True story is that as I sat down this weekend to watch ‘Blade Runner’ for the fifty-eleventh time the VCR tape that was shoved in the case was ‘What’s Love Got To Do With It?’ I laughed at myself for leaving my ‘Blade Runner’ flick in the range of my kid brother who prah’lee fell asleep during the movie and left it over someone’s crib. No problems, I will just pull out plan B, ‘The Empire Strikes Back’. Foiled again. The DVD case is empty. This is what I get for leaving my video stash at ma duke’s house. It looks like I will be hitting up Target in the near future for a little more than I bargained for.
Replacing the O.G ‘Star Wars’ trilogy is mandatory, you already know that, but if you have only one science fiction dystopian days of future past DVD in your collection you need to have ‘Blade Runner’. B.R. hits you on so many levels simultaneously. It’s a hard boiled detective thriller with hardbody action scenes*pause*. Nah, but fools do get their wigs peeled proper like. Wild shootouts go down in a meta-urban downtown dive bar. Everyone in the cast was still pretty green in terms of mainstream success, but they all were sublime in their roles.
EDWARD JAMES OLMOS has put in work for his career from ‘Miami Vice’ to ‘Battlestar Galactica’. His role as a seedy, origami-obsessed detective in ‘Blade Runner’ was boss money shit. RUTGER HAUER came through and did that psychotic sociopathic shit his ugly ass does so well. Did anyone see ‘The Hitcher’ with HAUER and C. THOMAS HOWELL? That shit was ill too. Getting back to ‘Blade Runner’ though… HARRISON FORD set himself up for life with this role even more than his work in ‘Star Wars’.
He plays the detective that is conscripted to track down a group of killer androids. These replicants, as they are called, look like humans in every way. They have even been programmed with a set of memories that they use to draw upon. Once they find out that their computer brains have a four year shelf life a rogue group of replicants returns to Earth in order to see if they can reverse the outcome. Who knew that these androids would start to enjoy their lives? Not so much as enjoy, but they form a desire to continue living and learning and… Loving!?!
In the climatic fight scene between RUTGER HAUER’s replicant character and FORD’s detective we come to find that the replicants have acheived a level of humanity that no one ever expected. HAUER basically pwns FORD’s character like a rag doll, but then when he has the opportunity to kill HARRISON FORD he elects not to. Instead he lets his brain just shut down effectively terminating his replicant software programming. The androids recognized that the greatest facet of humanity is the regard for life in all of it’s forms. ‘Blade Runner’ has wild action and it gets deep like that.
One of the things I internalized the most about ‘Blade Runner’ was the architecture of the future dystopia. On the ground level it was like Hong Kong or possibly Times Square, but the skyscrapers were all seven hundred stories tall. I think this might have been the film that inspired me to pursue architecture in school and beyond.
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‘YE TUDDA says “Copp this shit!” Yo dawg, ‘Blade Runner’ had some dope, futuristic costumes. Remember homeboy that made the eyeballs for the androids? And that crazy bitch that ran through glass windows with nothing but her see through jelly rain jacket on?!? Yeah, that shit was ill. |
This is my favorite movie of all time. Great comments about the architecture — everything is sort of larger than life in the film, rendering earth’s last, blighted human inhabitants miniature and nondescript. Rick Deckard is supposed to protect earth, but it doesn’t seem like there’s much left that’s worth protecting.
Dr. Tyrell wants everyone to believe that the replicants must be killed before they develop emotion, but it’s funny — in the film, they’re the only characters that EVER display emotion, as with the hauer scene that you describe. All the humans, from Tyrell to the chief of police, to olmos’s harbinger of doom, are cold as fuck.
I feel as though a lot of people don’t take the time they should with this movie. Respect for giving it its due.
Good point re: emotions, Sordid.
Deckard is also a droid…
Damn. I saw BladeRunner and have been sleeping on it ever since. You’ve sold me on a second viewing.
‘Ye is growing on me. Not literally.
Agreed…the androids show more emotions than the humans. It’s definitely a classic.
Blade Runner, pause, is one of my top 5 fave joints, along with “Apocalypse Now” (featuring a young Harrison Ford), “Shogun Assassin” (Frank Miller’s entire body of work was MOST DEFINITELY inspired by this joint), “The Conversation” (which is the SAME move as “Enemy Of The State” but WAY better and also starring a young Gene Hackman as well as young Harrison Ford, homie put in much work) and “The Shining” which puts the “H” in Horror!
Back in the ’80’s Rutger Hauer showed MAD promise as being that Hardbody, pause, killer type as demonstrated in the afore-mentioned “The Hitcher”. Plus, he was born in BK, the original Breukelen, Holland that is. What happened to dude? His career tanked massively after BR and TH. I was glad to see his recent appearances in “Sin City” and “Batman Begins”. Dude played in like O movies during the ’90’s.
^SP, I think BR wasn’t given it’s propers because it was a sci fi joint that came out RIGHT after the original Star Wars hype AND it starred Harrison Ford. Not a good look since EVERYONE was expecting the next Star Wars and BR was ANYTHING but. As a kid, when I first saw BR, I felt a bit disappointed, being the young Star Wars stan I was. Then I saw it a couple of years later up in college after puffing on some trees and felt like Newton when the apple clocked him in his head. This joint if BRILLIANT and I could give a flying fuck if the masses haven’t picked up on it. A couple of weeks ago, one of my people’s stuck in the middle American mind set told me that they never even bothered to see this ever! Even though dude is into Sci Fi. You can’t expect everyone to have a certain level of excellence in taste.
def wait a few more months to get blade runner in your collection. they are releasing an end all edition of that ish. i think it is going to be 4 discs and will include everything having to do with blade runner. believe they even went back and reshot a few scenes.
I must admit I never got into this movie *pause*, for some reason it seemed it took to long to get started, with my adhdddadhdd(or whatever it now!) I just couldn’t keep focused. I may try it again when that LE comes out.
Ps. the same goes wit Dune, differnece was I read those first couple books and the movie was waf off….
Dallas,
This has nothing to do with this post but your boy Jason Whitlock is wildin’ again…this is pure stupid.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/LIVING/wayoflife/07/24/pitbull.culture.ap/index.html
yo on the real – I cant get enough of Ye Tudda LOL
CJ’s Star Wars comment is one I hadn’t ever considered before.
Even the special effects in this movie are still relevant.
This movie fucked up the heads of many a Cold War kid/Hip Hop head/Sci Fi fan in the 80’s. I saw this flick, “Escape From New York”, “The Man Who Saw Tomorrow”, “Mad Max”, “Damnation Alley” and “Dune” all after the other as a kid…I was never the same again.
This movie is partly responsible for completely fucking up El-P of Def Jux. Classic joint.
One.
True story is that my dad took me to the movies to see ‘Apocalypse Now’ when it came out in 1979. Dukes was preggers with my ba’ybro. That shit blew my mind wide the fuck open. ‘Apocalypse Now’ doesn’t even smack me as a movie, but a fuckin’ newsreel. I asked my dad if that was what Vietnam was like. He told me “Yep.” Needless to say I never enlisted in the military.
I’m amped to see BR’s ultimate edition. I had the director’s cut and that shit was the definitive movie in my mind. If they would do a limited theater release I would buy a week’s worth of tickets.
Nice drop. I saw BR at the drive in with my dad back in the days. I remember my parents arguing about it as it was the first time I saw a rated R move or at least the first time I was old enought to grasp what was going on. It was a double feature Blade Runner and Sharky’s Machine. I can’t remember shit about Sharky’s machine, but BR is one move that really stuck. On that night it became my favorite flick and has continued to be one of my top three ever since. It also turned me onto the works of Philip K Dick.
Tried to share this with the seed a few weeks ago, but it was late and she was asleep about a half hour into it.
I dig both the original and the director’s cut and have both. I always dug the voice overs as a kid.
Oh yeah…. the Hitcher was ill too.
x7an,
You need to mail me one of them BR copies so I can get my fix right.
I’ll send it back homey.
No prob, I’m off tommorrow and will try to get of my lazy ass and run down to the p.o.
Just start catching those Kanye remarks and pics at the end of the last few posts. LMAO. Priceless…just adds more laughter to the posts.
f-u-c-k-i-n-g word. dallas, this movie is so ill, not even to get into all the different cuts and re-works of the film: its initial showing, theatre showing; directors cut (the best i think). it so good! and the hint that deckard may actually be a replicant himself? perfect. this movie is everything el-p wishes he could explicate in audio. he comes damn close actually. man, i am watching directors cut tonight!
oh yeah and CJ did you have that little baby yet man? good luck. and if so, what was the weight? if i missed the post, please forgive me as i have been studying for an average of 10 hours a day of late.
oh man. i saw Br when i was younger and was fascinated by its visuals and then later after extensively reading the work of PKD, it opened me up to different ways of thinking (just like hip-hop did; bikini kill; james joyce). after do androids dream of electric sheep i went into other short stories and found that PKD was a mad scientist of sorts — a drug-addled genius that was more prolific than any other writer of his time. to call his work merely science fiction is to do a dis-service to the mans legacy as one who was visionary of such things as the “war on terror”, cointelpro, the war on drugs, and so much more. he incorporated a sense of spirituality and philosophy into his picture of a dystopian future that in my opinion surpasses bradbury, orwell and asimov. argue if you must (and i will respect your opinion), but if you have not read “the man in the high castle”, please do so and then talk to me again. man in the high castle is an important piece of LITERATURE, not just sci-fi; it deserves to exist in the canon of english literature as a monumental piece on par with with such classics as 1984 and Fahrenheit 451, as well as great gatsby and for whom the bell tolls. the i-ching, spaceships, and love? i am sold!
sorry dallas but the original trilogy, without the extraneous shite is much better. eeeees truuuueeee.
^ Cosign, but there was a mid-late 90’s Lucasfilm set that didn’t totally bastardize the O.G. series with CGI
dude, what about the other stuff? sheeit, it must be like 2am in new yawk so you dont need to respond, but did you read man in the high castle? fucking superb (not the guy that didnt write SC)!
and lucas juct re-released the OG’s on dvd, and didnt add any extras. what a dick! this guy is totally milking his legacy for all its worth! next thing you know there will be a “c-3-p-o with cheese” and shit. i shall reiterate, what a dick!
thoreaully, had a baby girl on the 16th. 10 effin pounds even! Thanks!
My moms had me watch this (along with a million other sci-fi joints) back in the day…Yo is the extended joint what makes people say dude was a replicant or did I just miss something.
RutgerS Hauer is that crack in human flesh (no juelz)
@ Thoreauly77,
I haven’t read The Man in The High Castle yet, but I have put it on my list as per your recommendation. Philip K Dick was no doubt a visionary along with Bradbury, Orwell, Camus, Ellison, Heinlein, et al. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep is another book that totally exceeds even the great movie that was adapted from it. My favorite authors use the illusions of science fiction to weave parables about the travails of today’s society.
Are you familiar with Octavia Butler (R.I.P.)? She is another author that used a third eye in her writing.
nah i havent read octavia butler. where should i start?
Aww man, start with Kindred. You will dig this story. A chick is transported back in time into the antebellum South. She meets her ancestors and their slavemasters. Butler also did a couple of books called the Parables. This is with the premise of a future dystopia and the U.S. has been reduced to city states with no central government. Definitely start with Kindred. Octavia Butler is Chocolate Snowflake’s favorite author of all time. I’ll see if she will bless us with a drop about her.
Never saw BR. Always heard good things about it but never took the time to view it. Sounds lke somethin i needa get on.
What’s the “do androids dream of electric sheeps” about? Or somethin to that nature?
hiphopremix.com/content/view/235/28/
^^^ DP Look at this, your Boy Fuxie got picked up on a alley-oop by Hip Hop Remix…….. Major thanks To you Dallas with all the love you have been showing me… no disclaimer necessary this is grown man love
“Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep is another book that totally exceeds even the great movie that was adapted from it.”
speaking of which…how disappointing was the film version of “a scanner darkly”??? that book is sensational.
“the three stigmata of palmer eldritch” may be my favorite…”a maze of death” is really good…
Im going to Target after work to cop this joint. Pure futuristic pif.
sordid- i gotthose on original paperback. te art is ill. i am drunk. 3 stigmata is so sick, but check man in the high castle. teh shit will change you bro. and a skanner darkly, the movie, kinda sucked. linklater, yes. canoe (keaneu), not so much.
^ Everyone’s drunk now. I like how my monitor gets bigger and smaller depending on how I lean. Ha, C’mon Eileen. Dexxy’s Midnight Runners. I am so old school.