The director's cut also gets rid of the voice over. The voice over in my opinion was, in my opinion, very unnecessary and unwanted. The voice over was that it was meant to provide valuable insight of what Deckard was thinking throughout the film. The story and writing should have been good enough for the audience to follow the story line without Deckard just telling the story. At many times, Deckard is simply telling the audience the obvious and it gets extremely annoying to an audience to have their intelligence constantly insulted. From the voice over the audience is expected to gain Deckard's inner thoughts and "emotions" but these are both adequately displays by the repealed reactionary personal shots of Deckard's face. I do not think that the viewers learn anything from the voice over other than that the producers think they are idiots. Despite the overall disapproval, by both Scott and Ford, Ford was contractually obligated to record the voice over, (Pfeiffer, 124).
Ridley Scott most likely thought it was necessary to change the film because the original was not his project, it was a struggle of power between him and the executive producers. Scott, like most artist are in there crafts of work to make art for their peers and the rest if the population to admire. Unlike directors, producers are in the business to make a profit. They may still greatly care about the project, but their job is to make the company profit.
Smith - Comment
ReplyDeleteAfter watching the two different versions of Blade Runner, The Director’s Cut was a serious improvement to the original version we saw. I agree with everything that you pointed out. I think that the voice over was unnecessary and unwanted as well and added nothing to the story. It failed to provide the audience with more insight then they would have gotten from the movie alone. The unicorn scene also left us with the question and extra dimension of Deckard being a Replicant and his feelings. This adds a whole new meaning to the film, like you said, and his journey to forgive and forget the past and move on with his life with Rachel.
I like the picture you chose because it is the most crucial scene out of the whole movie. Here is where we understand the importance of life and how the knowledge and anticipation of death can be a horrible experience. The extra parts of the movie that were simplified in the second version just made the viewers think that they did not have the intelligence to understand the film and conceive a proper ending themselves. The freedom may have been scary but it was also helpful in letting imagination flow and interesting endings to be unique. The name is pretty self-explanatory; The Director’s Cut is the version that Ridley Scott was actually pretty happy with. Like you said, it was a battle between him and the producers. I think that this is the best version. There is a final cut but I do not think that it could be much of an improvement.