Bladerunner would be forgettable without the soundtrack.

[xoxos]

i would be an absolute idiot to claim it was mediocre...simply because i dont get it...simply because i think its a boring, annoying rambling mess that doesnt say anything or have any purpose to exist at all.

i get what you're saying but coopting your post sort of like, when friendly happy vst making geniuses use kvr to distribute things that are useful to people, but then the evil secret people who control everything come along and say, "they're no good, just buy the expensive things and do what we tell you to do" and then everybody listens to those people because they think they are cool because vurt is friendly to them so something noble and beautiful and well minded is basically just a piece of shit in the eyes of those it was intended to benefit. and they still have no clue how much game gets run on them.

that's how you write music like that, you get shit on by authority, and realise, the entire f**king world is too screwed in the head to notice or think about anything except sucking authorised dick trying to be as cool as teenage scott baio in a leather jacket, just like a miniature f**king fonzee oh he's so adorable.

don't suck authorised dick, suddenly it all makes sense. these people, they are lost.

[thecontrolcentre]

Blade runner is very much 'of its time'. It reflects social attitudes from the 80s, so I suppose could be considered old fashioned or clichéd by a younger audience. For me its an outstanding Film Noir but set in the future, and would still work without the soundtrack. Every time I watch it I spot more clues to what is going on in the movie (is Deckard a replicant?) ...

I prefer the version without the voice over.

[chk071]

I gotta watch it again. Has been a while since i last did. Actually a couple of years ago.

Edit: Realized i didn't even have it on DVD. Ordered.

[do_androids_dream]

..its an outstanding Film Noir but set in the future.

That's what it is for me too.. A dark love story with a deep pervasive sadness and comment about the nature of what constitutes life and living. I totally disagree that it's of its time - it's one of the most timeless movies I can think of. It's silly to talk of removing the soundtrack - sound is just as important a part of movie making as the moving image. When I first watched this film - which was when I was about 19 - the music wasn't what struck me at all. I found it to be subtle and suited to the movie but it's not particularly my favourite Vangelis material.

[aMUSEd]

..its an outstanding Film Noir but set in the future.

That's what it is for me too.. A dark love story with a deep pervasive sadness and comment about the nature of what constitutes life and living. I totally disagree that it's of its time - it's one of the most timeless movies I can think of. It's silly to talk of removing the soundtrack - sound is just as important a part of movie making as the moving image. When I first watched this film - which was when I was about 19 - the music wasn't what struck me at all. I found it to be subtle and suited to the movie but it's not particularly my favourite Vangelis material.

Agreed - was never a huge Vangelis fan, the music works well for the movie but doesn't make it at all.

[el-bo (formerly ebow)]

And the soundtrack would be forgettable without the movie

They are both inextricably linked. Now, when I hear the soundtrack on it's own all the emotions etc., that were hardwired from the entire movie experience, subconsciously fill in any holes and make up for any lack

[harryupbabble]

I mostly remember Blade Runner as being about slavery. And about the slave Roy Batty, despite being a slave, wanting more life and doesn't want to die and tries to stay alive as much as he can without any regards to the lives of his slave master and the slave master's cronies.

And that the "tears in the rain" scene is pretty vivid. And Roy Batty using his thumbs, pressing on the slave master's eyes to kill him, that's memorable.

To be honest, I don't remember the soundtrack at all now but the music must have been important while watching the movie.

But that music that I associate with Blade Runner is Iggy Pop's Lust For life.

[AnX]

I always thought the soundtrack was the worst part of the film. I loved Carpenters scores (at the time, EFNY, TT, TF etc) , i always thought BR could have done with something similar...but i was never a big fan anyway...

[inkwarp]

Every time I watch it I spot more clues to what is going on in the movie (is Deckard a replicant?) ...

I prefer the version without the voice over.

ewwww..
this movie...
when it came out in 1982 it was mind-blowing. like all works of art it bears repeated viewings, something ineffable and dare I say it spiritual that means it will endure. science fiction is tricky. timelessness is a hard thing to achieve especially in the genre of science fiction. stuff can go out of date over night. check out paul voerhovens sci-fi, it looks very much a product of it's time , the mid 80s when the world was shallow and plastic. rolled up sleeves and mullets.the genius of blade runner is that it is a neo-noir. the future is the past, a melting pot of lingua franca noodle bars and perpetual rain which means all the neon is spectacular. i saw it the as soon as it the cinema ( it was almost simaltaneous with The Thing remake, again, great in every aspect with one of morricone's greatest scores.it was a fore runner of cyber punk and only ridley scott knows how to stir it all up and make something that is the sum of it's parts. more even.
it's funny playing these what if games. they are of course pointless. the fact is that it is as near to perfection as a sci-fi film can get. it sits up there with 2001 ( does anyone say, " 2001 would be nothing without Ligetti, it is a waste of time hypothesising.i wonder how many people know the tortured history of it's production? that dustin hoffman and al pacino were tested for the deckard roll.. scott is the master of the mis en scene and when he is good ( not so much these days) he is a genius. he takes all this stuff in some ambient swirl and extrapolates beautifully detailed and fascinating world. Zott has an achilles heal it is his medocrity of being able to direct actor.it' always struck me that Deckard is a misanthrope, that he is quite unlikeable. whereas the replicants, esp. Batty are the real human souls in the film. if you watch the final FINAL cut ( which is the prefect version in my opinion) the answer as to whether he is a replicant is more than evident. in the horrible voice over version, this is all a mess of rushed reshoots and the vile voiceover, because the studio thought the audience was to stupid and had to have this dull exposition if they could hope to understand it.
the vangelis music, of course, is one of the ingredients of the film which is so meshed with the visuals it is almost like a character in it's own right. i did some sampling once and spent some time just listening to the soundtrack on it's own. the rain,is so beautiful. the sound work on this film is absolutely amazing.
so don't worry about hypotheticals: if this would have been a different ( i.e. less impressive) without the soundtrack. it wasn't , it is prefect, enough said..

[do_androids_dream]

I mostly remember Blade Runner as being about slavery. And about the slave Roy Batty, despite being a slave, wanting more life and doesn't want to die and tries to stay alive as much as he can without any regards to the lives of his slave master and the slave master's cronies.

The movie is asking the question 'what is life?' - what defines a human being. Does a silicon based 'organism' constitute a human if it looks and acts and thinks like one? Yes, the replicants were made slaves and the film is also commenting on that too.

[incubus]

I have no idea what I posted the first time this came around but I'm just happy that they made the movie. Don't care about all the minutia.

Is it on netflix? I'm in the mood to see it again.

[experimental.crow]

I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears...in...rain.

Time to die.

[ccDuckett]

Batty: I want more LIFE, f???er.

I remember reading years later that Rutger Hauer intentionally blurred his line, so that it was uncertain if he said "father" or "f**ker", and that Scott loved it and went with it. I'd always noticed it and was very interested in knowing which it was.. finding that out was satisfying, that two principal people knew and cared enough about what they were doing to create this detail.

Reading the book (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?) was sort of bittersweet- there was so much in the book that didn't make it into the movie, but it did send me back to the library to find more Philip K. Dick.

On topic: the film and soundtrack are wedded, I cannot imagine one without the other.

[experimental.crow]

You’re in a desert walking along in the sand when all of the sudden you look down, and you see a tortoise, it’s crawling toward you. You reach down, you flip the tortoise over on it's back. The tortoise lays on it's back, it's belly baking in the hot sun, beating it's legs trying to turn it'self over, but it can’t, not without your help.

But you’re not helping. Why is that?

[zerocrossing]

You’re in a desert walking along in the sand when all of the sudden you look down, and you see a tortoise, it’s crawling toward you. You reach down, you flip the tortoise over on it's back. The tortoise lays on it's back, it's belly baking in the hot sun, beating it's legs trying to turn it'self over, but it can’t, not without your help.

But you’re not helping. Why is that?

Because I'm replying to a thread about some old sci-fi movie on KVR!

I love this movie. Brilliant. It can seem dated, but really it's pretty amazing. If you read the story it's adapted from, you'll see that they almost made it from whole cloth. The story is profoundly different. Good in it's own way though.

One thing I've never liked... Is the soundtrack. I'm not a Vangelis guy. That overly dramatic synth-o romantic stuff does zero for me. I don't think it really works for the film either. I actually used to do live re-scoring of Bladerunner when I was doing shows. Tron too. I once had Tron going on the main screen, and I had two side screens where friends took turns playing Rez while I did my live-looping guitar/synth schtick. Good times. Bring back the 00s!