The “Final Cut” edition of my favorite movie, Blade Runner, is playing at the Seattle Cinerama, and I was there to behold it last night on the Very Big Screen in all its digitally remastered and directorially tweaked glory.
I first encountered the movie on cable. I didn’t see it on the big screen until the 1992 release of the Director’s Cut edition, which eliminated the two most annoying aspects of the theatrical release: the rambling voice-overs and the incongruous happy ending.
Rumor had it that this new Final Cut edition would introduce numerous, more subtle changes that only die hard fans would likely notice. Well, I noticed them all right, and I admit they were mostly beneficial to the film.
The first significant difference involves the simple alteration of one syllable: a “one” to a “two.” In the original, Bryant tells Deckard that six replicants “jumped ship” and that one got fried running through an electrical field. That leaves five skin jobs to hunt. But we only learn of four: Roy, Leon, Zhora, and Pris. In the original script, there was a fifth replicant — Mary — who was dropped, but Bryant’s line was never corrected. In the Final Cut, Bryant now reports that two replicants were electrocuted, thus resolving a frustrating continuity problem.
Also, as Bryant briefs Deckard, he now describes Leon’s physical strength, which contributes to making Leon a much more frightening adversary and not just the dim-witted mouth-breather that he comes across as. Understanding, as Bryant puts it, that “the only way to stop him is to kill him” ups the stakes of the later fight scene between Leon and Deckard.
The most impressive change is technically brilliant. Before, in the scene where Deckard confronts Abdul ben Hassan, the snake manufacturer, their dialog did not match their actions or lip movements. The scene was shot through a glass snake tank, so you had to look pretty hard to notice, but I’m sure it would have appeared more obvious on the big screen and in a restored print. In the Final Cut, the characters were digitally altered to be in sync with the dialog. I was amazed at this, and how seamless it appeared. The Wikipedia article on Blade Runner explains that Harrison Ford’s son, Ben, performed Deckard’s dialog and footage of his mouth was superimposed over Harrison’s.
Finally, in the scene where Roy confronts Tyrell, the replicant’s line “I want more life, Fucker,” (which I always considered out of place) was changed to “I want more life, Father.” What’s interesting is that there has always been speculation that the original line really did include “Father” and that it was just Rutger Hauer’s accent and the echoes in the room that made it sound like “Fucker.” Whatever. It’s crystal clear now that he says “Father.”
I’m still not a fan of the weird unicorn dream sequence that was added to the Director’s Cut and that has been extended for the Final Cut. The implication is that we are seeing one of Deckard’s memories so that, later on, when Gaff makes him an origami unicorn, we are supposed to believe that maybe Deckard is a replicant with memory implants like Rachel. To me, the unicorn is just silly and the whole “Is Deckard a replicant?” debate misses the point of the film (which maybe I’ll write about someday).
The Wikipedia article does note several additional minor changes (though not the change from “one” to “two” replicants getting fried) and also explains something I didn’t notice: that a now 63-year-old Joanna Cassidy came back to perform the stunts involved with her being shot (before, it was an obvious double).
Thank you for indulging my one fan-boy tendency. Now back to the regularly scheduled blogging.
