Bladerunner: The Final Cut

This set of DVDs is incredible. I watched Dangerous Days: the Making of Blade Runner today...all 3 and half hours of it. Some remarkable insights into the making of the movie. Few punches were pulled. You also got a look into all the different discipline of filmmaking from the writing right through the whole production process and test marketing.

The visual effects are all that more extraordinary when you realize there were no computer generated scenes. Everything was done "in camera" through the use of composites, multiple pass exposures and matte paintings.
 
I just got this 5 set on HD-DVD. Just started watching the doc, great stuff. And Ridley's commentary is pretty awesome. I'm itching to try the red eye reflection trick, always wondered how they did it.
 
Blaine said:
This set of DVDs is incredible. I watched Dangerous Days: the Making of Blade Runner today...all 3 and half hours of it. Some remarkable insights into the making of the movie. Few punches were pulled. You also got a look into all the different discipline of filmmaking from the writing right through the whole production process and test marketing.
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I agree, Blaine. It was an eye opener to learn of all of the internal struggles and tug of wars while making this film. I commend Ridley Scott for sticking to his guns.

After all of their talk of the "box office failure", I was curious just how much this film had earned. According to one site, the budget was $28 million and after it's original release in '82 it made back just over $27 million. In total, the movie has earned almost $35.5 million.

Great movie and I was happy to add it to my collection.
 
Well...that $35.5 million only accounts for the two *theatrical* releases; 1982 and the limited 2007 Final Cut (20 theaters at its max).

I'd bet that combined VHS, DVD, and now Blu-Ray and HD-DVD sales add a nice hefty chunk to that number, especially so once the current Final Cut version (including the pricy "Ultimate" sets - like my Blu-Ray copy!) runs its course. Then there's the cable, broadcast, licensing, merchandising and God-knows-what-all other earnings over the years. Enough to give Mr. Scott and company some pretty sweet revenge for its initial "failure", I'd hope.
 
Another thought on the original release's failure, particularly now that I've watched the "Dangerous Days" BTS doc:

I think it was as much as anything else a case of misplaced expectations. "Raiders of the Lost Ark" had come out a year earlier, and "Star Wars - Empire Strikes Back" a year before that, which are both (still) definitive Harrison Ford vehicles, and a lot of people probably expected something similar, which Blade Runner was not. There are significant problems in BR (I think of it as a "flawed masterpiece" if there could be such a thing), but I think unfulfilled expectations sank it as much as any other factor. Three people in a theatre a week or two after opening? Whew...(I'm loosely quoting a comment to that effect from the BTS doc).

I think it was only when people stopped looking at it for what it *wasn't* (another Han Solo/Indiana Jones triumph) and saw it for what it *was* (no explanation needed in this crowd!) that the cult following grew.

Like many others, I loved it from the very first time I saw it, while acknowledging it had some serious flaws, but it still took quite a while for it to attain cult-masterpiece status in the larger film-buff community. It's worthy of note that people like Robert McKee (in his great book "Story") still categorize it as pretty much of an outright failure. As noted in the doc, Roger Ebert pretty much wrote it off too.

On the other hand, Guillermo Del Torres (Director of "Pan's Labyrinth"), interviewed in the doc, with perfectly understated eloquence, called it what it's always been to so many of us - the essence of cinema: a visual masterpiece that only the film medium can achieve (as I paraphrase him in my own words).

Climbing down off my soapbox now...
 
Great post, Ted. You pretty much articulated my thoughts on the subject.

I loved all the director interviews in Dangerous Days, especially Frank Darabont's comments on the original theatrical cut's V.O. for "Tears in Rain". That cracked me up.
 
Elton said:
I loved all the director interviews in Dangerous Days, especially Frank Darabont's comments on the original theatrical cut's V.O. for "Tears in Rain". That cracked me up.
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Also extremely interesting I thought was the fact that Rutger Hauer pretty much singlehandedly edited/rewrote the entire rooftop monologue (including the "tears in rain" passage, which he came up with himself). The doc included some shots of the original script's dialog as Hauer explained his distaste for it, so you could see the overwrought stuff he (rightly) objected to. I thought that was really fascinating. It was also one of the many examples of Scott and company's willingness to let the doc show his and others' questionable choices/mistakes in the process, and ways in which those mistakes were eventually dealt with, with a blunt frankness that I felt was admirably courageous of him. The doc overall had a notable lack of the kind of self-congratulation that too often pervades these kinds of things

I also found it very interesting that his grown kids, three men and a woman, who appeared several times in the doc, were all so poised, supportive and articulate on the subject.

It gave me some insights into Ridley himself that were quite favorable, and in a way that I found pretty hard to argue with. He was (is) a perfectionist, no doubt, and certainly drove people nuts with that (which he made no attempt to sugar-coat), but as a man he redeemed himself for me as an honest, true believer who fundamentally just cares about what he does a great, great deal. Evidently, and most gratifyingly, including his relationships with his kids, who again, seemed quite notably non-screwed up where all too many overachiever-celeb's kids are.

My $.02
 
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I noticed on the 4 box set there's a feature on Jorden Cronenweth. Can anyone comment, is it worth looking at? I'd love to see some examples of his set ups, etc.
 
Blaine said:
This set of DVDs is incredible. I watched Dangerous Days: the Making of Blade Runner today...all 3 and half hours of it. Some remarkable insights into the making of the movie. Few punches were pulled. You also got a look into all the different discipline of filmmaking from the writing right through the whole production process and test marketing.

The visual effects are all that more extraordinary when you realize there were no computer generated scenes. Everything was done "in camera" through the use of composites, multiple pass exposures and matte paintings.
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it was interesting to know harrison ford has a terrible time, even seeing on his face lol.
 
yeah like how the rewrote the script behind hamptons back lol and he couldnt stop it i thought was strange.
 
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