Bladerunner would be forgettable without the soundtrack.

[blackflag]

I was more impressed with the soundtrack to Forbidden Planet, considering there weren't really any synths available at the time.

[Gamma-UT]

confusing interviews by the writers/director almost arguing over the meaning of stuff... All part of the mythology I guess. Take it as a simple tale and it's fine but they could have gone a lot deeper I feel.

Scott tends to drop stuff in that is meant to be clever but actually weakens his movies. Prometheus is riddled with the same issues to the point that it makes no sense whatsoever. The problem with the unicorn dream scene in Blade Runner is that you have this "aha" revelation at the end of the film in exchange for severely weakening the entire storyline for no good reason.

It makes Tyrrel look slightly more "evil genius with a god complex" in the first scene with him and Sean Young, which is probably unnecessary, and puts Gaff's comment "You've done a man's work" in a different context but that's about it on the plus side. You wind up with a gaping plot hole by the end and make a mess of some of the deeper points the original cut was able to put forward.

[V0RT3X]

I honestly only noticed the soundtrack until i got into synthesizers and music production. What really captured my attention as a kid when I first saw this was the amazing cinematography and visuals.

[ghettosynth]

Without going back and reading this whole post I'm sure someone has probably already pointed this out but... when it came out Blade Runner was pretty unique. It borrowed from a ton of genre's but it didn't look like much of anything that came before it. Future noir, heavy on the noir. Of course since then it's been riffed on by a ton of follow on's, and there's nothing wrong with that and some of them were great but... Blade Runner was for it's time pretty original.

Sure, so was Birth of a Nation, which compared to Chaplin's films, for example, is pretty much only remembered by film buffs.

[Aloysius]

This Topic would be forgettable without Blade Runner.

[ghettosynth]

I honestly only noticed the soundtrack until i got into synthesizers and music production. What really captured my attention as a kid when I first saw this was the amazing cinematography and visuals.

I'm actually not a big Vangelis fan, TBH. I thought his big pop hit was over the top. I only noticed how dramatic the music production was when I watched the film recently. I haven't noticed that about very many films. Are there any other films where a really good analog synth is so front and center?

I'm sure I've seen both the original and the director's cut before, I couldn't tell you when. The Unicorn nonsense is certainly part of the eye-rolling forgettable nature of the movie.

[Gamma-UT]

The Unicorn nonsense is certainly part of the eye-rolling forgettable nature of the movie.

And yet you remember it.

[ghettosynth]

The Unicorn nonsense is certainly part of the eye-rolling forgettable nature of the movie.

And yet you remember it.

I saw the movie two days ago. If I remember it the next time that I watch the movie, it will only be because I started this thread.

[SODDI]

I was more impressed with the soundtrack to Forbidden Planet, considering there weren't really any synths available at the time.

There were, technically, they were just little one-of-a-kind hand-built electronic constructions that created sounds by methods you might be familiar with. The Barrons descibed what they did as "recording the sounds of circuits dying".

Stockhausen was building his own devices at this time as well.

The real genius of what Moog, Buchla and others did was to stabilize the circuits, "mass" produce them, rack 'em up with a unified power supply, and develop unified control surfaces and mechanisms. AND design them to function as an adjunct to the tape recording process.

[ghettosynth]

I was more impressed with the soundtrack to Forbidden Planet, considering there weren't really any synths available at the time.

You're talking about something completely different though. The Forbidden Planet soundtrack may demonstrate greater ability to overcome challenges in audio production, but it just doesn't sound as good as a CS-80 brass patch.

[Gamma-UT]

I was more impressed with the soundtrack to Forbidden Planet, considering there weren't really any synths available at the time.

You're talking about something completely different though. The Forbidden Planet soundtrack may demonstrate greater ability to overcome challenges in audio production, but it just doesn't sound as good as a CS-80 brass patch.

I know which is more interesting. Vangelis' score for Blade Runner for me is pretty 'meh'. As pointed out above, the love theme is simply cheesy. It wouldn't have been out of place in Ladyhawke, the poster child for dodgy synthetic soundtracks of that era.

The opening scene makes reasonable use of an expensive big synth but I don't think it would have much more impact than an orchestral version of the same thing. And an orchestral arrangement could well have carried a lot more texture.

The end credits music works well with the final scene (of all the revised versions) but other than that, give me the Forbidden Planet soundtrack any day. It's not about overcoming limitations of technology, it's about conveying the other worldliness of the environment.

[himalaya]

It's not about overcoming limitations of technology, it's about conveying the other worldliness of the environment.

Agreed. And for this reason, for me, the Blade Runner soundtrack absolutely nails it. From the cosmic and futuristic, to the very earthy and nostalgic.

[ghettosynth]

I was more impressed with the soundtrack to Forbidden Planet, considering there weren't really any synths available at the time.

You're talking about something completely different though. The Forbidden Planet soundtrack may demonstrate greater ability to overcome challenges in audio production, but it just doesn't sound as good as a CS-80 brass patch.

I know which is more interesting. Vangelis' score for Blade Runner for me is pretty 'meh'. As pointed out above, the love theme is simply cheesy. It wouldn't have been out of place in Ladyhawke, the poster child for dodgy synthetic soundtracks of that era.

The opening scene makes reasonable use of an expensive big synth but I don't think it would have much more impact than an orchestral version of the same thing. And an orchestral arrangement could well have carried a lot more texture.

I don't agree. I think that the power of the opening scene is in the specific characteristics of the CS-80 sound, the fact that it is quite raw and in the open. There is no shortage of orchestral soundtracks in that period and I'm at a loss to name one that has the qualities of the Bladerunner soundtrack.

I don't think, for example, that the soundtrack saved the first Star Trek movie.

It's not about overcoming limitations of technology

Blackflag specifically stated that he thought that it was good particularly because it overcame the limitations of not having synthesizers.

I am specifically saying that a major part of the appeal of the Bladerunner soundtrack is because it uses excellent synthesizers.

[budweiser]

I think that the movie is somewhat mediocre.

Oh god... time for glasses.

[Gamma-UT]

It's not about overcoming limitations of technology

Blackflag specifically stated that he thought that it was good particularly because it overcame the limitations of not having synthesisers.

I have checked the label in my underpants and I am not Blackflag.

I am Calvin Klein.

I am specifically saying that a major part of the appeal of the Bladerunner soundtrack is because it uses excellent synthesizers.

...Which have a sound you have fetishised, so naturally it appeals to you. It's a bit like saying "I like this chef's cooking. He uses great saucepans" though.