Blade Runner...would it be the same without Vangelis music??
 

Blade Runner is a good movie,IMHO. BUT..with some "other type"of music...I DO NOT think it would have made the impact it has. Vangelis Soundtrack adds a LOT to this movie, I think.

Anyone else care to comment??

I loved the movie... but I can't remember the music.

"Chariots of Fire" might have been improved with Vangelis' music, but I can't say the same for "Bladerunner". Hans Zimmer or Kraftwerk might have been good choices for that film as well.

But NOT John Williams! ;)

The music definitely helped the film, but it would have lived quite well with someone else's musical arrangements too. Vangelis's music isn't the only one that would have suited it. As long as the producer & director had a vision of what they wanted they could have found someone else. Still, it was great with the music the way it was ....

The film and soundtrack are inseparable...the CD-reissue (after years with a lousy LP of an orchestral interpretation) by Mr. Papathanasiou is just excellent and includes some of the film's dialogue. The synths used at the time added a very brooding and dark quality to the film (whether original or Director's cut).

Very memorable combination for me, but I'm biased on the subject of many of Vangelis's compositions (though not all are excellent...like the recently forgettable Alexander, but the Soundtrack to 1492 is STUNNING).

...Didn't have anywhere near enuff titties, car wrecks, or machine gun battles for me. And Godzilla woulda LOVED to have made hash out of that rain-soaked, dreary-ass place...<grin>

...Just bein' facetious, guys, yeah, w/o the Vangelis music, it woulda been a helluva lot less of a flick.

the score for bladerunner has always been controversial. personally, i think it is perfect for the film-- a blend of the organic and electronic. i have a number of vangelis recordings, most of them i enjoy. there has always been something eerily schmaltzy, romantic and over-the-top about his stuff, which he nevertheless manages to rescue with the daring nature of his individuality and willingness to disregard convention while also staying close to it.

i am not a worshipper, by any means, so that means i don't own 'chariots', and the 'jon and vangelis' stuff (gag me), but much of his earlier work was really great for casting weird spells. anyone ever heard 'Beauborg'?

Yup...and then there's the bizarre album Invisible Connections on DG records, or Phos by Socrates with Vangelis producing and playing keyboards.

For those of us who love the film, or any particular film, it is at first hard to imagine it without certain key elements. Nonetheless, it could have worked with something different.

Director's Cuts show that you can second guess masterpieces.

IMO, the soundtrack is too much of an integral part of the movie.
I also liked his soundtrack to Antarctica.
Jack

Never saw the movie... or heard of the fellow y'all are talkin' about. I did read I Dream of Electric Sheep though...

"You see a turtle and it is on its back. What do you do? You do know what a turtle is?"

The music makes the movie and the movie makes the music. I have the Director's cut and it didn't have the same impact the original had. I'd like to get the theatrical version to compare them. Still, one of my all time favorites.

I can't imagine the movie without Rutger Hauer.

Harrison Ford & the soundtrack however could have substitutions

That is thought provoking comment.

I must consider it further.

:scratch2:

It's worth a viewing.

Phillip K. Dick's stuff is great, and seems to translate well to film, fairly easy. I'm not a fan of Ah-nuld, but liked him in two films- Terminator, and, more relevant to this topic, in Total Recall.

While its called the "director's cut", it isn't really. Some changes were made, but apparently Ridley Scott wasn't allowed complete freedom at the time to make the all changes he wanted. There is now a third and (supposedly) final version coming out this year (spring?) with Scott's blessing.
Jack

When I saw the original Blade in the theatre, it was a genre bender in the way the first Matrix was. I'm not saying the Director's cut dilutes the concept like the sequel Matrices but I am saying the impact of the original is what sticks with me.

[QUOTE=rca2000]Blade Runner is a good movie,IMHO. BUT..with some "other type"of music...I DO NOT think it would have made the impact it has. Vangelis Soundtrack adds a LOT to this movie, I think.

Anyone else care to comment??[/QUOTE]


I see this film every time it shows on television; every time I come away thinking `What the **** was that all about?' I know it's a good film; everyone says it is so they must be right.......... To me, it's a reasonable plot wrecked by so many clichéd dark and moody bits as to make it almost unwatchable. I've seen the `directors cut', and it was worse; just added another layer of clever clever photography. Beautifully filmed and dutifully applauded, it's the `almost unwatchable' that means that next time it's on TV, I'll no doubt waste another couple of hours trying to figure it out............. Jim. (AKA Marvin the Paranoid Android)

Well, on the surface its a Film Noir set in the not so distant future. Like some earlier and even current Sci-Fi films, it deals with environmental catastrophe, although it does not get too deep into that theme. It also seems to suggest a merging of ethnic groups that, in reality, is well on its way.

Its main points, at least as I see them, deal with existence and consciousness vis a vis comparing Replicants to Humans. The book deals with that a bit better as the humans set out to retire (i.e. kill) the androids, yet happily keep android animals as pets seeing as most living animals are extinct. Obviously, there are light allusions to slavery as the Replicants must work in the off worlds but cannot enter Earth. And perhaps to Nazism as well with its use of euphemisms for killing.

The only true way for Decker to ascertain that the Replicants are not human is to give them a test that reveals they have no empathy. Yet eventually Decker realizes that humans themselves have no empathy for the Replicants, who, while being artificial, strive to stay alive- to exist. Explains Roy's statements of what he has seen and experienced. We are all the sum of our experiences and Roy, although a Replicant, is no different.

Add fantastic sets and locations (the Bradbury Building in LA) plus excellent acting and you have one of my personal favorites.

blade runner is one of my all time favorites. especially the director's cut without the voice over. the music is very dark and brooding and really helps the film. you have to remember this movie is almost 25 years old. at the time the score was very futuristic. although i'm not a big vangelis fan his music really suited this movie.

i read where harrison ford didn't like this movie which i consider one of his best. sean young never looked better either.

I like the original one, WITH V.O.
 

I have the directors cut. Got it on DVD, one of the first DVD's I got, in late '98 or so (maybe THE first.) I didn't like it NEARLY as much as the "normal" version.

And I also agree that this is a film where one sees a "little more each time" they watch it. One or two views will NOT be enough to catch all of the "underlying messages" and such of this film--I still have probably not caught them all in probably 20 times of seeing it or more.

I hope the one that is released at the movies this year will NOT be a directors cut without Voice over. I think the VO adds a bit to the move, (not as much as the music) but it is NOT the same without it.

I agree. Bladerunner is one of my all-time favorite movies. I have the directors cut on DVD, the VHS version with the voiceover on DVD, and the LD Criterion edition with the voiceover and the added violence on DVD. The LD version is the best for sure. I have the soundtrack on CD and it stands by itself very well. I also have Chariots of Fire soundtrack on vinyl and it's also excellent. I'm a big Harrison Ford fan and think this is one of his best movies but Rutger Hauer is the star of this movie. :yes:

In theory though, this is a kind of non-sensical question. If the original movie had come out with different actors and it sucked, it wouldn't have been a great movie and whoever scored the soundtrack wouldn't matter. The fact is the total sum of actors+soundtrack+storyline+whatever is what made Blade Runner great. Yes, the soundtrack adds to it, but that's also not to say that someone else couldn't have done a better one, and if you'd never been exposed to the original, you'd think THAT's the way it's supposed to be.

I'm a die-hard Blade Runner guy. I love the flick, watch it every chance I get, and it's great all around. But I'd never say a movie couldn't have been better by changing something here or there. Things either fit or they don't.

That's right, the stupid voice over is gone as is the feel good fly away scene at the end.

I like the voice over. When Decker expresses slight regret over shooting Luba in the back, its the first foreshadowing of how his attitude will change. And I like how he comments on Roy saving his life.

I've never thought of BR as a genre bender. When I think of genre benders or paradigm shifts in what is capable I think of Star Wars, T2, and then The Matrix. From my perspective those three movies made huge leaps forward in what was possible in a Sci-Fi flick. For me BR was a more thought provoking movie, that looked really really cool, but not one that created a paradigm shift for what would follow.

It's Deckard, not Decker. He shot Zhora in the back.

It is hard to imagine this movie having the same dark, techno feel without the Vangellis music. It fit perfectly. But it is possible that somebody else coud have done it just as well or better; although I think that the "feel" of the movie would have changed.

Whatever the case; I now know which DVD is going to get spun again tonight! :thmbsp:

No, it would not be the same movie. And honestly, no one else could have done it better. That would be like asking if John Williams was the right pick to do Star Wars!

True. That is what I meant.



In the book, her name is Luba Luft. I have read the book more recently than seeing the film.

I haven't read the book in so long I'd forgotten that. The book is so different from the movie that they are pretty much separate entities to me. If you are a fan of PKD, try "Man In A High Castle" sometime.

The three movies you mention are notable for visual effects but with the possible exception of The Matrix, do not cover new ground. Epic space movies had been done before, Space Odyssey 2001 comes to mind. Lucas drew from a number of popular genres including western cowbow and Seven Samurai" storylines so no new ground here. What he did do was successfully mesh the old with Sci-Fi. The only notable shift in T2 is the visual effects that created the liquid metal Terminator. If this flick had a harder edge, i.e., an Arnold Terminator that could kill, I might think differently. The first Matrix comes closest to a paradigm shift. The mind blowing effects are well known and spectular. It is the thought provoking storyline that enthralls. Sadly, the sequels of your three choices strayed from the orginal concepts. For example, in the Matrix, what ever happened to the human batteries?

T3 was appalling.

That's an understatement. It really showed Arnold was past his prime. But I don't want to say anything bad about my boss. :D

As for what happened to the human batteries in the Matrix? They were discarded like all old batteries of course.

It's on AMC now.

:thumbsdn:

The crackling on your phone is Arnold checking on you.

I still think it would be a transcendent film, and this is coming from a huge Vangelis fan (he's in my top 10 favourite artists of all time). It just wouldn't be as perfect. The non-traditional "futuristic" music was perfect for such a forward-thinking movie.

Funny about the timing of this thread.

2 weekends ago I was searching Yahoo music for available music from one of my favorite late 60s obscure horn featuring rock bands, If. I actually saw If play once at a nearby high school in south suburban Chicago.

If was led by a British jazz saxophonist of some repute named Dick Morrissey who died several years ago. Reading his biography I was surprised to learn that Dick Morrissey played the slow smoldering sax solo on the Vangelis Blade Runner soundtrack in the "Love Theme (Love Song?)" cut.

Not a big Vangelis fan either but I bought the Blade Runner sound track and enjoy it from time to time particularly the above cut. This was probably mentioned previously, but BR was named top SF movie of all time by some group within the last several years. Can't remember which group but seem to recall it involved scientists.

Watched it recently and IMO it has weathered well.

This just does it, for me: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a_saUN4j7Gw

I picked up the Blu-Ray 5 pack and watched the final cut over a Christmas holiday visit to my brother's. We both agreed the music was a big part of the movie. We hadn't seen this movie in years, but noticed some memorable stuff in final cut missing, such as Rudger Hauer's "F" words and flying off into the sunset with Sean Young ending. Think I prefer the original release. Still a cool movie and agree Rudger Huaer's role was a big part of that.