posted
It's a french comic book movie, plot logic isn't to be expected when you have a 1/3 naked chick strolling around a high rise ledge and an ex-special agent driving a taxi.
Besides, you don't need a plot to have a good film, just look at Blade Runner, or Ghost in the Shell...ok, maybe not, those do have plots, they just don't dwell on them too much.
posted
Only in the dective/voiceover version (which is waaay better than the artsy/boring crapola "Director's Cut").
Ghost In The Shell had a plot, but there was sooo much stuff to digest and look at that you need to watch the movie a few times to really follow it. Stand Alone Complex is far superior though.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
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posted
I've actually never seen the voice over version of Blade Runner, only the director's cut.
I seam to recall a huge chunk in the middle of GiTS that was just the Major wandering around the canals discussing philosophy with Bato on the boat. I know the plot is complex and everything, I just didn't feel the film felt like it had to pay attention to it, that is the "plot" about the ghost hacks & the puppet master felt more like background action in an odd way.
Same thing goes for Blade Runner, or at least the version I've seen.
posted
Really- go get yourself the new (or possibly not-yet-released) DVD with both versions of Blade Runner. The voiceover makes for this cool detective film noir that matches the dark atmosphere of the movie and helps tremendously with the film's pacing.
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
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quote:Originally posted by Jason Abbadon: The voiceover makes for this cool detective film noir that matches the dark atmosphere of the movie and helps tremendously with the film's pacing.
posted
Do you have a problem with that sentence? I think it sums it up very nice, and I like the Film Noir angle of the regular version.
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quote:Originally posted by Jason Abbadon: Really- go get yourself the new (or possibly not-yet-released) DVD with both versions of Blade Runner. The voiceover makes for this cool detective film noir that matches the dark atmosphere of the movie and helps tremendously with the film's pacing.
It's being released in March I think, and yes I'm planning on getting it, mostly for the new cut though. To be honest I haven't heard many good things about the theatrical cut so I've really not bothered looking for it.
quote: Ridley Scott made BR in a style called "film noir". Film noir is the "hardboiled detective" style of story-telling, perhaps the most famous example is the Humphrey Bogart movie "The Maltese Falcon" (directed by John Huston). A characteristic of film noir is the voice-overs by the detective, explaining what he is thinking/doing at the time.
Having said that, it is interesting to note that Ridley Scott originally made BR without the voice-overs, but due to it's poor reception when sneak previewed, the studio insisted that the voice-overs be added. Ridley Scott has said in an interview on American television that in film noir, voice-overs sometimes work, and sometimes don't, and they didn't work in BR.
"(A)n extensive voice-over was added to help people relate to Harrison Ford's character and make following the plot easier. (A)fter a draft by novelist- screenwriter Darryl Ponicsan was discarded, a TV veteran named Roland Kibbee got the job. As finally written, the voice-over met with universal scorn from the filmmakers, mostly for what Scott characterized as its 'Irving the Explainer' quality.... It sounded so tinny and ersatz that, in a curious bit of film folklore, many members of the team believe to this day that Harrison Ford, consciously or not, did an uninspired reading of it in the hopes it wouldn't be used. And when co-writers Fancher and Peoples, now friends, saw it together, they were so afraid the other had written it that they refrained from any negative comments until months later." [Source: Los Angeles Times Magazine, September 13, 1992]
The ending of the film was also changed by the studio. Scott wanted to end the film with Deckard and Rachael getting into the elevator, but the studio decided that the film needed a happier, less ambiguous ending. The aerial landscape photography used in the theatrical release was outtakes from Stanley Kubrik's The Shining (which, coincidentally, starred Joe Turkel).
In 1992, Ridley Scott released a "Director's Cut" of Blade Runner (BRDC), which eliminates the voice-overs and the happy ending. This version is discussed in more detail below.
posted
Again I'm not being Geek-cool here but I watched both versions on TV here a year or two ago - they played the narrated version on Friday and the Director's cut the next. I preferred the narrated version. Maybe I just like happy endings.
-------------------- "Bears. Beets. Battlestar Galactica." - Jim Halpert. (The Office)
-------------------- Justice inclines her scales so that wisdom comes at the price of suffering. -Aeschylus, Agamemnon
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