I had such magnificent plans, he said, minutes or seconds before the rain stopped and he was dead.
How can one scene in a movie that I would first see in awful resolution and framing on a VHS tape on a 22" TV in a college dorm room have such a profound effect on me?
It did. It changed how I wanted to see movies, it changed how I wanted to see life. I was nineteen when I discovered Ridley Scott's masterpiece in all its chopped up and edited glory complete with Harrison Ford's (Deckers) added Noir narration. By this point, the movie had been floating around for quite some time. It is, at once, the most haunting and beautiful movies I have ever seen. it holds the number 4 spot in my top 100 favorite movies. Nothing has displaced it since I made the list.
The reason that it has remained there in that spot is because of this one scene. It was perfect, in every cut of this movie. There have been 7 versions to be seen.
If you haven't seen Bladerunner then you might want to stop reading here and
A) watch one of the versions of it. I actually got to see the 1991 Director's cut in widescreen in full glorious resolution in Theatres. Sadly, unless you have major connections, you will only be able to see it in a limited frame. I would recommend the Final Cut as it is the truest to its Director's vision as any of the others.
Ironically the worst cut of the movie (which has some merit to me) is the hardest to find. I mean other than the Laserdisc version. I haven't seen all the DVD versions...a person must have goals, I suppose.
B) find a thorough synopsis of the movie or at very least watch some if not all of it via youtube.
C) Warning, the movie is violent and a bit gory (I mean it was by yesterday's standards)
D) Skip it, either read on or go look at Cat pics on your favorite social media.
Also SPOILERS FOLLOW
That being said, let's return to my point.
The "Tears in the Rain" sequence has had a profound impact on me, as a writer, screenplay writer, filmmaker, Dungeon Master and video gamer.
The scene is set following the climatic desperate strangely realistic battle between Decker and the vastly superior Roy Batty. I say strangely realistic because Decker is very human in his abilities to battle a combat replicant (think Android/clone/synth/robot if you must). There are no Hollywoodesque combat maneuvers by the combatants only a desperate struggle of man vs. machine as the two struggle for supremacy or rather for survival. Both men having their own motivations to win the fight end up on the rooftop of the gloomy mostly abandoned building in which the battle has occurred.
Decker finds himself trapped and cornered by Batty, knowing that he is going to die there, he decides to chance escape by jumping to a nearby building to buy himself enough time to come up with an alternative to dying. He almost makes it, too. When he does not, he finds himself dangling over an abyss hanging on with wounded hands. There is a moment, when I am still sure that he falls.
Batty comes to Decker's rescue. What follows is this scene.
One, or rather I find myself feeling that, in the end, the executioner decides that all life, even the life of Decker, the Bladerunner, is worth saving. This is an irony since Batty is about to lose his own.
Roy speaks the words that would remain frozen in my memory for years until I would find I had my own voice and would begin to dream of writing this scene over and over again every time I sit down to write.
It's not just Roy Batty's words that draw this emotion, this metaphor out of me, but the whole scene, the rain falls without ceasing. The soft blues and grays reinforce that this is truly a tragic conclusion to Batty's life. Scott is without mercy for either of his heroes in this scene.
Yes, I said either of his heroes. I suspect, that this idea drove the Hollywood suits mad, since Roy is clearly the villain and Decker is not. I found that the two represent and mirror each other throughout the movie until they cross and in a sense become one on this rooftop.
The juxtaposition of the two men, human and replicant, law and order, emotion and logic spins around me each time I watch Bladerunner. I should watch it more. I use to watch it, at least once a year. I haven't done that much in the last 5 or more years. This scene and indeed, the entire movie rests in my sub conscience every time I sit down to write.
Also, yes, I know that Decker is a replicant or probably is.
Why do I say this (I have read the arguments for and against this on numerous blog, videos, websites)?
Simple, I feel that Ridley Scott wants us to question what is real and rather than feed us and answer that we all crave, he leaves us to make our own conclusions.
For years, I found myself going back to the original Hollywood Detective Noir cut because it does just that. It gives a definite answer to the overriding question.
Do they survive?
At present, I like the idea of there being no answer. We are left, not knowing who is the human and who is the replicant. We are left with the definitive idea that no one knows that life has meaning and no meaning that all these emotions can be summed up on a rainswept rooftop while holding a dove symbolically as the last moments of our lives slip away like tears in the rain.
Before anyone loses their minds over the blog title or the opening lines. They are my own. It's how I summarize what my heroes are thinking at the moment of perfect clarity.
and that...
Actually, I have to stop and give a shout out to NerdWriter for inspiring me to start to use this blog to do just a little more than talk about life according to me.
you can find him making thought provoking videos here the Nerdwriter
and that- is life changing movies according to Mike.
It did. It changed how I wanted to see movies, it changed how I wanted to see life. I was nineteen when I discovered Ridley Scott's masterpiece in all its chopped up and edited glory complete with Harrison Ford's (Deckers) added Noir narration. By this point, the movie had been floating around for quite some time. It is, at once, the most haunting and beautiful movies I have ever seen. it holds the number 4 spot in my top 100 favorite movies. Nothing has displaced it since I made the list.
The reason that it has remained there in that spot is because of this one scene. It was perfect, in every cut of this movie. There have been 7 versions to be seen.
If you haven't seen Bladerunner then you might want to stop reading here and
A) watch one of the versions of it. I actually got to see the 1991 Director's cut in widescreen in full glorious resolution in Theatres. Sadly, unless you have major connections, you will only be able to see it in a limited frame. I would recommend the Final Cut as it is the truest to its Director's vision as any of the others.
Ironically the worst cut of the movie (which has some merit to me) is the hardest to find. I mean other than the Laserdisc version. I haven't seen all the DVD versions...a person must have goals, I suppose.
B) find a thorough synopsis of the movie or at very least watch some if not all of it via youtube.
C) Warning, the movie is violent and a bit gory (I mean it was by yesterday's standards)
D) Skip it, either read on or go look at Cat pics on your favorite social media.
Also SPOILERS FOLLOW
That being said, let's return to my point.
The "Tears in the Rain" sequence has had a profound impact on me, as a writer, screenplay writer, filmmaker, Dungeon Master and video gamer.
Decker finds himself trapped and cornered by Batty, knowing that he is going to die there, he decides to chance escape by jumping to a nearby building to buy himself enough time to come up with an alternative to dying. He almost makes it, too. When he does not, he finds himself dangling over an abyss hanging on with wounded hands. There is a moment, when I am still sure that he falls.
Batty comes to Decker's rescue. What follows is this scene.
One, or rather I find myself feeling that, in the end, the executioner decides that all life, even the life of Decker, the Bladerunner, is worth saving. This is an irony since Batty is about to lose his own.
Roy speaks the words that would remain frozen in my memory for years until I would find I had my own voice and would begin to dream of writing this scene over and over again every time I sit down to write.
It's not just Roy Batty's words that draw this emotion, this metaphor out of me, but the whole scene, the rain falls without ceasing. The soft blues and grays reinforce that this is truly a tragic conclusion to Batty's life. Scott is without mercy for either of his heroes in this scene.
Yes, I said either of his heroes. I suspect, that this idea drove the Hollywood suits mad, since Roy is clearly the villain and Decker is not. I found that the two represent and mirror each other throughout the movie until they cross and in a sense become one on this rooftop.
The juxtaposition of the two men, human and replicant, law and order, emotion and logic spins around me each time I watch Bladerunner. I should watch it more. I use to watch it, at least once a year. I haven't done that much in the last 5 or more years. This scene and indeed, the entire movie rests in my sub conscience every time I sit down to write.
Also, yes, I know that Decker is a replicant or probably is.
Why do I say this (I have read the arguments for and against this on numerous blog, videos, websites)?
Simple, I feel that Ridley Scott wants us to question what is real and rather than feed us and answer that we all crave, he leaves us to make our own conclusions.
For years, I found myself going back to the original Hollywood Detective Noir cut because it does just that. It gives a definite answer to the overriding question.
Do they survive?
At present, I like the idea of there being no answer. We are left, not knowing who is the human and who is the replicant. We are left with the definitive idea that no one knows that life has meaning and no meaning that all these emotions can be summed up on a rainswept rooftop while holding a dove symbolically as the last moments of our lives slip away like tears in the rain.
Before anyone loses their minds over the blog title or the opening lines. They are my own. It's how I summarize what my heroes are thinking at the moment of perfect clarity.
and that...
Actually, I have to stop and give a shout out to NerdWriter for inspiring me to start to use this blog to do just a little more than talk about life according to me.
you can find him making thought provoking videos here the Nerdwriter
and that- is life changing movies according to Mike.
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