BLADE RUNNER (1982) *** "I stopped by the Hard Luck Saloon for a belt. The back door overlooks a ditch where the blood of the patrons mixes with dirt and rushing water, and I don't know if there was ever any difference in the first place." That's not an actual quote from the film, but I like to think it is. Ridley Scott perfectly projects a binary trajectory of permanent technological advance and societal decay. There's no question that today Los Angeles already looks more like this than it did at the time, and the expiration date of 2019 may well be on schedule. Philip K. Dick's (more cleverly titled, "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep") novel has more than enough ideas on medicine, mortality, decadence and decay to keep thing going, and the climactic scene between Harrison Ford and Rutger Hauer is a study in intensity. Scott stays in the pocket with his tone, refusing to relinquish the concept of space noire even when lesser directors might have thought that it had lost its novelty. The result is a profound mix of old and new that smells very much like a possible future. There are characters along the way: Daryl Hannah doing a pretty good Ziggy Stardust impression, Joanna Cassidy as a snake dancer, Edward James Olmos as a tough cop...all these years I've heard people insult others by saying that they look like the Brion James character. Now I can laugh. The romance between Ford and Sean Young is more than a little bit forced, but I'm not sure that's not genre appropriate-what tough-guy investigator is going to get himself caught in a decent romance? The closing statement works because, while this has always been an action flick, Dick and Scott always had their eye on the philosophical implications of who's throwing the punches, and why.
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