The Blade Runner Thread

Thanks, Ned! Lots of cues I've never heard compiled til now.

My gosh, Ned, that version is even more "complete" than the thirty-something track version on the 'Esper Edition' bootleg from a few years back. Thanks!

Yeah, it's remarkable. At this point I'm assuming we'll never quite get it better than this.

so…the 2007 25th anniversary set is flawed? I have the 1994 set via Picture disk, but there's so much else I recall that's not on there, and I think the 1994 set is what's on the streamers? Somebody tell me if I should or shouldn't get the 2007 version… I have the scarface release from a few years ago, it has everything —including not only foreboding Moroder stuff, but the dance pop/Debbie Harry/"She's on Fire"/Latin shit— and that approach is what I would want from Blade Runner.

Well, I'm glad I have that 2007 set -- I view a lot of the bonus/'new' stuff on the third disc as just interesting elaborations/interpretations, why not -- but if the link I posted back in 2019 above still works, I'd snag that for sure.

well, define "flawed"

it's good

flawed in the sense that the 2007 set doesn't include every recording vangelis made for the film, when it would seem that a release that does include every recording vangelis made for the film, since his score is universally regarded as among the best film scores ever made, would be warranted…

wouldn’t that be an audio release and not a blu-ray? I get that bundling the score/soundtrack would be nice but that’s an outlier on video releases

OK yeah, in that sense (being incomplete) it is flawed. what you want is called the esper MR3 edition of the soundtrack, which is a two-CD bootleg available online that is as complete a collection of what was actually recorded for the movie as exists. that is also included as the first two discs of the esper retirement edition... do not pay money for these, they're not too difficult to find online.

Right, and I'll share this again! It's the link I just mentioned!

https://download-soundtracks.com/movie_soundtracks/blade-runner-soundtrack-complete-by-vangelis/

(that said, I always end up returning to the 1994 CD version because it's what I grew up listening to and unlike the purists, I love the integration of dialog and SFX from the movie into the soundtrack and don't care that some of the stuff on the CD isn't from the movie at all... fans of Popol Vuh soundtracks laugh at the idea this is even to be expected)

Yeah I like that they kept that as the first disc on the 2007 set. It's a nice reimagining, and was definitely better than the original weird version.

I think I have about six reimaginings of the soundtrack that I downloaded eons ago. It was a thing people did in the early 00s

Literally found out only a few weeks ago, thanks to this video, that there are some lingering shots of the photos on the piano which are missing from every other cut except the '82 theatrical.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uK8gSbIaNhM

I was delighted to find about about the 'deckard is gaff' theory last week: https://steemit.com/cinema/@starlight8888/blade-runner-deckard-is-gaff

I like it.

The part of fandom that comes up with little plot speculations you can tease out that are neither true nor false in the presented fiction is so much more fun than the people arguing that something is specifically true or false when the art left it intentionally vague

Ha! I'm imagining Edward James Olmos reading it and nodding his head then pointing at his ipad going "this guy gets it!"

that's a fantastic theory, i love it

Wonder if that plot strand made its way through by stealth from an earlier draft of the script?

edward james olmos put an astounding amount of work into developing the character of gaff on his own - he even devised the polyglot 'cityspeak' that gaff uses himself! - so i think a lot of the stuff like gaff's limp came directly from him rather than being a planned script element

reminding me I never finished Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner Revised & Updated Edition

that book was a bible to me as a teen

holy moly @ Gaff theory

I do like the idea of EJO himself planting the clues unbeknownst to Scott, Ford, Fancher as part of some ego-driven ethos that every role should be played as if it was the most important character in the movie.

I don't think 2049 has anything that would explicitly break the theory. Other than Gaff using newspeak and Deckard speaking in standard English. Almost adds an additional wink in that they go to Gaff on their journey to find Deckard.

https://i.imgur.com/5PtJ4ke.jpeg

Thanks for the rec, this book looks great

It's very good. That's the earlier edition IIRC; there's a later one with a blue color scheme for the cover and more info.

Revised & Updated Edition