Fabulous Faves - Blade Runner (1982)

Fabulous Faves - Blade Runner (1982)

Blade Runner is a film that remains spellbinding better than thirty years after hitting the scene.  It remains a thorough yet quizzical offering that paints a complex picture, exploring some epic questions with pain-staking attention to detail.  Yet it leaves the viewer to ponder many of these questions, and that is what makes it so majestic.  It has so many strengths, to include visionary director Ridley Scott's most creative work, one of Harrison Ford's best performances, and mind-boggling special effects.  Yet I find this beloved film's most potent draw to be dear departed Rutger Hauer's stunning portrayal of one of the cinema's most compelling villains.  Hauer's Roy Batty is as tragic as he is fearsome, and the actor owned the role.  He brought subtlety and introspection to the table, and he also brought brute force and a fiendish zeal.  He was explosive and yet utterly relaxed; it is a completely natural showing that displays remarkable theatrics.  When Hauer recently passed and I paused to look back on his body of work, I couldn't stop thinking about his poignant demise in Blade Runner.  That sequence is truly sublime, and it is merely one of the many vibrant flourishes that make this 1982 production so profound.  All these years after being released, it continues to provide viewers with a fully realized escape into a stark and strangely hypnotic vision of a future that did not come to pass.  It boasts incredible drama, excitement, and stimulation that lasts until the final frame--and beyond.  Blade Runner remains a stunning achievement that surely ranks among the finest motion pictures ever made.

Final Grade: A+

Blade Runner is overflowing with riches, but if I were to single out any one element of this landmark science fiction production as being the most spectacular, I would point to Rutger Hauer's work as Roy Batty.  Roy is the primary antagonist, and he's also the heart and soul of the picture.  You don't often see that.