Blade Runner

If you’ve watched this film enough times, it becomes more than what anyone can refer to in a conversation, a review or even a stage version [I don’t think there is one, but I’d go if there was]. There are so many layers to this film that it feels nigh on impossible to try and grasp the language to explain how I feel about it.

Like a lot of other great movies, it’s cult following since it’s release in 1982 has driven it into the ‘superlative’ genre for a lot of audience members. Why is that? Hmmm, see, here I am again, lost for words. But I’ll try…I really will.

For me, Blade Runner is the epitome of what I consider to be a Sci Fi film. Not Transformers. Not Star Wars. Not Aliens. There is something ultimately beautifully real about the dark and bleak denseness that Blade Runner offers as a possible future. Not that I really think that’s possible, but it’s like they have taken a magnificent story [an adaptation of Philip K Dick’s ‘Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep’] and surrounded it in a wrapping that can only be described as visceral.

I think that’s what I feel like everytime I see this film. Like I’ve been transported into this muggy, raining, back alley of dystopia and the only thing keeping me sane is Decker’s [Harrison Ford] calm and apathetic face combined with a complete dichotomy that takes the shape via an orchestral arrangement from the one and only Vangelis [Chariots of Fire] which has been melded seamlessly with electronic synths to give you a sense of space, desperation and hope, all at the same time.

If I sound like I’m using pretty words to over explain something, then I think we should never go and see this film together. I think that sometimes, there is a soundtrack or a score that is so good, you could pretty much place it in a smattering of films and it would not only fit right in, but enhance the film. As it stands, Ridley Scott [of course it is] made such a beautiful looking film that they both enhance each other.

For those that haven’t seen it, [apart from taking off my glove, slowly walking up to you and promptly slapping you with it] I should say that it’s a slow film. Completely intentional in every way, it breathes more and more every time I see it. Maybe I see more and more every time. But like only a handful of amazing films like this, it’s the opposite to the movie fodder dished out to keep us entertained these days. Its storytelling done well.

So, everytime I hear the music to this film, I kinda get taken there. There are tracks, but like ‘The Mission’, ‘Amadeus’ or ‘Paris Texas’, they all tend to meld into one long album in which you recognise moments of. There are so many influences. Powerful Middle Eastern chants in ‘Tales of the Future’ which will give you a great deal of perspective if you listen to it in the right state of mind. Old fashioned 1940’s moonlighting in ‘One More Kiss, Dear’. And if you listen to the ‘End Titles’, you will see exactly where Daft Punk got their influences from for the Tron Soundtrack.

Maybe this is why I love it so much, because it’s not just one sound or feeling all the way through. It has ebbs and flows. In some points it has epic drama and in others, a very real lack of drama. And all the while, I see Harrison Ford and Sean Young play out a futuristic love affair that is doomed before it began.

Quite poignantly, the producers have included soundbites from the film, just to keep you connected to the film. On both ‘Tears In The Rain’, ‘Blush Response’ and ‘Main Titles Music’ you catch small snippets of dialogue that actually fit quite nicely.

For those who know their soundtracks, it has parallels to ‘The Big Blue’. Not only its its temperature, but also in its style. Even though I do love it, is has elements of being dated, but I think that’s just the synth aspect that throws me a bit.

All the same, even though it comes in at No.62 of my soundtracks, it probably ranks higher. It’s one of those ones I always knew I was going to do, but you have to be in the right frame of mind…and I think that today, I was close enough.

Sci Fi is a brilliant genre. There are so many freedoms in its concept that films and subsequent scores make you wonder that if this was done in 1982, more than 30 years ago, who’s pushing the boundaries now. Maybe it is Daft Punk. Maybe it’s Squarepusher. Maybe its someone who began making music in their garage only last week.

I will end on this note though. Everytime I think of Blade Runner, I think of an event I used to frequent with my good friend Richard McKenzie back in the mid 90’s. The Westgarth Cinemas in Northcote used to be called the Valhalla Cinemas back then and every year, they would have a 24 Sci Fi Marathon. Inevitably, Blade Runner would always make an appearance and as dedicated viewers who turned up at 4am to grab the couch at the back [but always behind those dudes who got there first that drove from Sydney..WTF Bro, thats twice!], we would find ourselves being super comfy. Fast forward 15 hours, 7 films, 36 cigarettes, 8 coffees, 2 sausages in bread, snacks and a plethora of paper planes thrown every time a UFO comes on the screen, Blade Runner comes on and because it is so slow, I would unfortunately not be able to keep my eyes open. Hence, to this day, if I really need to sleep, I will listen to the Blade Runner soundtrack, close my eyes and within 5 minutes I’m gone…its that good.

Here’s to a Sci Fi Friday that keeps getting better with age…kinda like Decker himself.

M /