Jayne's Addictions

Today marks the beginning of a limited run of ‘Blade Runner: The Final Cut’ at the Cinerama theater on 4th & Lenora. Twenty five years after this film was first released as Blade Runner has now had two additional cuts released and is now considered one of the great films of all time (#97 on AFI’s 100 greatest films). Not bad for a film that was initially a box office and critical disaster.’

In anticipation of the new ‘Final Cut’ of Blade Runner, I thought I’d offer up a little primer for the lodge.

First off, there’s the obvious question: “If they’ve already done a directors cut, what the hell is this ‘Final Cut’ bull@#$%?”

The simple answer is that the directors cut, wasn’t actually the directors cut. A little back story...

‘The Original Version’

The producers of Blade Runner were very nervous about the film. Test audiences found Ridley Scott’s initial cuts to be too confusing. So they took the film into their own hands and made a lot of alterations to make the film more clear.

Most notably was the addition of a voice over narrative by Harrison Ford. Very noir-ish, the voice over works stylistically with the film, but they don’t tell you anything you can’t figure out for yourself, making it somewhat redundant (unless you just prefer someone to tell you what you just saw). Some cuts were made to tone down the violence, although most of these cuts were included in international versions of the film, and the dream was also cut, as it was deemed ‘too artsy’. The other big change was the addition of a happy ending, in the form of Deckard and Rachel driving into the country to be together. Interestingly enough this footage is actually taken from Stanley Kubrick’s ‘The Shining’.

‘The Directors Cut’

This is where things get tricky, as to call it a ‘Directors Cut’ isn’t exactly true. Back in 1991, someone came across a work print of Blade Runner that somewhat resembles what we now know as the directors cut. It made the rounds at various film festivals to enthusiastic responses. Ridley Scott himself, wasn’t exactly pleased about it, because Work Prints by nature are very rough, and really isn’t designed for public viewing.

Warner Brothers, got the idea of doing a directors cut of the film and offered it to Ridley, who at the time had to refuse at the time as he was in preproduction on another film. So armed with some notes from Ridley Scott and the work print, Warner Brothers set out to make the ‘Directors Cut’ in what ended up being a very rushed manner.

Most notably the Directors Cut removes Deckard’s voice over and the happy ending, and reintroduces the Unicorn dream sequence implying Deckard’s true nature.

‘The Final Cut’

While Ridley Scott has said he is happier with the Directors Cut of the film, he never felt entirely comfortable with the cut and wanted the opportunity to truly re cut the film himself with 100% artistic control. Back in 2000, he finally got his chance, completing the new cut in 2001, the film suddenly found itself in a tangled legal dispute until 2006 (If I recall, it had to do with Warner Bros wanting to ensure that they were able to secure full rights to the film at a time when the rights were getting close to reverting to another party).

As for what has changed...here’s a list of what I’ve read about so far...

• Cables have been digitally removed from the Spinners.
• Bryant now says that TWO Replicants were fried, thus eliminating that annoying "6 - 1 does not equal 4" equation. This dialogue was originally recorded.
• Tyrell's thumb has been removed from Roy's shoulder in the phone booth.
• Snake scale serial number has been corrected.
• Zhora crashing through plate glass windows - Joanna Cassidy's face has been refilmed and edited onto the stunt woman.
• When Roy releases the dove, it now flies into a darker cloudy sky, more in keeping with the rest of the film.
• When Deckard "takes a moment" out on the balcony of his apartment, there is now a geisha girl displayed on the building in the background.
• The shot of Deckard waiting to eat at the White Dragon has been shortened, its editing reminiscent of the workprint version of the shot. This was done due to the removal of the voiceover.
• All the violent scenes in the International Cut that were deleted in the U.S. theatrical release and Director's Cut are restored to the Final Cut.
• When Bryant and Deckard are looking at the Nexus-6 profiles, Bryant gives a description of Leon's job. This was from the workprint.
• When Gaff and Deckard first appear at Leon's apartment, the landlord now says "Kowalski". Another small bit originally from the workprint.
• Deckard's conversation with the snake merchant Abdul Ben Hassan has been altered so that the dialog is no longer out of sync; Ben Ford's mouth (lip-syncing the spoken dialog) was digitally placed over his father's.
• A shot of the busy crowds in the streets was restored. Immediately after that, a shot of two strippers wearing hockey masks was restored. Finally, there's a shot of Deckard talking to another police officer. These three shots had previously appeared in slightly different form in the work print version.
• The original full-length version of the unicorn dream has been restored. This is a much different version than the one that appeared in the Director's Cut, and has never been in any version seen by the public prior to this one.
• When Batty confronts Tyrell, he says, "I want more life, father." (from the workprint version and used in television broadcasts of the film), as opposed to the original line "I want more life, @#$%er."
• After killing Tyrell, Batty says "I'm sorry Sebastian. Come. Come." when before he merely approached the desperate Sebastian. This is also from the workprint.

From what I've read there are actually a lot of little tweaks. A shot is slightly shortened here, a shot is switched around there, etc. One of the big reasons for this actually goes back to the original version with the narration. A lot of shots had to be adjusted to fit all the narration in. When the directors cut came out the narration was removed, but the shot wasn't re-worked. Should be an interesting experience....

There really isn’t anything I could say about this movie that hasn’t been said a hundred times before. It’s quite simply one of the greatest films ever made, and one of my favorites. It’s nice to finally see it really get the treatment it deserves. The DVD that originally came out for it was never a great transfer, and I’ve never really seen a well re-mastered print of the film. You’d think that a film as visually renowned as this one would have had the full treatment by now...but, better late then never I suppose. As excited as I am to see it on the big screen, I’m also really looking forward to see how it looks in HD-DVD.