The Ohio Sci-Fi and Horror Marathons

It's one of the most legendary science fiction films of all time, and one of the most influential films of the 20th century. It features Harrison Ford, at the height of his box office stardom, challenging audience preconceptions of his image. It assembles a formidable female cast in Sean Young, Darryl Hannah, and Joanna Cassidy. It gave Rutger Hauer one of the defining, if not THE defining roles of his career. It's been released in at least three major versions (and a work print, and in international cut...) each of which deepens its mysterious charms. It's been debated, analyzed, decontextualized, put through the cultural wringer and back.

We had great success with this type of question in relation to THE SHINING at last fall's Horror Marathon, so let's do it one more time:

What's your BLADE RUNNER story? When did you first see it? Why did it get its claws into you? Or why didn't it? And why does it continue to exert such a grip on the audience to this day?

Two quick notes before I answer this question...

1) Calling BLADE RUNNING possibly THE defining role in Rutgar Hauer's career clearly ignores his greatest role ever... from BLIND FURY.

and

2) What color is that unicorn: blue & black, or white & gold?

Okay... serious answer now.

My BLADE RUNNER journey is a unique one compared to many because I was not particularly fond of the film when I first saw it. This was probably because I watched it the broadcast television version via a pre-taped VHS on a ghost-riddled color television in my parents' basement. I was in middle school, so I wasn't quite able to comprehend all of the nuances of a Ridley Scott movie. Add to the fact that I was a huge Star Wars & Indiana Jones fan, and I was primed to not be ready for this movie.

Later in high school, I watched it again, this time the official release on VHS. Still, it was on a small TV that didn't do the scope of the film justice. Again, I wasn't a fan.

It wasn't until I saw the movie in college around 1992 or 1993 shortly after the Director's Cut was released. My Campus Film committee at BGSU brought in the 35mm print of the Director's Cut, and I finally experienced it in a real theater. It was a whole new movie, not just because of the changes made to this version. I was finally able to fully appreciate the big screen nature of the film, including the ahead-of-its time special effects that still seemed groundbreaking ten years later. And then there are the dense and complex themes that I was finally just being able to wrap my head around in my early 20s.

I still won't call BLADE RUNNER my favorite science fiction film of all time. Or even Ridley Scott's finest. But I definitely appreciate it now, and by not overwatching it, I find something new in it every time. I probably haven't seen it for at least 10 years and am especially looking forward to seeing it at the marathon in two weeks.

June 25th, 1982. Summer vacation had just begun and my friend Greg borrowed his mother's car and we attended the very first show on the very first day of release. What a way to kick off the summer! I liked it, but, didn't love it. It was just too dense to wade through on one sitting.
February 1983. SF/8. Some guy named Brian Bartoo or something books it at the Boston Sci-Fi marathon with the tagline, "Yeah, we know you saw it, but, see it with the RIGHT crowd!" (During Bartoo's reign it was NOT common to show recent movies at the 'thon) The name may have been Bruce. Can't recall. Anyway, my appreciation of BLADE RUNNER really grew deeper upon seeing it again - with the right people!
Over the next few years, I saw BLADE RUNNER several times including at the Drive-In (!) and on TV and eventually, it was my first VHS tape purchase (used, I wasn't paying $40 for it!).
1990-1991. The BLADE RUNNER universe explodes when it is revealed that a 70mm print of the legendary Workprint Cut 'accidentally' gets shown at an early weekend morning screening at the now shuttered Fairfax Cinema (about 2 miles from where I was living at the time! But, I was too damn lazy to get up and attend! ) A few months later, that same 70mm print plays as part of UCLA's Los Angeles Perspectives Multimedia Festival at the Motion Picture Academy's huge theater. I buy tickets as soon as they are on sale. It sells out that same day. On the day of the show, there are DOZENS of people begging to buy tickets. One guy was holding a sign, "I'll pay anything! I GOTTA SEE THIS!" Ridley Scott doesn't attend, but, sends a letter in which he says "I'm glad an audience can finally see the movie as I intended with the Unicorn dream scene." But, the scene ISN'T in the Workprint Cut.

It is there and then that I decide that the Workprint Cut is my favorite version of BLADE RUNNER. I still feel that way: Minimal narration. Better pacing. NO Unicorn (Deckard isn't a replicant except in Scott's head and his tinkered subsequent versions).

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Long Live the Orson Welles Cinemas

This is definitely a movie that almost demands more than one viewing to fully unpack everything. I first saw it via the Director's Cut DVD in college in 2006 or so, and while I enjoyed it on some level, I had a bit of a "What did I just watch?" feeling. I saw it again a year later, at the Gateway Theater during the brief Final Cut theatrical run in 2007, and got a lot more out of it. I got the Final Cut DVD a couple years later and have seen it a couple times since then. But I'm mega excited to see the Final Cut on the big screen again, and this time with a marathon crowd instead of a random weekday audience at a normal theater showing.

My early experience with the film is similar to Kevin's. I first saw it on a VHS copy, recorded off of cable, and I thought it was... decent. This was the Theatrical Cut with the narration, and I thought it was an OK film but the 14-year-old me wasn't blown away by it. I didn't really get it then, nor did I get what the big deal was. It just played like a run-of-the-mill scifi/action picture of the time to me.

Cut to 1992 and the release of the Director's Cut. I saw it theatrically during its brief run and I was much more impressed this time around, believing it to be a masterpiece. This was the version I bought on WS VHS and watched several times over the years.

Believe it or not I've never seen The Final Cut, so the showing at this year's marathon should be a real treat. I don't know what the differences are between it and the Director's Cut, so I should be pleasantly (I hope?) surprised by it.

I know this is sacrilegious but I have never paid to much attention to Blade Runner, I have seen it a few times in my youth but remember very little about the movie so I am excited to see it through my Adult eyes and forming an opionion.

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"If you have GHOSTS you have Everything" - Papa Emeritus II GHOST B.C.