Obsession with Blade Runner Part II: The Reacquainting "...You People Wouldn't Believe"

It's the time after the release of the director's cut and in the years following its release the genre of science fiction churned out a consistancy of disappointment. Certain movies of promise (Alien 3, Freejack) turned out much lesser than expected. At the same time, I had gotten used to catching up with movies with more rentals. Whether it was in between basketball or contemplating what movie to see, friends high and low without giving any spoilers insisted that I give Blade Runner another try. I returned the insistance with a polite decline but not saying never. Many experts as the years went by had put Blade Runner on their best of the eighties list, but cuiosity was about to show itself through the years and all came to a head in two ways.

First, when getting into a conversation with my family I had made a mention to Dad about his dismissal of Blade Runner and to my surprise he had gotten it mixed up with another film in the same genre but in a different decade called Logan's Run. It came to me as a surprise that the film he panned he didn't sit down to watch himself. Many other films came and went without the thought of Deckard and Los Angeles, 2019 on my mind until luck came in October of 2000 when a double feature was being shown one Friday evening at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

It started with The Road Warrior which piqued my interest greatly. When it came to the second, it almost put my venture to the museum in doubt with my good friend Danny Seery. He was one of many that wanted me to the film again. We had one extra advantage being film students and getting to the museum at the point where they gave away tickets and at the same time Danny was dealing with his own situation with his job pondering whether or not to call out. At the last minute, he called McDonalds and told them he couldn't make it in. Although I was looking forward to the The Road Warrior, my doubt was in place to revisit Blade Runner but with the insistance of my friend along with being in the heart of New York City, I took a chance to catch it in the one of the best cities to see a movie on the big screen. We headed in along with fourteen other patrons into the Titus 2 theater for the first of two. It was good to see the second Mad Max film again. Sadly, some of the patrons used this big screen time to catch up with some shuteye. It didn't help that the print left much to be desired with a lot of green streaks and cuts in many improper places. So the overall experience cried for a better print of this film.


I waited with bated breath as to whether the horror show would continue and little bit by little bit, the theater started to fill and fourteen a packed house in record time. There were even ten patrons standing in the back which reminded me how big a following this film had. A few years earlier at a Warner Brothers anniversary screening at Radio City Music Hall, in the company of The Exorcist and Dirty Harry, it managed to be the only film to be sold out. With that in mind and the lights lowering to show the green tree of Ladd Pictures with red lettering and black background, I held my breath hoping for a happy surprise with very little expectation. The pound of the boom in the opening credits and the strains of Vangelis' score started going through me and when the credits and opening crawl were done, the screen lit up with Los Angeles, November 2019. Literally and figuratively, it was an eye opener with the sight of beauty of this world and with Vangelis' score flowing, nothing could've prepared me for a better way to start a movie with an even bigger surprise. There's one point of the film with the intro of Deckard looking up at the passing advertisement to be the indicator as to which version you're watching. If there's narration, it's the original or international cut. If there's no narration, then you're watching the director's cut. And then when Deckard was looking over, there was "They don't advertise for killers in the newspaper. That was my profession. Ex-cop. Ex-blade runner. Ex-killer." And so it was and with it being a few minutes longer, it was the print of the international cut (as later in the film would indicate) and what a print it was. Every bit and detail of this world was in front of me and even though elements of this film would be taken away later for a proper cut, by the time the "happy ending" with the outtakes of the Shining came to credits, I from that point on became a Blade Runner fan.

Both me and Danny declared this being the real first time we had ever seen the film. It had that feeling as we left of a great ABC Friday Night Movie way back when that we'd be talking about for weeks and weeks and reminded us that a lot more can be said about a film on the big screen and that we would follow this movie anywhere, anytime in our neck of the woods. Danny and I would encounter this film many months later in New York City where the same cut was shown again at a Ridley Scott retrospect at the Screening Room (which today is known as Tribeca Cinemas) and took the trip one more time with narration and all and coming along for the ride, his brother John. This would be our last screening together in this very building but not the last we'd see of Blade Runner, not until....TO BE CONCLUDED!!!!