adoring ‘Blade Runner: The Final Cut’ on the big screen
I love DVDs, I love my widescreen TV, I love that the movie experience in my living room just keeps getting better and better. But every once in a while -- too rarely, these days -- I get a reminder of what we lost when movies came home.
Revivals. I’m just old enough to have seen the last revival houses close in New York City in the early 1990s. I mean, sure, we still have the Film Forum, which shows new prints of old movies, sometimes, and the Landmark Sunshine, which runs cult movies at midnight; mostly, though, those theaters run new indies and foreign films. There used to be theaters that ran nothing but old movies, all the time. (I know it’s hard to believe, kiddies, but it’s true.) The films didn’t need to have been newly remastered, the revivals weren’t disguised advertisements for new DVD releases -- the movies were just beloved favorites there for fans who wanted to see them again on a big screen.
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I saw Blade Runner again on a big screen last Saturday; its limited run in New York and Los Angeles is one of those disguised ads: there are multiple new DVD packages set to release in December, including five-disc package packed with extra material and about two dozen versions of the movie, it seems. For the occasional, director Ridley Scott has created a “Final Cut,” which he “wholeheartedly” calls his “definitive director’s cut.” Apparently it contains added and extended scenes, added lines, and new and improved special effects. I can’t honestly say that I particularly noticed anything much different -- though Blade Runner is one of my favorite movies, I haven’t memorized it. I’d have to watch this Final Cut side by side with the 1992 Director’s Cut in order to pick out the differences.
But that’s fine. I didn’t go looking for that. I just wanted to experience this movie on a big screen again. No matter how big the TV in my living room gets, it can’t compare to a flickering image projected onto a hundred-foot screen ... and this new Blade Runner, which has indeed been restored and remastered, looks beautiful. All those rich blues and browns and greens almost make 2019 L.A. look luscious rather than grungy, and no matter how fantastic the new DVD set is, and how great my TV is, it will never look so good at home.
And there’s no way to replicate the mood of the crowd in that Saturday-night multiplex. Sitting quietly in that packed theater was one of the most reverent audiences I’ve ever seen a movie with. We weren’t there for the surprise of discovering a movie for the first time -- or even the second or third time. We were all there to worship at the altar of a film we love. That can’t get packaged in a DVD box set.
(Technorati tags: Blade Runner The Final Cut, movie revivals)
comments
posted by Marc (Wed Oct 31 07, 5:12PM)
Agreed -- seeing a film on the big screen is a far superior experience to seeing it at home, no matter the quality of your TV screen. I'm only hoping that the local independent moviehouse in the small Montana town where I live will pick up Blade Runner sometime soon. It would be a shame to miss it.
As far as the differences between versions go, I'd like to refer you to the Wikipedia article on Blade Runner. Not having seen all the versions, I can't speak to the validity of the article, but it may be a good jumping off point.
Blade Runner on Wikipedia -- versions
posted by Clayj (Thu Nov 01 07, 7:21AM)
I am so ticked that Blade Runner: The Final Cut isn't showing on a big screen anywhere near me... I saw The Director's Cut on the big screen back in '92 (it had a fairly wide release) and it was magical. (Same for the director's cut of Alien that came out a few years ago.)
On the other hand, I cannot wait for the HD-DVD version of Blade Runner. I will probably also buy the regular DVD version... Blade Runner was my very first DVD purchase, back in 1997, and it'll be my last non-HD DVD purchase, in 2007. (The original DVD's quality is simply atrocious compared to current DVDs... but back in '97, it was amazingly good compared to laserdiscs or VHS tapes.)
posted by gadgetgirl (Thu Nov 01 07, 11:43AM)
It did look fabulous, didn't it? And the sound was so much crisper! Even if that did include the skeevy saxophone...
posted by MaryAnn (Thu Nov 01 07, 4:44PM)
Yeah, that was *awesome.* I'd never seen that film on a big screen before then, and I saw all kinds of things I'd never seen on DVD, even after a dozen viewings.
posted by Clayj (Thu Nov 01 07, 4:56PM)
Well, I've watched Alien and Aliens and Blade Runner, my three favorite films, so often that I can practically recite all of the lines from beginning to end as I watch the movies.
I had seen Alien on the big screen back in 1979 when it came out... dragged my mom to the theatre on base, since I needed an adult with me (she spent the entire movie with her hands over her eyes). And I saw Aliens three times on opening day back in 1986 (three consecutive showings!). But I don't remember when I first saw Blade Runner... I definitely remember seeing it aired on CBS some time in the mid- to late-80s, but seeing it on the big screen (the DC) in '92 was just awesome.
If I had Bill Gates' money, one thing my house would definitely have is a multiplex-sized big screen theatre for watching movies the way they were meant to be watched.