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A few words about...™ Blade Runner -- in HD & BD
I occasionally feel as though I've fallen through the rabbit hole.
Several weeks West have kept me from working on line, and with the end of the year approaching, like everyone -- my time is not my own.
HD and BD titles are hitting us more and more furiously, and the ante is continuously upped with every passing week as far as quality.
With that out front, my comments in the near future will encompass those releases that stand at the top of the home video heap.
I first attended a screening Blade Runner at Gomillion Sound on McCadden in Hollywood in the spring of 1982, in 70mm and several weeks before it's release. We had been working there on the 6 track stereo dub for Napoleon.
It was an extraordinary cinematic experience, and getting to spend a bit of time with filmmaker Scott only added to the aura of the evening.
Set some forty years into the future in Los Angeles, we find that "future" getting ever closer as the film has morphed it's way through the decades.
Somewhere between the history of the film and it's many versions as told by Warner Bros. and reality, lies the truth, but the foibles of a motion picture studio and executives through the years isn't the main attraction here. It's what the film has become.
"When truth becomes legend, print the legend."
There are many things that can be said of Mr. Scott's Blade Runner, and how it has changed through the years, but the bottom line is that it has not only stood the test of time, but with the aid of Warner Bros. and digital technology, it may now be closer to what the filmmakers intended 25 years ago.
The new High Definition five disc sets now available allow the varied cuts to be viewed, contrasted and compared till the cows come home, and in the highest possible quality.
Filled to the brim with extras, the release is probably more than even the greatest Blade Runner fanatic might imagine.
Done with the greatest of care and quality, this is what high definition is all about.
As an aside, and not to damage the "legends" of the film in any way, is the reality of where and precisely how the 70mm print of the preview cut was re-discovered.
It was simply heavy cases in the way that needed to be moved. We needed to get behind whatever it was.
It was 1989, and with the help of a representative from Todd-AO, who may or may not wish to be identified, the hunt was on for audio elements from Spartacus.
Archivist Ron Haver offered to give me a day of his time, and the search took us to the back vaults of Todd-AO -- some filled to overflowing with original magnetic materials from some of their finest mixes. The odor of vinegar filled the air.
Attempting to read labels on some cans at the back of a vault, I began to attempt to move some 70mm cases, noting that they were marked Technicolor - London.
I use the word "attempt" as I didn't get too far. They didn't move easily.
Mr. Haver, who virtually moved the cases easily with a fingers of a single hand, got them out of the way. Behind them we found little of interest.
But the Tech London labels got the better of our archivally inquisitive nature, and popping one open we found what appeared to be a rather ordinary print of Blade Runner.
The print was reported to WB, and it apparently went directly into print inventory, soon thereafter being booked into (as memory serves) the Fairfax in Hollywood.
The screening was assumed by all to be a plain vanilla 70mm screening, as no one was aware that the print was special in any way.
I received a call from someone who attended the screening, informing me that members of the audience "levitated" when they quickly realized that the print was not the norm.
35mm prints which played shortly thereafter were duped from the 70mm with the appropriate loss in image quality. Not a pretty picture, but it turned out to be profitable.
After almost two decades, it's quite interesting to see the contents of those cans on an extra disc of the new video release.
I wish Mr. Haver was among us to enjoy the irony.
Blade Runner in high definition on both HD and BD?
Of course, it comes with the highest of ratings, both as films in there varied cuts as well as a meticulously rendered home video product with a myriad of extras.
Is this the release of the year of a modern classic?
Seems so. Warner Home Video should be justifiably proud.
RAH
Last edited by Robert Harris : 12-16-2007 at 10:07 PM.
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