You Brade Runnah
Now that Blade Runner has been released in every incarnation ever seen by anyone anywhere, it’s hard to know which version to talk about. What exactly is Blade Runner? Which version is THE movie known as Blade Runner? Even though I like the version without the voiceover, Blade Runner will forever be the version I saw in the movie theater during its initial release.
My friend, Steve Sewell, was the only one I could talk into going to see the movie with me. At the time I remember thinking that Harrison Ford’s extremely short haircut was really weird and now I sit here typing this with hair that’s much shorter. NOT less hair, mind you, SHORTER hair. There’s a big difference.
We watched the movie in awe, not entirely certain of what we were seeing. I don’t think either of us (or the other twelve people in the theater on that particular Saturday night) breathed a word while it played. We even sat silently through the credits and neither of us were the type to insist on watching credits). We were stunned. What exactly had we just seen? To this day, I’m not sure.
I went back the following week and saw the movie by myself. I think it was the first time I’d ever done that and I was practically alone in the theater. BR wasn’t exactly the smash hit that Warner Brothers had hoped for. According to BoxOfficeMojo, it made just over $6 million in its opening weekend. Not horrible but then again this was a $28 million sci-fi movie.
At the time I knew nothing about the business of filmmaking. Sure, I read Starlog and the other movie magazines but they hardly ever told the complete stories behind anything film-related. To me the success or failure of a film simply boiled down to one question. Did I like it?
Blade Runner was, and continues to be, a hard sell for some people. It was marketed as an action movie but there really was more angst and brooding than there was action…and that was exactly what I liked about it. 1982 was also the year that Khan almost got his wrath on and Arnold hit the top with Conan for the first time. There were lots of other quality movies that Summer (including the ET juggernaut) but none of them had the tone of BR. None of them, not ever Khan, felt like they were taking you to a place you’d never been to before. The world of BR was a sad place. It was a difficult place to be and that was reflected in all of the elements of design. Sadness pervades the picture making it appealing to an angst-ridden teen but not such a good date movie.
I guess I sorta understand why many people don’t want to see “downer” films. A lot of the time I don’t either, at least if that’s all a movie has to offer. I skipped Hostel, for example, for the same reason. But real tragedies, in the Shakespearean mode of the word, usually have a lot more going on than just tragedy. Tragic characters often have the most to live for. They experience tragedy because of their desire to make things better for themselves – because they’re alive.
At the beginning of BR, Deckard might as well be dead. He’s anesthetized to the point of being a sleepwalker. In 1982 I saw him as the typical adult. I saw him as exactly what I didn’t want to be when i grew up. To me, most adults were asleep. They didn’t appreciate the power they wielded in the world. They weren’t trying any more. They had accepted their lots in life and were just going to make it to death’s door. Oh, there were a few people I looked up to, like Keith Richards or George Lucas, but most of the adults I actually had contact with in Macon, Georgia from day to day were wasting their time. I liked seeing that an adult could be roused from their slumber even if it meant there was that drive in the country at the end of BR. I also liked wallowing in the darkness that preceded that ascent.
I should also mention the music. I was never a big Vangelis fan but the BR soundtrack truly captured that movie for me. I liked that it was mostly constructed of minor-key electronica that essentially faded into the background of the BR world but somehow stuck with you. It was a crime that the original tracks weren’t released until 1994. The New American Orchestra version of the music (which I bought on LP at the time) paled in comparison to Vangelis’ originals. According to usenet sources, this was Vangelis’ choice because he resented the use of other music in the film. I’ve never figured out how withholding their work from release has ever helped a recording artist, but that was his choice at the time and we all paid the price for it. I sat through those credits the first time because that music was the world of BR. Listening to it, even now, plops me right back into that theater seat. Before the coming of the VCR, soundtracks were pretty much the only way you could relive the experience of the movies. That’s probably why a good score in even the crappiest movie can win me over every time.
Looking back on the film and all of its different versions, I’m left with the thought that the original BR achieved greatness and the subsequent versions perfected it. I suppose if I had read PK Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep before I’d seen the movie, I’d have felt differently. Much like The Shining, the book and movie are such completely different entities it’s hard to accept the second one you encounter. But BR was my first encounter with the work of PK Dick and it was a wonderful, dreadful experience.
