Blade Runner

Those of you know who me know I have an unhealthy obsession with Blade Runner. I've been waiting to see the new cut ever since they announced it about six years ago. Thankfully, the stars have aligned just right, so I'm in L.A., one of two cities showing the new cut theatrically, during the week it's out.

I saw it last night with a few buddies of mine, and, well, wow. I've seen Blade Runner about a zillion times, but only on a crappy DVD from ten years ago. As you might imagine, for a film this visually dense, seeing a cleaned up print on a huge screen was like seeing a whole new movie.

As far as the new cut, this ain't Star Wars: Special Edition. The new edits mainly fix little errors or weird pacing that was left when the voiceover was removed in '92. Numerous websites detail all the changes, so I won't here. I will say the film feels a little different, but I don't know how much of that is the edits and how much is seeing it on a big screen.

Several key Blade Runner peeps were there, including Charles de Lauzirika, who oversaw the restoration, two members of the production whose names I cannot remember (sorry!), and Alan Ladd Jr., the famous 20th Fox studio head who greenlit Star Wars, Alien, and later produced BR. I felt kinda bad, because we had better seats than him.

In any case, I'm not a religious person, so this was, like, my holy day. I'm going again tomorrow.