever saw the movie. :P