just a dead man
tonight AMC was showing blade runner, also known as Edward James Olmos Makes A Cute Origami Chicken. i used to be bored to tears by this movie, and i find after about a dozen viewings i'm starting to get it, the depth and subtlety.
this time through i was really struck by rutger hauer's roy batty character, the primary antagonist. the character is terrifying - he's intelligent, determined, calculating, and hauer gives him a decent helping of insanity that might not have been in the script - but it turns roy into an ice-cold android Joker.
ridley scott gives the whole roy vs. deckard scene this incredible, edge-of-your-seat intensity by making the hero run from the villain, and the audience can't help but feel deckard's fear. roy is one of those villains that you know is stronger, smarter, and more vicious than the hero. that any time he wants, he could kill the hero. and it's such a unique scene, because deckard never actually beats him. i still get crazy tense watching it.
in the end you find yourself pitying the crazy android, though. deckard sums it up:
I don't know why he saved my life. Maybe in those last moments he loved life more than he ever had before. Not just his life, anybody's life, my life. All he'd wanted were the same answers the rest of us want. Where did I come from? Where am I going? How long have I got?
Which is why it has always been one of my favorite movies.
Dad
I remember seeing the movie and thinking that it certainly must have been something in the day. The story line is compelling as AI is an interesting philosophy for me.
The set and lighting designer was recently interviewed on NPR and it was a fantastic listen. He's gone on to do so many things and yet designs today are still judged against that movie.
Turns out you can't talk to Harrison Ford about that movie either because he thinks he was upstaged by Hauer. He won't even discuss it. Interesting that a breakthrough role for him and yet he still feels beneath the lesser known guy...