FAQ Search Memberlist Usergroups Profile Log in to check your private messages
 Forum Index      Log in  Register
Happy 25th Anniversary Blade Runner

 
Post new topic   Reply to topic     Forum Index -> Blade Runner General Discussion
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
amish
Community Guide


Joined: 11 Apr 2006
Posts: 1433
Location: Outside Philadelphia

PostPosted: Mon Jun 25, 2007 12:27 pm    Post subject: Happy 25th Anniversary Blade Runner Reply with quote

Today is the 25th anniversary of the release of Blade Runner!! I think great things are in store of us this year and I am very excited!

Here is a great article from Adam Savage at Popular Mechanics:
http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/industry/4218376.html?series=6

Here is a short copy and paste from the artice:
Quote:
Twenty-five years ago, the Ridley Scott film Blade Runner became an instant science fiction classic. Set in a sodden, squalid Los Angeles of 2019, the neo-noir masterpiece influenced a generation of filmmakers and video-game designers. Long before I teamed up with Jamie Hyneman to form the MythBusters, I was a special-effects modelmaker, and Scott's cyberpunk gem almost instantly became the most important film in the canon of movies I love.

I'm still such a big Blade Runner fan that I watch it at least once every 18 months. I also own pretty convincing replicas of the "blade runner blaster" wielded by Harrison Ford's world-weary former cop Rick Deckard. The source material was a Steyr Mannlicher .222 target rifle magazine cover, with a Bulldog .44 carriage underneath. I can't get enough of this prop. Now, I want a working one.

In Blade Runner's dystopian near future, replicants, or genetically engineered humanoids, do the hard work on off-world colonies. After a bloody mutiny, the androids are forbidden from coming to Earth — on pain of death. So when six rogue replicants return home, they must be "retired" — hunted down and killed — and Ford's Deckard, once a top replicant hunter, or "blade runner," is pulled out of his own retirement to do the job.

article is continued at the link above!
_________________
www.propsummit.com
www.bladerunnerprops.com
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Author Message
MsGeek
Community Member


Joined: 19 Jun 2007
Posts: 167
Location: Paranoia City, CA

PostPosted: Mon Jun 25, 2007 6:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

More Blade Runner media goodness:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11354581
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/06/25/1459238
_________________
Sushi, that's what she called me. Cold fish.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Author Message
Once-bitten
Banned!


Joined: 18 Apr 2007
Posts: 1317

PostPosted: Mon Jun 25, 2007 7:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

How AWESOME is this?
Can anyone else remember where they saw the first the original release of Blade-Runner?
I saw it as the second part of a double feature at a drive-in that was torn down over ten years ago.
I don't recall what the first feature was but when the second one started (BR) I remember being so fascinated that I kicked my girl-riend out of the car so I could watch in peace!

Thanks for the links Amish and MsGeek!
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Author Message
MsGeek
Community Member


Joined: 19 Jun 2007
Posts: 167
Location: Paranoia City, CA

PostPosted: Mon Jun 25, 2007 8:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

When the Special Edition comes out, they need to show it at the Million Dollar Theatre in Downtown LA. Most of the time it's used as a church now, but the LA Conservancy has had showings of classic movies there in recent years.

Damn, they could have shown the 1997 "Director's Cut" this evening and I would have hopped the Red Line to see it, without hesitation.
_________________
Sushi, that's what she called me. Cold fish.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Author Message
oldzey
Community Member


Joined: 30 Apr 2007
Posts: 569
Location: Peoria, Illinois

PostPosted: Mon Jun 25, 2007 10:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Happy B-Day, BR and thanks for being a major part of my upbringing!

Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Author Message
andy
Community Guide


Joined: 01 Nov 2006
Posts: 6237
Location: Rochester, NY

PostPosted: Mon Jun 25, 2007 10:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Happy Birthday BR, may this be the best one ever.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Author Message
MsGeek
Community Member


Joined: 19 Jun 2007
Posts: 167
Location: Paranoia City, CA

PostPosted: Mon Jun 25, 2007 11:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Macro time!!!



If you live in LA like I do, you'll know what I mean by this.

Happy Anniversary, BR. And many more.
_________________
Sushi, that's what she called me. Cold fish.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Author Message
Masao
Community Member


Joined: 18 Jun 2007
Posts: 143
Location: USA

PostPosted: Wed Jul 04, 2007 10:11 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hmmm. In some ways we need to be thankful we have not arrived in that version of the future...in other ways it is worse.

What BR got right:

Union Station and the Bradbury are still around. Coca Cola Atari and At&T are still around. L.A. has a subway again.


What BR got wrong:

-No one is 'plugged in' cyberpunk style i.e. no cellphones, no personal video decks (PSPs)etc.

-Payphones are everywhere.

-No flying cars.

-No useful robots roaming the streets.

-Flames burning methane are no longer permitted.

-Smoking is illegal in most places.

-No nuclear war in the 20th century.

-Airplanes still exist.

-Human genetic manipulation is very limited and cloning is illegal.

-No manned space travel (officially) exists to other planets.

-Videophones still haven't really caught on.

-Racial harmony is not quite on a BR level...especially in L.A.


You may be able to cite more examples.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
Author Message
MsGeek
Community Member


Joined: 19 Jun 2007
Posts: 167
Location: Paranoia City, CA

PostPosted: Wed Jul 04, 2007 6:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Masao wrote:
Hmmm. In some ways we need to be thankful we have not arrived in that version of the future...in other ways it is worse.

What BR got right:

Union Station and the Bradbury are still around. Coca Cola Atari and At&T are still around. L.A. has a subway again.


What BR got wrong:

-No one is 'plugged in' cyberpunk style i.e. no cellphones, no personal video decks (PSPs)etc.

-Payphones are everywhere.

-No flying cars.

-No useful robots roaming the streets.

-Flames burning methane are no longer permitted.

-Smoking is illegal in most places.

-No nuclear war in the 20th century.

-Airplanes still exist.

-Human genetic manipulation is very limited and cloning is illegal.

-No manned space travel (officially) exists to other planets.

-Videophones still haven't really caught on.

-Racial harmony is not quite on a BR level...especially in L.A.


You may be able to cite more examples.


OK...here's the way I see it.

1.) The cellular phone was a luggable brick in 1980 when they came up with the script. Computers were either mainframe business machines or little hobbyist "toys." Neither the IBM PC nor the Macintosh were available at that point. The Walkman had just been introduced. Networks were rarely seen outside of institutions. So nobody could have seen these game-changers as they "morphed" into the real future.

2.) See #1: the ubiquitous mobile phone killed the payphone.

3.) 27 years ago people were expecting us to have flying cars by now. And note that the flying car was not a personal car, it was limited to police use. Sort of a combination of a helicopter and a police car. Private vehicles seem to be terrestrial vehicles, even in BR.

4.) Robots are slow in coming. You can buy a personal robot that can do one thing or another: either vacuum your rugs and floors (Roomba) or mop your floors (Scooba.) The company that makes those two commercial personal robots are doing more sophisticated things for armed forces, law enforcement and security. There are also "pet" robots available. Like the owl at Tyrell, they are very expensive. They are also not very sophisticated.

5.) Ever been to El Segundo and seen the refineries there? There are still burn-off towers there. There has to be. Otherwise you'd hear of more refinery explosions than there already are in the area. I see the ubiquity of the burn-off towers in the 2019 Downtown LA landscape as being from two things: one, Peak Oil has made drilling for oil in the Los Angeles area profitable again. Did you know that there is an oil derrick on the campus of Beverly Hills High? There are old oil fields in Culver City and in the Long Beach area (Signal Hill) too. Another thing: there are pockets of methane underground all over the city. They have to get rid of it somehow. The extension of the Purple Line subway (formerly the Red Line Wilshire) to Santa Monica will require methane abatement to make work. It is not really made clear that fossil fuel is hard to get by 2019, but I'm guessing it is one of the reasons why life is hard on Earth at that point.

6.) The smoking thing is more a nod to 1940s-1950s Film Noir than anything else. Yeah, smoking was on the way out for real in the '80s here. So yeah, having ubiquitous smoking is something from BR that doesn't really have the ring of truth anymore.

7.) No nuclear war in the 21st Century? You kidding me? Nuclear proliferation remains a big issue now, even without a formal state of Cold War between the US and the former Soviet Union. China, India, Pakistan, Israel, France, North Korea and Britain have the Bomb too, not just the Russkies and us. Iran might have the Bomb soon. I'm sure that a non-governmental organization like Al'Qaeda will eventually get the Bomb. The only nation to voluntarily give up the Bomb after getting it was South Africa.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Africa_and_weapons_of_mass_destruction

If Iran gets the Bomb, Israel might start WWIII over it. An Indian-Pakistani regional conflict might go nuclear. Russia is becoming less and less democratic, and more fascistic, and we might be forced into Cold War II with them. And think about this: suicide bombers with suitcase nukes? The world is, arguably, more dangerous place from a nuclear standpoint than it was when the US and USSR were aiming nukes at each other.

If there is a nuclear war, it would likely be over oil. I think that gasoline works regardless of whether it glows in the dark or not. Wink

8.) Airplanes might be limited by Peak Oil by the time 2019 rolls around. Airplane travel might be really, really costly at that point. And airships are making a comeback. There is a firm in Northern California which has commissioned a rigid airship from Zeppelin NT (Yes, Zeppelin GMBH is back) and will base sightseeing trips from Moffitt Field in the Silicon Valley. I have always thought that one could cover an airship at least partially with photovoltaics, and install hybrid engines, for a very energy-efficient mode of slow air travel. Hybrid engines could use stored electricity and solar energy during sunny days and bio-diesel during cloudy days. The advertising blimps could soak up sun all day and travel on stored electric power at night. Oh yeah: the Goodyear Blimp has full video playback capability now. The current displays are basically Jumbotrons.

9 & 10.) Yep, those are biggies. Again, see #4 too. We don't have intelligent robots, replicants or clones now. Nexus Six will probably never happen. However, we have other populations we regularly exploit, and we are likely more and more to see "blowback" from such exploitation.

11.) Yeah, another biggie. Off-World colonization would require either lightspeed or Faster-Than-Light travel. Neither of which are possible under current understanding of physics. Mars is going to be a 4-year journey there and a 4-year journey back with current technology. We are stuck on this planet. Too bad for us, because we soiled our nest big time.

12.) We don't have videophones, but we do have IP videoconferencing. And the technology exists for POTS (Plain Old Telephone System) videoconferencing if people wanted it. My MacBook has a built-in webcam. I keep the bloody thing turned off pretty much all the time, but it's there. I do NOT like what I look like behind that puppy. Eew.

Videophones failed due to the unwillingness of people to surrender their privacy and be always on camera when talking on the phone. The tech to make even POTS lines show pictures does indeed exist. It's what DSL is built on. That too-high-for-humans-to-hear DSL carrier signal was initially designed in the '60s to deliver pictures. In 1964 there was a working videophone link up at the World's Fair in Seattle. In Disneyland there were working videophones. I seem to remember an Anaheim to Orlando linkup between Tomorrowland and EPCOT later on.

Satellite phones have video hookups. This is used for Electronic News Gathering, primarily. The main reason why people allow themselves their webcams is for long-distance family gatherings. So that Grandma can see the Grandkids, or Johnny off fighting in Iraq can grab a visit with his kids. The other reason, of course, is cybersex. However, setting up a webcam is one thing. Having a picture delivered all the time when on the phone is yet another. The reason why videophones failed is 100% psychological, and reflects the need of the human species for privacy.

13.) Who said racial harmony is especially present in Blade Runner? The Rep-Detect cops you see on screen are either White or Latino. You don't see any Black cops, or a great deal of Black faces on the street. Or for that matter many Latino faces. Most faces are either White or Asian. Asian predominates among the extras. There seem to be ethnic enclaves. A reference to "Chinatown" is made. You could imagine Bryant using the "N-word" as frequently as he uses the made-up epithet "skin job."

In fact, it is the unsaid undercurrent of ethnic tension in the movie that makes LA more and more like Blade Runner. One very strong element of Blade Runner is the coded reference to the slavery experience. The Replicants are code for any number of exploited ethnicities. Latino immigrants, African-Americans, Asians...all suffer exploitation. The Replicants are slaves. They come back to Earth to basically get their revenge for being enslaved, and being given only a four-year slice of life. Can you blame them for doing so?

Portraying Batty as a sympathetic character was a genius move on Rutger Hauer's part. Portraying Deckard as a less-than-sympathetic character was a genius move on Harrison Ford's part. Deckard could have been played like Han Solo mark II. Ford instead made him flawed, conflicted and slightly sadistic. Han Solo is a rogue with a heart of gold. Deckard has a heart of cold iron. The Deckard/Raechel "love scene" is awkward and uncomfortable, with edges of sadism and dominance on Deckard's part, and cowed submission on Raechel's part. No, you don't really see anything. But you feel it. It's almost...icky. The awkwardness of their "courtship" is a clue that both of them are replicants themselves...not just Raechel but Deckard too. Note the rough, awkward nature of Batty and Pris together. Batty and Pris "love" each other, as much as they can without a real emotional life.

Anyway, I digress.

An element you missed: The destruction of most non-human life, and the revulsion humans feel about their culpability in the mass die-off. A combination of global climate disruption, pollution, and limited nuclear war could do that. This is the one thing that translated straight from Dick's book. We are seeing unprecedented extinction of animal life on Earth, even without the nukes. Maybe by 2019 we might see this process accelerating.

If the animals are gone, how do people eat sushi and other meats in the Blade Runner universe? Answer: cloning edible animal muscle for food. We don't do full-blown cloning, but tissue cloning, and by extension meat cloning, is in various stages of research now. NASA is looking at it for a means of providing food for people on the Mars mission. Perhaps that's where the meat came from at the noodle shop...cloned meat and fish.

Wow, lots of stuff here. Maybe we should move this part of this thread to a whole other thread, under "Blade Runner Aesthetic" or something. I'll leave that to the mods, though.
_________________
Sushi, that's what she called me. Cold fish.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Author Message
Masao
Community Member


Joined: 18 Jun 2007
Posts: 143
Location: USA

PostPosted: Wed Jul 04, 2007 11:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

"OK...here's the way I see it.

1.) The cellular phone was a luggable brick in 1980 when they came up with the script. Computers were either mainframe business machines or little hobbyist "toys." Neither the IBM PC nor the Macintosh were available at that point. The Walkman had just been introduced. Networks were rarely seen outside of institutions. So nobody could have seen these game-changers as they "morphed" into the real future. "

Funny, I was using a TRS 80 in 81 and an Apple IIe in 82.

2.) We agree

"3.) 27 years ago people were expecting us to have flying cars by now. And note that the flying car was not a personal car, it was limited to police use. Sort of a combination of a helicopter and a police car. Private vehicles seem to be terrestrial vehicles, even in BR. "

Not quite. The flying car was designated as a private vehicle 57 years ago and there are news reels demonstrating same. As fo BR, not all Spinners were police only. Let's not forget Rachael had an Alfa Romeo Spinner.

"4.) There are also "pet" robots available. "

There 'were'. Tiger electronics gave up on them and most other companies are letting the lines die. As I said:-No useful robots roaming the streets.

"5.) Did you know that there is an oil derrick on the campus of Beverly Hills High? "

Yes it is painted blue with flowers and is the suspected as the cause of a cancer cluster. And you know how Californians feel about cancer.

"7.) No nuclear war in the 21st Century? You kidding me?blahblahblablahblahblah...."

Please reread what I wrote.

8,9,10 Huh, huh What??

"11.) Yeah, another biggie. Off-World colonization would require either lightspeed or Faster-Than-Light travel. Neither of which are possible under current understanding of physics. Mars is going to be a 4-year journey there and a 4-year journey back with current technology. We are stuck on this planet. Too bad for us, because we soiled our nest big time. "

That seems like a long time to spend only going 69 M Km or so. Didn't Viking get there in about a year?

Besides, Batty references wormhole travel in his final speech. Remember even Buck Rogers used stargates back in 79. Did you think Tannhauser was an iron gate??

13.) Who said racial harmony is especially present in Blade Runner? The Rep-Detect cops you see on screen are either White or Latino. You don't see any Black cops, or a great deal of Black faces on the street. Or for that matter many Latino faces...yaddayaddayadda..."

Let's forget about Gaff who is a detective in charge of Deckard. And how/when was Latino translated to non-white? They were white when the conquered 'Latin America' and enslaved the natives.

"They come back to Earth to basically get their revenge for being enslaved, and being given only a four-year slice of life. Can you blame them for doing so?"

Well, if we get into my theory about what is going on in the social undercurrents (in PKD style) you would have a different outlook. But that would be a different topic.

"Portraying Batty as a sympathetic character was a genius move on Rutger Hauer's part. Portraying Deckard as a less-than-sympathetic character was a genius move on Harrison Ford's part."

Again, HUH? That ultimately came from PKD...and Karel Capek.

The Deckard/Raechel "love scene" is awkward and uncomfortable, with edges of sadism and dominance on Deckard's part, and cowed submission on Raechel's part. No, you don't really see anything. But you feel it. It's almost...icky. The awkwardness of their "courtship" is a clue that both of them are replicants themselves...not just Raechel but Deckard too. Note the rough, awkward nature of Batty and Pris together. Batty and Pris "love" each other, as much as they can without a real emotional life."

I chalked that up to a clumsey director. Wink

"Anyway, I digress."

No comment. LOL

"An element you missed: The destruction of most non-human life, and the revulsion humans feel about their culpability in the mass die-off. A combination of global climate disruption, pollution, and limited nuclear war could do that. This is the one thing that translated straight from Dick's book. We are seeing unprecedented extinction of animal life on Earth, even without the nukes. Maybe by 2019 we might see this process accelerating. "

Now that is true Sci fi. Considering that the modern psudoscience/mythology that is being touted as science is getting really out of hand. I am reminded of the forest situation where we were told (in the '70s) that there was a 'paper shortage' because the world was running out of trees and now the wacko greenies (who got jobs in the forest service) say it is ok to let whole forests burn to ashes because we have too many trees. BTW, in CA the paper shortage continues. LOL

"If the animals are gone, how do people eat sushi and other meats in the Blade Runner universe? Answer: cloning edible animal muscle for food. We don't do full-blown cloning, but tissue cloning, and by extension meat cloning, is in various stages of research now. NASA is looking at it for a means of providing food for people on the Mars mission. Perhaps that's where the meat came from at the noodle shop...cloned meat and fish."

Um, how is tissue cloning somehow easier than cloning? And if all this replicant tissue cloning is even possible, why is there an animal shortage?? Does it even make sense??? Think 'Jurassic Park'.

How does this have relavance to the topic at hand? I don't know. I got lost back on 7.

Laughing Laughing Laughing
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail
Author Message
andy
Community Guide


Joined: 01 Nov 2006
Posts: 6237
Location: Rochester, NY

PostPosted: Thu Jul 05, 2007 12:19 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

well I could get into each one of these, but first the most obvious at 1:30am

Quote:
Not quite. The flying car was designated as a private vehicle 57 years ago and there are news reels demonstrating same. As fo BR, not all Spinners were police only. Let's not forget Rachael had an Alfa Romeo Spinner.


Only according to a toy company did Racheal have a spinner (and Deckard had a 'chase spinner'), and if she did it belonged to Tyrell anyway. Regardless, it was never in the movie in any way.
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Post new topic   Reply to topic     Forum Index -> Blade Runner General Discussion All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Page 1 of 1

 
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum

Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2002 phpBB Group
BBTech Template by © 2003-04 MDesign

Problems Registering Contact: help@propsummit.com