All these moments...

BLADE RUNNER: THE FINAL CUT

AMC/Loews Uptown 1
Washington DC
35mm
11/3/07

So they actually decided to expand the Blade Runner: The Final Cut release outside of New York and Los Angeles. Which is nice. In the DC area it's playing for a limited time at The Uptown, which along with The AFI Silver is about the best place to see a movie in the area. I've seen three versions of Blade Runner theatrically now (although I've only seen the original theatrical cut in 16mm at Grafton-Stovall when I was at JMU, so I'm not sure that it really counts) and I've never seen it look better that this. If I didn't know better, at times I could have sworn that it was DLP projection. It looks that good.

So, what's the verdict?

I don't think I ever need to see the Director's Cut again. Little mistakes are fixed and though it still strongly implies that Deckard is a replicant, it's clear that he wasn't originally part of Batty's group of escapees (although I'm not quite sure how Batty knows his name). It's still essentially the same movie as the director's cut and most of the little additions and fixes don't really change much, and many of them are not even noticeable if you don't know what you're looking for, which is actually a good thing. Blade Runner is still Blade Runner, no matter which version you see and the only real difference is whether or not Deckard is a replicant, talks over the damn thing, or has a happy ending.

Here's the breakdown:

1982 versions - Deckard's not a replicant. Deckard narrates. Happy ending.

1992 Director's Cut - Deckard's a replicant. Possibly formerly with Batty. No narration. Ambiguous ending.

2007 Final Cut - Deckard's a replicant. Never with Batty. No narration. Ambiguous ending.

Here's the thing. It doesn't matter whether or not Deckard is a replicant. It's not important. The real question is whether or not the replicants are human. Tyrell says that his company's goal is to make things "more human than human" and Batty's gang, murderous children that they are, are the only ones in the movie who seem to crave the live that all of the "real" people have had sucked out of them from living in, well, Blade Runner.

I have not seen the film since my daughter was born or my mother died. What struck me about the opening scene when Leon is being given the Voight-Kampff test that I've never really seen before is that he seems like a child who has been caught doing something wrong. I may have noticed it before, but never really seen it.

And Batty's death is heartbreaking. It shouldn't be. We've seen him do horrible things and been told he's done much worse. But at the final moment, with his last words to Deckard there is a palpable sense of sadness and loss. What are all these moments and memories that are gone? We'll never know.