Blade Runner: 30th Anniversary Edition

blade runner boxIn honor of the film’s 30th anniversary, Blade Runner returns to Blu-ray in a package that surpasses the previous 25th anniversary edition, but the additions, while worthwhile, are not enough for most fans to repurchase the film. That said, if you don’t yet have the film, this is going to be hard to resist.

I didn’t like the film when I first saw it on VHS back in 1985. Granted, it was 2 in the morning and I was expecting a science fiction action film, so I fell asleep during the film thinking it was boring. Flash forward to 1992 and the Director’s Cut hits theaters. People had been telling me how great the film is, and this was supposedly a much better version of a great film, so I decided to give it another chance. I was very glad I had done so.

blade runner 02While it may be easy to dismiss Blade Runner as a jumbled mess with a mystery story in a far future setting with ambiguous characters, the more I watch it in its various forms, the more I not only appreciate it as a story, but its place in film history. The battle of the director to have their version of the film presented in theaters may have come to a head with Terry Gilliam, and Brazil wasn’t the first high profile movie to have a director publicly say their intended vision is not what ended up on the screen, but it is one of the first to have been revisited, and so prominently too.

And what is Blade Runner? There is a mystery to the story, a sort of man hunt. The setting is a future neo-noir, much like an atmospheric homage to the potboilers of the 40s. Harrison Ford is Deckard, a man tasked with finding some renegade androids, or replicants, who broke through their programming and apparently have committed murder.

blade runner 03But that’s only part of the story. We get a twist in that one of the replicants may or may not be a replicant, and Deckard begins to fall for her. We also get to understand what it is that motivates these replicants to embark upon the journey they have undertaken – and make no mistake, it is a journey. And is Deckard being chased?

Much of this set is carried over from the previous 5 disc set from a few years ago. What took up multiple DVDs is now couched onto a smaller set of Blu-rays. From what I can tell, everything is here. All versions of the film (theatrical cut, international cut, director’s cut, workprint and final cut) are on Blu-ray, as are all the special features – though many of them are in standard definition to conserve space. There is one DVD that contains the “final cut” of the film and some of the special features.

blade runner 04There are so many audio commentaries and featurettes it is impossible to sit through them all in the course of a week along with the variations in the film itself. To say this package is stuffed to the gills would be an understatement.

New to this edition as a massive gallery of production images, storyboards and more. I lost an hour looking through this. This is the only new special feature, however, so if you own the previously released Blu-ray, make your own determination as to a purchase. There are some nifty physical objects, such as the replica concept spinner vehicle, a book with many images, and an art print (using the term loosely). This is all nice, but honestly, it doesn’t replace what was already a great package.

Is Blade Runner for everybody? No. Its pacing is deliberate and methodical, regardless of which version you watch. Are there questions left unanswered? Sure. That’s part of the point. Blade Runner is a visual masterpiece, using the medium of motion pictures in a way that few films have. It is a must-own in any film buff’s collection. The only question is whether or not you already own it.