Before we get into the pieces of Blade Runner I’ve found myself interested in, let’s go over the two men at the heart and soul of the film, Ridley Scott and Philip K. Dick. Consider this, in addition, a prelude to another Dreck Fiction series, which I may or may not simply call: DICK.
Ridley Scott
I’ll be honest with you, I’ve never been a fan of Ridley Scott. Body of Lies, Kingdom of Heaven, Black Hawk Down – these movies range from mediocre to terrible, and I haven’t seen a movie of his after Gladiator that I’ve liked. At the same time, he’s got this holy trinity of films that I absolutely love: Alien, Gladiator, and of course, Blade Runner. He struck gold with these, and each of them are deep in visual, literary, and filmic ways.
Gladiator
Ridley Scott’s tale of Rome and its power players is both an epic and a personal story; it’s very much about one man set against a massive backdrop, and the scale of the film is handled well within the narrative’s solid structure, which effects quick pacing and consistent storytelling. It’s classic revenge saga, and it’s very old fashioned. There is positively no gray in this movie – Maximus is the flawless hero, and Commodus is the gross villain. We want to see one kill the other really badly.
The character’s journey is incredible, and Maximus’ reveal to the Emperor is one of the great cinematic moments in history. The movie isn’t even entirely stupid, which one might gather as it’s called Gladiator, and seemingly is all about gladiators fighting. It’s a movie about politics and society and power, but through it all it’s about heroism and fighting for what’s right. It’s a movie that gets you amped up, and if I had only one complaint, it’s one that developed over the years – it’s not nearly as violent as I remembered. I guess I’ve come to be a gorehound, unfortunately.
Alien
The most famous science-fiction horror film of all time, Alien leads the charge with The Fly, The Thing, and The Mist in that very, very small genre. I enjoyed Alien when I saw it many years ago, but oddly enough, I’ve only ever seen it that once. It’s bizarre to me because it’s place in science-fiction canon is known to all in the Kingdom of Nerds, but I always opt to rewatch Aliens.
Much has been said of the set pieces – the facehugger attack, the spacejockey, the chestburster, the final showdown – these are all memorable, and I saw them a dozen times before and a dozen times after viewing the movie in full. There’s not much I can add. I can say that I’m entirely too thankful for the story brought about by O’Bannon and Hill, which was a universe big enough to carry on in three more great movies, and small enough to stay mysterious, scary, and compelling.
Philip K. Dick
My exploration into the world of Philip K. Dick has been greatly augmented by Internet research: online various essays and speeches of his can be found, and very cheaply his titles can be purchased through Amazon. In addition to that is commentary spanning all mediums, including The Greatest Movie Ever Podcast, which occasionally touches upon the many film adaptations of Dick’s novels and short stories, all of which released after his death in 1982.
Philip K. Dick is one of the most interesting characters in science-fiction, as his writing is thoughtful and profound, dark and hilarious. Moments in A Scanner Darkly made me laugh out loud, and they were paired with moments that made me extremely bummed out – in a good way. I have so much to experience that’s written by Dick, I’m sure my realtive virgin status is envied by many of his fans. He definitely strikes me as one of those authors whose books necessitate multiple readthroughs, but the first will always be the most powerful journey.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
When I think cyberpunk, a few key titles come to my mind: Ghost in the Shell, The Matrix, Blade Runner, Neuromancer, and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. These titles established their own worlds, populated these worlds with characters, and explored ideas characteristic of cyberpunk. I see metal men, man/machine interfaces, AI, detectives, assholes, femme fatales, metropolises, future weapons, hackers – it’s all good stuff.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? stands out for me because it’s such a depressed novel. It builds a haze of depression that translates well into the smog that’s killed all the animals and is seen in Blade Runner. Cyberpunk works since have all had sad worlds, but there’s something about this particular world that really works on a deeper literary level. It is out to get the main character Deckard, and it’s always there to bring up questions of morality, humanity, and of course, reality.
Ridley Scott and Philip K. Dick. One of them I’m very interested in. I can’t quite call myself a Dickhead in reference to reading his body of work, but I’m certainly intrigued and would like to know more. I think now I finally have the time to get some serious science-fiction reading in. Ridley Scott on the other hand is a director who hits and misses, but when he hits goddamn is it spot on.
Put these two together and you’ve got the start of Blade Runner. Of course, you can’t not mention Hampton Fancher and David Peoples and Douglas Trumbull… But I guess “Ridley and the Dick” sounded funniest to me.
For more on Blade Runner, check out The Blade Runner Directory
24 comments
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May 24, 2011 at 1:44 PM
Joachim Boaz
Have you read PKD’s Martian Time-Slip? It’s by far my favorite of his works…. And the short story ‘The Imposter’ — of course… (made in to a cruddy movie, ‘Imposter’ with Gary Sinise).
May 24, 2011 at 4:30 PM
dreckfiction
I haven’t read Martian Time-Slip as right now I’m trying to go through older classics of the genre like Childhood’s End and I, Robot…
I think UBIK will be the next PKD I read. Is there any place to find the original Imposter short film? I heard that’s the much superior version
May 24, 2011 at 4:44 PM
Joachim Boaz
Yeah, I’ve read I Robot, Childhood’s End and Ubik…
I had no idea that a short film existed — it’s not mentioned in imdb.com…
May 24, 2011 at 4:46 PM
dreckfiction
They expanded it into the critical disappointment that was the Imposter feature and from what I recall it was more in the Phildickian spirit
May 24, 2011 at 4:58 PM
Joachim Boaz
Cool — I wish I could find it… The first pat of the Imposter film and the last bit were ok — the middle endless chase sequence was crud…
I think the A Scanner Darkly film (which I was an extra for — although I can’t find myself in the film) is the most PKDian in spirit… Don’t you think?
May 24, 2011 at 5:09 PM
dreckfiction
I do hate that when they needlessly inject action sequences into movies that don’t need them. Because then those action sequences don’t have any passion behind them like in The Matrix or District 9.
A Scanner Darkly was so close to the letter of the novel that it definitely got the spirit of both the book and the author. It was funny and depressing, just like the original text. Blade Runner comes close because it asks questions, but I think it asks slightly different questions than DADOES
May 24, 2011 at 5:16 PM
Joachim Boaz
Yeah, Blade Runner is the best cinematic adaptation but A Scanner Darkly the best in terms of PKD’s original text. Minority Report wasn’t half bad I have to admit. I haven’t seen The Adjustment Bureau yet. Was it any good?
May 24, 2011 at 5:18 PM
dreckfiction
The Adjustment Bureau was good, but very, very standard cinema-fare. Never read the short story so I don’t know how faithful it was, but there was nothing really there that grabbed me or made me think. Kind of a weak version of Dark City.
May 24, 2011 at 5:20 PM
Joachim Boaz
I did like Dark City — although, it needed sprucing up a bit (the acting mostly) to make a masterpiece.
May 24, 2011 at 5:21 PM
Joachim Boaz
Have you seen Screamers? It was hilarious… a lot of fun, a B film obviously, but…
May 24, 2011 at 5:22 PM
Joachim Boaz
I think it’s funny that Total Recall is being remade….
May 24, 2011 at 5:25 PM
dreckfiction
I’ve always wanted to finally see Screamers because I believe, like Total Recall, it was written by Dan O’Bannon? Also, Peter Weller is totally the man.
The remake of Total Recall will be totally unpredictable. Total Recall is without a doubt an Arnold Schwarnzegger movie, as all of his movies are. There’s just so much in that wonderful mess of a film I can’t imagine how to approach it for 2011 or 2012. There have been good recent 80’s action movies: Punisher War Zone, Doomsday, but I wonder if this will just kind of fly under the radar like I’m sure the upcoming The Thing prequel will
May 24, 2011 at 5:28 PM
Joachim Boaz
Screamers suffers from low budget syndrome — it isn’t terrible otherwise… Wel Lens Wiseman is directing and his films do make money….
May 24, 2011 at 5:29 PM
dreckfiction
Oh no, Mr. Underworld? Seriously though I have no idea how it’ll turn out
May 24, 2011 at 5:30 PM
Joachim Boaz
Yeah, O’Bannon wrote it — but he also wrote crap like The Bleeders (which I haven’t and will NEVER see)….
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119279/
May 24, 2011 at 5:34 PM
dreckfiction
By God… how many craptastic SF movies was Rutger Hauer in?
May 24, 2011 at 5:37 PM
Joachim Boaz
He’s the epitome of crap sci-fi movies — well, besides Blade Runner…
And funny fantasy flicks like this…
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0415160/
May 24, 2011 at 5:39 PM
dreckfiction
JEESUS Christ… I’m surprised Michael Pare’s name wasn’t attached…
Another one of those movies where most of the budget went towards the cover art, clearly
May 24, 2011 at 5:43 PM
Joachim Boaz
It might have been a sci-fi channel film… I must confess, I’ve watched a few of those crud-fests… Late night breaks from various grad projects — hahaha
Hey, you have a cool blog with some interesting articles! I’ve subscribed…
May 24, 2011 at 5:44 PM
Joachim Boaz
Speaking of horrible sci-fi posters — what about covers?!?
Perhaps you’ve heard of this tear inducing site…
http://www.goodshowsir.co.uk/
May 24, 2011 at 6:14 PM
dreckfiction
Thanks for the subscription, man. You’re certainly among the first…
I feel you with those Scifi Channel movies – every once in a while a group of friends wants to try their hand at MST3K
May 24, 2011 at 9:05 PM
Joachim Boaz
You’re welcome.
I think the worst scifi channel film I’ve seen was Dark Storm with Stephen Baldwin… it was terrible/nonsensical.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0758740/
May 24, 2011 at 9:44 PM
dreckfiction
I don’t know I really think they’ve reached a new low with recent fare such as Sharktopus – they’re totally aware of themselves so any entertainment value has been lost…
May 25, 2011 at 9:03 AM
Joachim Boaz
Yeah, I’ve heard crazy rumours about that film! haha