Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3712 in DVD
• Released on: 1997-03-26
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Formats: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Director's Cut, Dolby, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, French, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 117 minutes

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Customer Reviews

BLADE RUNNER-Excellent Science Fiction Film
Blade Runner was a five star movie that had an exceptionally good plot. It also featured astounding special effects which were amazing to see on the big screen. Much of this work was done with large scale models and fog machines that really helped to establish the atmosphere and feel of the film visually. Several of the screen and sound effects were taken from Ridley Scott's Alien, including computer graphic screens and miscellaneous electronic sound effects. In addition, the sets, models, and costumes were wonderfully organic, as were the original sets of Giger's from Alien.

The story concerns humaniod robots in the first quarter of the 21st century that have intelligence and agility at least as great as that of the genetic engineers who designed them. The robots are called Replicants because they are physically equivalent to human beings down to their organs, blood and bone structure. The strength and speed of these androids is much greater than that of a human, and they can be a great deal of trouble to deal with.

The story takes for granted that such advanced robots possess true consciousness and are quite willing to fight and even kill human beings in order to continue their existance which has been intentionally limited to a life span of four years. This is one of the few robot films to come out of Hollywood which does not depend on Asimov's three laws of robotics for the story.

One new science fiction twist on robotics used in this film is the implanting of false memories of childhood, parents and a long prior existance. Though false, these implanted memories mean a great deal to the androids at the "emotional" level who carry photos of their false history, parents and childhood homes even when they are aware that these memories are false. This was a totally new concept to me as a long time fan of robots in science fiction film and gave me a new perspective on the value of memories.

The film stars Harrison Ford who plays a special law officer or Blade Runner. As a Blade Runner he is authorized to use deadly force in the pursuit of "Replicants" to terminate (or retire) them on the planet Earth where their use has been banned. The story becomes even more interesting when the Blade Runner falls in love with a beautiful female Replicant who is used to calibrate the andoroid detection software used by Blade Runner detectives.

One scene which was particularly effective involved Harrison Ford revealing to the female android that she is artificial, something she has been unaware of since activation because of her false memory implants. This is the scene in which Harrison Ford falls in love with this very beautiful "woman" because of her well portraid vulnerability, emotions and sadness at learning that she is artificial. She is deeply hurt and shattered by the new knowledge and the tough Blade Runner instantly falls in love when she breaks down and silently cries after hearing his revelation and convincing evidence.

The Absolute Classic
This is the one. Buy it. Watch in on a wide-screen. Decide for yourself, is Deckard a replicant...?

How does Roy Batty know Deckard's name...?

Why did Gaff make an oragami unicorn...?

"I have seen things you people wouldn't believe"
(the review below was originally written on Yahoo! movies on Apr 17th, 2005)

I came to know about this movie from the track 'Love theme' (by Vangelis) that I randomly heard on an internet radio station not too long ago. It was a really great composition and made me interested in the movie. I read some reviews on imdb and almost all of them were very positive. So when I got hold of the Director's Cut DVD yesterday and started watching, my expectations were pretty high. In most of my past experiences in such cases, I hadn't been totally satisfied at the end. But surprisingly, that wasn't the case with this movie. It's amazing.. surely one of the best movies ever made. It's a sci-fi, but obviously not one of those movies that don't go beyond laser gun firing and strange looking creatures. It has a very touching human side to it, something which most movies of this genre lack. It is most definitely a cult movie and a milestone in the art of movie making.

I'm particularly impressed by the direction. Ridley Scott did such an excellent job of portraying a future LA. Nothing seems far-fetched, rather I can't help but wonder about how immaculate his vision was even about twenty five years ago. The movie is dark, bleak and atmospheric. All the main characters are depicted beautifully. Their inner conflicts, vulnerability, pride, fear, love, hatred - seems like a canvas painted with human emotions. Not often do we find such depth in character development, especially in sci-fi's. It's not just a movie, it's more like a poetry in motion. Who can forget that quote of Roy before he dies: "I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain." And the music by Vangelis is exquisite.

This is most probably my favorite movie of all time. Definitely a masterpiece, in all sense of the term. A movie much ahead of its time..