Four decades ago, Ridley Scott had a change of heart. Keen to avoid becoming identified solely with science fiction, he had declined the offer to direct an adaptation of Philip K. Dick's novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, as he had already signed up to follow Alien (1979) with Dune, which was based on the bestseller by Frank Herbert. However, a family tragedy prompted a rethink and, with David Lynch taking over the ill-fated 1984 epic, Scott committed to Blade Runner (1982), which many consider to be one of the genre's finest masterpieces. But what should you watch next if you enjoyed his neo-noir classic?
There are seven different versions of Blade Runner. The one currently available from Cinema Paradiso is the 1992 'Director's Cut', which was issued after a 70mm work print had come to light and received a largely enthusiastic reception when it was shown to sell-out audiences. As we shall see, this release is only part of a complex afterlife that has seen the value of a voiceover and the tone of the denouement debated as fiercely by fans and scholars as the human and android characteristics of the principals. You can find 'The Final Cut' versions on Blu-ray and 4K Blu-ray.
Yet, such was the dystopian picture's mixed critical reception and disappointing box-office showing that it was pulled from distribution after only making back half of its production costs. Indeed, it wasn't until armchair viewers latched on to it on video, cable and disc that Blade Runner started to acquire its cult following. So what changed for this broodingly intense account of the search conducted by world-weary ex-cop Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) for Roy Batty (Ruther Hauer), Zhora (Joanna Cassidy), Leon (Brion James) and Pris (Daryl Hannah), the bio-engineered Nexus 6 replicants who have illegally returned to 2019 Los Angeles from an off-world colony controlled by the Tyrell Corporation?
From Page to Screen
Philip K. Dick wrote Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968) at the height of the Vietnam War. However, he was still preoccupied with the Nazi atrocities he had read about while researching The Man in the High Castle (1962), which had imagined a scenario in which the Axis had triumphed in the Second World War and subjected the United States to totalitarian rule. It took over half a century for this compelling tome to be adapted for the small screen, with Ridley Scott's Scott Free company among the producing partners. But, on the publication of Do Androids Dream, an ambitious young film-maker named Martin Scorsese had immediately sought to acquire the rights to Dick's insight into being human at the dawn of the android age.
Set in San Francisco in a post-apocalyptic 1992, the text had envisaged a ravaged planet, on which animal life had become so endangered that survivors had started purchasing synthetic pets. Many had decamped to satellite colonies, leaving an underclass of 'chickenheads' to perform menial tasks and follow the empathetic new religion known as Mercerism. Humankind is assisted by the androids manufactured by the Rosen Corporation, but miscegenation is forbidden and this places extra strain on the married Deckard, a tracker of rogue robots who is attracted to a replicant named Rachael.
In charting Deckard's dehumanisation while pursuing Roy Baty (as he was called in the novel), Dick aimed to show the narrowing gap between debased human nature and increasingly sophisticated forms of artificial intelligence. As he revealed in Paul M. Sammon's book, Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner, 'For me android is a metaphor for people who are physiologically human but behaving in a non-human way. I use such terms as android and robot, but I'm really referring to a psychologically defective or malfunctioning or pathological human being.'
With American society still reeling from defeat in South-East Asia and the ramifications of the Watergate Scandal, Dick's ideas resonated with screenwriter Hampton Fancher, who optioned the book in 1977 after Dick had rejected a screenplay penned by producer Herb Jaffe's son, Robert. Producer Michael Deeley was taken by Fancher's script and offered it to Ridley Scott, who was in post-production on Alien after making his feature debut with a stylishly studied adaptation of Joseph Conrad's The Duellists (1977).
As Scott had agreed to direct Frank Herbert's Dune, he declined the invitation. But the cancer death of his older brother, Frank, hit him hard and the themes of humanity and mortality struck a chord that persuaded him to relinquish the Herbert project, which was eventually completed by David Lynch in 1984. However, Scott based his decision on Fancher's screenplay rather than Dick's source, as he seemingly never finished reading the novel, as he struggled with its narrative intricacy and its theological aspects. Scott recalls telling the author, 'You're so dense, mate, by page 32, there's about 17 storylines.'
Unsurprisingly, therefore, Scott urged Fancher to tone them down in the numerous rewrites that he produced over the next few months. The director also came up with the idea of finding new words for such clichéd terms as 'android' and 'bounty hunter' and, consequently, splashed out on the rights to William S. Burroughs's unfilmed screenplay derived from Alan E. Nourse's 1974 novel, The Bladerunner, which focused on the smuggling of medical supplies. Scott also suggested that Fancher acquainted himself with the French Métal Hurlant comic-books in order to gain a better appreciation of the dark world beyond the storyline. But Dick was far from impressed with Fancher's resulting efforts and complained that the first drafts were akin to 'Philip Marlowe meets the Stepford Wives'.
Frustrated by Fancher's struggles to nail the plot (which had left Dick 'angry and disgusted'), Scott and Deeley hired David Webb Peoples. Relieved that some of the subtlety of his book had been restored, Dick lauded Peoples for getting the trickiest scenes to work and conceded that his script 'taught me things about writing that I didn't know'. Fancher would later return to assist with rewrites, but Dick pronounced himself satisfied with the interpretation and Scott began to focus on the visuals.
Populating Ridleyville
From the outset, Scott knew that he wanted to put a futuristic spin on film noir chiaroscuro in order to create 'a film set 40 years hence, made in the style of 40 years ago'. The inspiration for what he called the 'crunchy comic-book architecture' came from sites as different as the ICI chemical plant at Wilton near his childhood Teeside home and 'Hong Kong on a bad day'. He was also keen to shoot at such iconic Los Angeles landmarks as Frank Lloyd Wright's Ennis House, Union Station and the Bradbury Building, which were respectively used for Deckard's apartment complex, police headquarters and the scene of the climactic confrontation between Harrison Ford and Rutger Hauer, in which the latter delivered his indelible, self-penned 'tears in rain' speech.
But the distinctive look came from the construction of what became known as 'Ridleyville' on the New York street set that had been standing at the old Warner Bros studio in Burbank since 1929. During the writing phase, Scott produced a series of sketches that were inspired by Jan Vermeer's paintings, William Hogarth's engravings, Jacob Riis's photography, Edward Hopper's Americana and the architecture of Italian Futurist, Antonio Sant'Elia. The influence of Métal Hurlant was also evident and Scott invited Jean 'Moebius' Girard to work on Blade Runner. But, with some reluctance, he decided to honour his commitment to René Laloux's animation, Les Maîtres du temps (1982).
Instead, Scott turned to 'visual futurist' Syd Mead, who had just completed work on Robert Wise's Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) after spending his early career in commercial design. In addition to the polygraph-like Voight-Kampff machine that is used to determine whether Leon and Rachael are replicants, Mead also came up with the flying cars known as 'spinners', which were built by Gene Winfield. These give the smoggy LA skyline a look that is closer to Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1926) than William Cameron Menzies's Things to Come (1936), which was adapted from a classic work of sci-fi speculation by HG Wells.
Neon and rain proved key to the 'retrofitting' of the Warner street set that was envisaged by Scott and realised by production designer Lawrence G. Paull and art director David L. Snyder. Darkness also played a crucial part, as it made the orange fireballs erupting in the opening sequence over the industrial landscape labelled 'Hades' seem all the more disconcerting, as did the murky lighting over the forbidding façade of the Tyrell building, which resembled a Pre-Columbian pyramid. Yet the downtown area was illuminated by giant advertising screens, while the stalls in the Chinatown street market shimmered with strings of light bulbs and fluorescent tubes in a manner than anticipated the steampunk scenes in the many movies set in millennial mega-cities.
The matte paintings were designed by Mead and executed by Matthew Yuricich, who had been creating such illusions for sci-fi flicks since Fred M. Wilcox's Forbidden Planet (1956). His younger brother, Richard, worked on the pre-digital special effects with David Dryer and Douglas Trumbull, who had a rich pedigree in the genre, having contributed significantly to Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968, available on 4K Blu-ray) and Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977, also can be enjoyed in the highest quality possible), as well as his own directorial debut, Silent Running (1972).
Mark Stetson led a team of model makers to turns these concepts into tangible realities and they were photographed by Jordan Cronenweth with a mastery of light, shade and perspective that helped set the visual tone for Hollywood neo-noir. He couldn't take credit for the aerial images seen at the end of the 1982 release cut, however, as they were off-cuts from the helicopter footage that John Alcott had filmed for Stanley Kubrick's The Shining (1980, another classic available on 4K Blu-ray).
Philip K. Dick didn't live to attend the premiere of Scott's reworking of his text, but he did get to see an SFX showreel that left a deep impression. 'It was the greatest 20 minutes I ever experienced, he told Paul Sammon. 'I literally came out in a state of shock. When I close my eyes I can still see that opening sequence…It's like being transported to the ultimate city of the future, with all the good things and all the bad things about it.'
Meanwhile, Scott began assembling his cast. While writing his screenplay, Hampton Fancher had tailored the dialogue to suit Robert Mitchum, but Scott saw Dustin Hoffman as Deckard and spent several months discussing the role until the actor quit over creative differences. By this stage, Harrison Ford had added Indiana Jones to Han Solo on his CV and, in the process, he had become the biggest male movie star in the world. Thus, despite such major names as Paul Newman, Clint Eastwood, Sean Connery, Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino, Gene Hackman, Tommy Lee Jones, Burt Reynolds and Arnold Schwarzenegger being considered, Ford got the part.
The supporting human cast was led by Edward James Olmos as the Cityspeaking, origami-folding minder Gaff; M. Emmet Walsh as the bluff Captain Bryant, who contemptuously calls the replicants 'skin jobs'; Joe Turkel as the Frankensteinian mogul, Dr Eldon Tyrell; and William Sanderson, as JF Sebastian, the ailing programmer with a collection of automata who shows compassion to Batty and Pris.
Having been impressed by his performances in Paul Verhoeven's Turkish Delight (1973), Katie Tippel (1975) and Soldier of Orange (1977), Scott had no hesitation in casting Rutger Hauer as Roy Batty, who paraphrases William Blake and defies his devilish aspect by driving a nail through his hand before making his Christ-like sacrifice. Dick concurred. claiming the Dutchman was 'the perfect Batty - cold, Aryan, flawless'.
Brion James, Daryl Hannah and Joanna Cassidy were chosen to play his cohorts, although the depiction of the female replicants has caused considerable consternation, as Pris is a 'basic pleasure model', Zhora is an exotic dancer and femme fatale Rachael (who was played by Sean Young) is coerced into kissing Deckard in his apartment. The absence of any African-American characters has also drawn comment, although Adilifu Nama notes Batty's assertion that living in fear is 'what it is to be a slave' in his 2008 study, Black Space: Imagining Race in Science Fiction Film, prior to averring that 'Blade Runner blatantly references America's racially exploitative past and imagines a return of the repressed' by presenting the replicants as fugitives from plantations in a colonised outer space.
Anything But in Tandem
Shortly before shooting was due to start on 9 March 1981, Filmways withdrew from the project after investing $2.5 million. Producer Michael Deeley worked a minor miracle in cobbling together an alliance of The Ladd Company (which added Warners into the equation), Hong Kong tycoon Sir Run Run Shaw and Tandem Productions, which was run by Jerry Perenchio and Bud Yorkin, who had made a name for himself as a director with such Hollywood outings as Divorce American Style (1967) and Inspector Clouseau (1968), which saw Alan Arkin replace Peter Sellers in the title role.
Filming got off to a bad start, however, as Scott decided to junk the first fortnight's footage because it was too dark. Used to mucking in with British crews, Scott's martinet perfectionism didn't go down well with a unionised American crew accustomed to working set hours. His brusque manner also rubbed Ford up the wrong way and he still regards the picture as one of his worst experiences, even though the pair have since seen the funny side. Ford also disliked acting opposite Sean Young, but the on-set tensions were nothing compared to the animosities that arose after shooting wrapped on 9 July.
Hoping to have a hit along the lines of George Lucas's Star Wars (1977, and another one available on 4K Blu-ray), Yorkin and Perenchio were disappointed by the tone of the action and the lack of all-action spectacle. They were also unhappy with Scott sometimes requiring 15-20 takes and exceeding the budget to the tune of $5 million. Consequently, having decided that the rough cut was unintelligible, they exploited the terms of their agreement to sideline Scott and Deeley and take control of post-production.
Following disastrous previews in Denver and Dallas, the Tandem twosome insisted on adding a voiceover to clarify the action. In fact, Fancher's earliest drafts had incorporated this device, as it had always been an effective standby of the film noir style. But Ford hated the idea and the fact that Scott had been ousted from his own picture and he made his displeasure known during the dubbing sessions. The first version was written by Daryl Ponicsan before David Peoples was brought it to punch it up. But the producers were still unhappy and Roland Kibbee was hired to take another pass. It's often implied that he was something of a Hollywood hack, but the dual Emmy winner had enjoyed a long association with Burt Lancaster on features like Robert Siodmak's The Crimson Pirate (1952) and Edwin Sherin's Valdez Is Coming (1971) after being named during the House UnAmerican Activities Committee's investigation into Communism in the film industry.
Yorkin and Perenchio also removed the revealing unicorn sequence and tacked on a 'happy ending', although it retained a bit of ambiguity, as there was no knowing how much time the runaways would get to enjoy together. Yet the finished $28 million article remained what Scott would later describe as 'extremely dark, both literally and metaphorically, with an oddly masochistic feel'. The brooding mood was reinforced by the mix of synthesisers, strings and chimes in the score composed by Vangelis, who had just won the Academy Award for his inspiringly melodic anthem for Hugh Hudson's Chariots of Fire (1981). Particularly memorable was the sax solo by Dick Morrissey, which tapped into the retro-future feel by evoking the jazz and blues associated with classic postwar noir. Despite Vangelis being nominated for a Golden Globe and a BAFTA, however, he was made to wait a decade before being able to release the soundtrack album.
It appeared alongside the 1992 Director's Cut, which was launched after the various home entertainment formats had done much brisker business than the original theatrical release, which wasn't helped by the fact that it only received Oscar nominations for its art direction and special effects. Going against the grain of the largely polite reviews, however, a number of academics started writing seriously about Scott's film, as its influence began to be felt across the genre. Take, for example, the cyberpunk aesthetic of such noirish sci-fi classics as Lars von Trier's The Element of Crime (1984), Terry Gilliam's Brazil (1985) and Twelve Monkeys (1995), Kathryn Bigelow's Strange Days, Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro's City of Lost Children (both 1995), Alex Proyas's Dark City (1998), and Lilly and Lana Wachowski's The Matrix (1999, available for some 4K goodness).
It also impacted on Mamoru Oshii's anime Ghost in the Shell (1995), as well as its various spin-offs and Rupert Sanders's 2017 live-action version (also on 4K Blu-ray), which starred Scarlett Johansson. Meanwhile, Philip K. Dick's estate profited from the release of Paul Verhoeven's Total Recall (1990), Steven Spielberg's Minority Report (2002) and Richard Linklater's A Scanner Darkly (2006). Interestingly, while Dick's writer friend, KW Jeter continued Deckard's story in three officially sanctioned novels, no one has ever got round to filming Blade Runner 2: The Edge of Human (1995), Blade Runner 3: Replicant Night (1996) or Blade Runner 4: Eye and Talon (2000). But David Peoples had more luck with his 'sidequel', Soldier (1998), which was directed by Paul W.S. Anderson and stars Kurt Russell as Sergeant Todd 3465, a battle-hardened, bio-engineered fighting machine who has no intention of being consigned to the scrapheap.
In 2007, The Final Cut was issued with Scott's input. Shorn of the voiceover and the final spinner flight, this is now regarded as the definitive version. In its wake came such studies of human-synthetic interaction as Mark Romanek's Never Let Me Go (2010), Spike Jonze's Her (2013), Gabe Ibañez's Automata (2014) and Alex Garland's Ex Machina (2015). Spaniard Ion de Sosa returned to the source for his lo-fi Benidorm saga, Androids Dream. Moreover, in Blade Runner 2049, which is of course available in the glorious 4K quality, (both 2017), director Denis Villeneuve sent LAPD Officer K (Ryan Gosling) on a quest to find Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), who has not been seen for three decades. Going one better than its illustrious predecessor, it won two Oscars, for Roger Deakins's cinematography and the visual effects concocted by John Nelson, Gerd Nefzer, Paul Lambert and Richard R. Hoover.
