Blade Runner and Blade Runner 2049, whew.
These have been important films in my art-communion history. Out of all movies, they are not popular though neither would I call them unpopular. They occupy the sort of middle that makes them interesting to argue about and for others to watch who have not yet seen them. This includes my wife…who has yet to see them. But it is okay. We started the original one1 but the bioengineered replicants and owls did not quite engage her…yet.
I will be adding to this as I go.
from this morning’s post:
Watching, on the remembrance of myself of how good these movies are:
Blade Runner (1982 og) but actually the director’s final cut (2007) which I swiped (i bought it!) from Goodwill in 2018 to watch for the first time in my life
+ Blade Runner 2049 (2017) (halfway through it)
if you haven’t watched either, and you wanna spend hours musing on what it means to be human and what it might mean to be an bio-organic slave who longs for freedom, have we got a show for you!
Warning for both:
There are one/two scenes of female nakedness in each, which are used as critical commentary on objectification of women, per my interpretation, but may want to be skipped over by those who would not like to see them. If you can stand it and it is good and not ill for your soul, withstand the movie unedited (perhaps you haven’t heard of VidAngel which I have never used but heard good things of), then bear the movies as they are and learn from how they represent misogyny/abuse/sexual sins what have you as a piece of art, not as a piece of lust or misogynistic directing/acting etc. Which I think is an incorrect interpretation of the film, though not without its merits as a critical lens. The first one in the original Blade Runner is when he is pursuing Zhora into the club/brothel, which is commentary (also a theme in the sequel) on how female Replicants are used in the sex work industry.
P.S. on the warning—with two * S * P * O * I * L * E * R * S * [if you don’t care about getting things spoiled, or reject the concept like me, read on while I ramble on]—If you start to feel nervous during the scene in the 2049 when Joi and the prostitute combine, don’t skip it until after they awake. The scene means to communicate so much and it is not one with nakedness in it. The following scene is what has the brief shot of nakedness. Another common misinterpretation is in the sequel, Wallace knifes a naked female Replicant who he just ‘created’ in his Dr. Frankenstein moonshot at making Replicable Replicants (females with fertile wombs). Since she is not fertile, he kills her out of his frustration, in addition to wanting to see what Luv’s reaction would be. This is all very interesting, but can be horrifying to some viewers. Wallace is like Tyrell in the original but this time played by Jared Leto as perhaps an even creepier and more dehumanizing tycoon-tyrant who is a poetically blind self-cyborg. W thinks that Replicants are expendables who are used for his purposes of gaining filthy lucre. Pretty healthy dose of realism, tragedy, and horror as he watches and makes his right-hand enslaved Replicant Luv watch unnamed barren-Eve bleed out because of his wrath that she is not worth human dignity [or does W also throw out humanity as a concept?].
lol okay the one I own is from Goodwill, and it’s the Final Director’s Cut. So sorrrrry if you’re really into the original theatrical release. I haven’t seen more than still-shots of that version’s ending. Honestly, I’m not about it. Is that unfair? Do I need to see/experience that version first? I don’t think so. I think the one I have is fine and retains the ambiguity of Deckard’s species as well as the whole constructed wall between human and replicant that is so harped upon by Joshi
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/blade-runner-directors-cut-1992
tears in the rain speech https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/sci-fi/blade-runner-tears-in-rain-speech/