Somehow unearthed, a 1982 convention reel from BLADE RUNNER, with young designer Syd Mead and director Ridley Scottexplaining how their invented world works, and bits of action from deleted scenes. DAMN. The bad state of the color suggest that this was sitting on a shelf somewhere for a looooong time. But no matter how bad the transfer, the candid scenes of the Blade Runner world—all set to a stylish ’70s type porno score—are priceless.
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1 COMMENT

  1. Here’s a hardy helping of heresy (anyone agree?) :

    Yes, Blade Runner was INCREDIBLE to look at – but seemed to completely miss (or ignore) the point of P.K. Dick’s book – which seemed to be about poking FUN at the modern world by re-imagining current, petty, domestic and job related practical concerns into sci-fi A-B-S-U-R-D-I-T-Y.

    The movie seems (depressingly) literal) – all about its own (great) production design – while reducing what’s left of Dick’s wonderfully ironic and whimsical scenario to a pretentious, sub-Mickey Spillane genre slop.

    Leave it to Dick to write a book that plays like a parody of the movie that will eventually be made from it.

  2. He was actually quite happy with how the film turned out. The collected edition of the Bluray includes letters he wrote to crew of the film.

    There’s an excellent documentary with the collection that covers the whole process of making the film starting with the writer of the first draft.

    I highly recommend it. Available via netflix or maybe even youtube.

  3. I’m sure he was thrilled an honored — but I can’t imagine he thought it presented his vision.

    I shouldn’t have invoked Spillane. Blade Runner seems (nauseatingly) politically correct to me, and Spillane (like the far superior P.K.Dick) was anything but that.

    I have watched BR over and over (and over) again. It is beautiful.

  4. That’s a PUBLIC letter (which maybe his real opinion about some issues).

    I standby my statement that the source material plays almost like a parody of the (literal and leaden) movie later made from it.

  5. Literal, maybe. But leaden? It’s got many more sources in sci-fi than just Dick’s novella. And Ford and Olmos at least were playing with irony, to an extent.