Blade Runner (1982)

 

It's 2019 in the city of Los Angeles. A blade runner is a job to hunt down replicants (artificial humans) and terminate them. Replicants are used for slave labor in the colonized regions of space and are forbidden on Earth. One such blade runner (Harrison Ford) is given the job to track down and terminate four replicants who have escaped to Earth. Based on the Philip K. Dick novel DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP, Ridley Scott's film is an art director's and production designer's movie. Visually, it is one of the most creative and stunning films made and is very often compared to Fritz Lang's METROPOLIS. Its weaknesses lie in its iffy screenplay which can't match the audacity of its visuals. It's full of interesting ideas that aren't satisfactorily developed. The replicants are far more interesting and vital than the film's hero (Ford at his dullest) but I suppose that's exactly the film's point, that the artificial humans have become more human than their makers. The four actors (Rutger Hauer, Daryl Hannah, Joanna Cassidy, Brion James) playing the replicants have a spirit and vigor in their performances that make them the true "heroes" of the film. A flawed film to be sure but a memorable piece of film making. But some of that dialogue ... ouch! With Sean Young, Edward James Olmos, M. Emmet Walsh and James Hong.