Smith - Blade Runner Blog #2

      Blade Runner (1982) also has a voice over track put in after the film was finished. What is the purpose of this voiceover; what do viewers learn from the voiceover; and how effective is it in conveying the thematic messages of the film?

            What constitutes reality vs. fake, and who decides?

            What makes us human?

            How does social control work to create reality?

Blade Runner (1982) _ Blog

      The 1982 happy ending consisted of Deckard and Rachel leaving the city, driving into the wilds with the Deckard (Ford) voiceover saying that Tyrell told Deckard and Rachel could live happy ever after. This does not mirror Deckard’s feelings in the book. There are some of the opposite feelings as well that Deckard is able to understand the happily ever after better because of his divorce in the movie vs. the marriage in the book.

      “Among all the movies in which Harrison Ford has starred, it remains the only one in which the actor has repeatedly stated his dissatisfaction” (Pfeiffer 119). This is mainly because of the voiceover and the harassment of the producers against Ford. The Directors and Ford were in agreement that the voice over was not necessary and in fact took away from the movie. When the voice over is on we can almost hear the distaste and unapproved of Harrison Ford.

      The closing and opening of the doors were symbolic of major parts of the movie ending or beginning. When he comes out and the elevator door closes there is a mystery to what is going to happen. Now we have been told that she is going to live forever and that they will have time together. It gives us the happily ever after that people want and that the producers are looking for. He knows he loves her even though she is a Replicant. Before he wouldn’t have seen her as real and would not have given a second thought to love her. In the book he comes to the conclusion that there are many more forms of reality and to say that something is real and something isn’t real is not a good definition of the meaning. It is a real electric sheep.

      We hear that even the Torrel Corporation doesn’t have a real animal. All the real animals are gone and even the rich will be scorned for having too many electric animals. The animals do not represent the same degree of fascination as they did in the book. This shows how in the ending when he viewed the toad as a real electric animal, this ended showed the view that Rachel is a real electric human and is a Replicant.

       A director wants to make good movies that also see their work as art. Directors have to be a team played because they have to work with screenwriters, cinematographers, sound etc. Film is a collaborative effort. Producers want money and Blade Runner according to them was too complicated and was not going to make enough money unless they explained everything with a voice over. Both Ridley Scott and Harrison Ford hated the idea of a voice over and you can almost hear it in his tone of the voice as I stated before. Producers think that American audiences are dumb and producers want a happy ending.

      This conflict between the actors and directors who want to make an artistically sound film and the producers who just want money leads to the political expediency theory. This theory states that movies should not alienate any one group too much. That is breaking down because movies cost far too much now so there is less free reign for the directors and actors. The second thing that is ruining film today is the availability of other forms of entertainment. The third thing is the cost to go to the movie theatre. Independent films are gaining speed in the industry, more cheap, they can make back much more easily what it cost to produce them. Hollywood is in trouble. Sympathetic producers give more freedom. This movie was a bust at first, however, there was always an underground cult that said that it had a lot of potential and it had a kind of dystopian feel and had recognition that this kind of world was possible.
      The director’s cut came out and it actually made it to the top 100. Ridley Scott did not want to use the voice over and he was completely correct that it made all the difference in the world. Producers thought that people would not understand Blade Runner unless it was told to them by a voice over. It explains the obvious, and explains what he is thinking in other parts of the film. We could have received any of that information from just what is going on in the film.