Blade Runner left an undeniable mark on pop culture. There's no way I can say the movie is not good. The set design still cackles with ambition and vision, and holds up perfectly to this day. And yet, so many other things about the film left me cold. Harrison Ford is said to have been bored and frustrated on set, and that boredom bleeds into his performance. He only seems to buy into the world around him when a certain other actor drags it out of him, but you can hardly blame him with a character as bland as Deckard. This may very well be intentional, to highlight the humanity of the replicants in contrast, but that does not make the scenes focused solely on Deckard any less of a drag to sit through. His romance with with Sean Young's Rachel is awkward, lifeless, utterly lacking in chemistry, and a bit disturbing in one scene. I cannot blame Scott for trying to shoehorn in a certain infamous theory- it's the only thing that makes Deckard halfway interesting in of himself.
Olmos makes the most out of every second he has, and Daryl Hannah does stellar work with a character that starts out strong but sadly falls into the one sexy but mentally unhinged evil girlfriend archetype, and neither are enough to elevate the film. If it weren't for one aspect, a light in the dark, I'd say the film had more value historically than artistically, something to watch only to see how media took influence from it and did things better.
But oh, what a light Rutger Hauer was. When he's on screen as Roy Batty, the film burns bright. You can't take your eyes off the screen. A terrifying killer one moment, bloodlust in his wild eyes. The next, he's a morose teen, dying far too soon, wanting more time with his love, friends, and life itself, his hangdog, lost expressions wringing sympathy. He walks a fine line and the man walked it with the grace of an acrobat. If there's one theme that comes through on the first viewing, it's the humanity of Batty versus Deckard. Hauer had to sell that this machine was more of a man than Deckard ever was. He had to sell that Roy was the man, the ideal of humanity in all its beauty and flaws, its glory and its excesses, and he achieves it with aplomb.
Every second he's away you wait for his return, and in his presence everything comes together. The swooning synthesizer soundtrack, representing his machinery and his romanticism. Ford, who only seems to bring his A game in the big climax, both he and Hauer cat and mouse at the same time, an invigorating comparison and contrast. And of course, his final scene, one of the most iconic soliloquies in all of cinema, that Hauer himself altered to perfection. This film lives and breathes on Hauer. If everything around him feels a bit sterile, it only makes Roy Batty feel all the more alive. Even setting aside the inspired set design and the cultural impact, Hauer alone would make the film worth watching in a performance that will never be lost to time.
Review by JCVIP 4BlockedParent2021-05-26T05:57:17Z
Blade Runner left an undeniable mark on pop culture. There's no way I can say the movie is not good. The set design still cackles with ambition and vision, and holds up perfectly to this day. And yet, so many other things about the film left me cold. Harrison Ford is said to have been bored and frustrated on set, and that boredom bleeds into his performance. He only seems to buy into the world around him when a certain other actor drags it out of him, but you can hardly blame him with a character as bland as Deckard. This may very well be intentional, to highlight the humanity of the replicants in contrast, but that does not make the scenes focused solely on Deckard any less of a drag to sit through. His romance with with Sean Young's Rachel is awkward, lifeless, utterly lacking in chemistry, and a bit disturbing in one scene. I cannot blame Scott for trying to shoehorn in a certain infamous theory- it's the only thing that makes Deckard halfway interesting in of himself.
Olmos makes the most out of every second he has, and Daryl Hannah does stellar work with a character that starts out strong but sadly falls into the one sexy but mentally unhinged evil girlfriend archetype, and neither are enough to elevate the film. If it weren't for one aspect, a light in the dark, I'd say the film had more value historically than artistically, something to watch only to see how media took influence from it and did things better.
But oh, what a light Rutger Hauer was. When he's on screen as Roy Batty, the film burns bright. You can't take your eyes off the screen. A terrifying killer one moment, bloodlust in his wild eyes. The next, he's a morose teen, dying far too soon, wanting more time with his love, friends, and life itself, his hangdog, lost expressions wringing sympathy. He walks a fine line and the man walked it with the grace of an acrobat. If there's one theme that comes through on the first viewing, it's the humanity of Batty versus Deckard. Hauer had to sell that this machine was more of a man than Deckard ever was. He had to sell that Roy was the man, the ideal of humanity in all its beauty and flaws, its glory and its excesses, and he achieves it with aplomb.
Every second he's away you wait for his return, and in his presence everything comes together. The swooning synthesizer soundtrack, representing his machinery and his romanticism. Ford, who only seems to bring his A game in the big climax, both he and Hauer cat and mouse at the same time, an invigorating comparison and contrast. And of course, his final scene, one of the most iconic soliloquies in all of cinema, that Hauer himself altered to perfection. This film lives and breathes on Hauer. If everything around him feels a bit sterile, it only makes Roy Batty feel all the more alive. Even setting aside the inspired set design and the cultural impact, Hauer alone would make the film worth watching in a performance that will never be lost to time.