Bladerunner

[C. Craig R. McNeil]

Semi OT. What did folks think of the short story "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" I didn't get it at all and Bladerunner can barely claim to be based on it!

[j. d. worthington]

Originally Posted by C. Craig R. McNeil

Semi OT. What did folks think of the short story "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" I didn't get it at all and Bladerunner can barely claim to be based on it!

SHORT STORY???? This was a novel, (albeit a short one). Are you thinking of "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale", which was the purported basis of Total Recall? or perhaps "Impostor"?

[C. Craig R. McNeil]

Originally Posted by j. d. worthington

SHORT STORY???? This was a novel, (albeit a short one). Are you thinking of "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale", which was the purported basis of Total Recall? or perhaps "Impostor"?

Short novel then. And I can asure you it was Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. I've read it and on the front it says "The story that went on to become Bladerunner." There's a clue there...

[j. d. worthington]

Originally Posted by C. Craig R. McNeil

Short novel then. And I can asure you it was Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. I've read it and on the front it says "The story that went on to become Bladerunner." There's a clue there...

Okay. It was just the phrasing that threw me. I thought perhaps there had been a short story version I'd never heard of......

Shouldn't do that to us old folks; you never know what might happen. Especially when we're talking about memories and implants.... *shudders*

[Foxbat]

Semi OT. What did folks think of the short story "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" I didn't get it at all and Bladerunner can barely claim to be based on it!

Well, to answer your question from my point of view - I've always found PKD hard going...but what keeps me coming back to him is that there is usually something interesting lurking beneath the paranoia that seems to fill most of his works. I found the film and story quite different both aesthetically and plotwise but, deep down, they both carried that sense of loss in a world changing for the worse.....and in that sense, I felt the movie did the story justice.

I hope that makes more sense to you than it does to me

[Denie Alconn]

OOOhhh, I love that movie!!!
Rudger Hauer and Harrison Ford absolutely rule in this film, in my opinion it was way ahead of it`s time !!!

[Brown Rat]

C. Craig, I like the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? There are certainly differences between the book and the movie (such as the absence of Mercer in the move, the absence of Deckard's wife, and Isidore's reduced role), but I see the two as advancing essentially the same themes.

The movie and the book both stress the importance of empathy. Supposedly, the androids lack it, which is what distinguishes them from humans, but the book and the film undermine the distinction. In the book and in the film, we learn that androids / replicants can empathize and love one another. And in the book, as in the film, we see Deckard go from initial detachment to greater empathy. In both book and film, the line between android and human blurs. And in both, the audience's sympathies are engaged--our ability to empathize is expanded--as we feel for the androids. (In the movie, wondering whether Deckard is an replicant is part and parcel of that blurring and perfectly appropriate to that theme.)

Along with an exploration of empathy, the movie and the book both develop a companion theme that other posters have mentioned: the (lack of) difference between the real and the unreal. The book develops this theme more fully than the movie, examining not just "real" humans and "real" animals but "real" moods and "real" philosophies, blurring the line between the two.

And in both the film and the book, Deckard consorts with androids, questions his job, questions himself, and engages in a flurry of active killing.

One of the things I like very much about the book is the way that PK Dick plays with personification to reinforce his themes. In the very first paragraph, "A merry little surge of electricity" contasts with the "unmerry eyes" of Deckard's wife. The electricity has more liveliness--more life--than the humans, who are disengaged from one another and from their own feelings, needing to dial up their moods.

By the end of both film and movie, Deckard is calmer, more at peace with himself, and appreciates that "The electric things have their lives, too" (214).

[mikeo]

Originally Posted by I, Brian

I am thoroughly relieved to see that I'm not the only one who really enjoyed the original version, and even prefers it over the Driector's Cut. Got to love the Harrison Ford narration.

As for the cutting down by 6 minutes - I never actually knew that.

It has actually been claimed that Harrison Ford did the narration as poorly as he felt he could (without being called on it), in the hopes that the narration would be dropped. I find it a bit silly - the director's cut has a better feel for me. Still, to each his own!

One of the things I find most telling about the film is that William Gibson saw it back when he was working up to his bridge trilogy, and he was distraught at the way someone had already perfectly captured the feel he was attempting to create in his writing.

[Paige Turner]

At first blush, I found the Sam Spade narration incongruous with the rest of the movie. The sterile melancholy of the story and the excellent Vangelis soundtrack just didn't seem to fit with the When the dame walked into my office, I knew I was lookin' at trouble. Trouble in a pair of size seven pumps and a five-hundred-dollar coat voiceover. Subsequent viewings have only reinforced that opinion.

edit: She had the kind of lips that would tell exactly the kind of lies you wanted to hear.

[cornelius]

i second paige's statement. I saw the movie three times, i still have some weird thoughts about it all, but i thinks that's the meaning of the movie

[SFAM]

Originally Posted by Paige Turner

At first blush, I found the Sam Spade narration incongruous with the rest of the movie. The sterile melancholy of the story and the excellent Vangelis soundtrack just didn't seem to fit with the When the dame walked into my office, I knew I was lookin' at trouble. Trouble in a pair of size seven pumps and a five-hundred-dollar coat voiceover. Subsequent viewings have only reinforced that opinion.

edit: She had the kind of lips that would tell exactly the kind of lies you wanted to hear.

I liked the DC lots more than the TE, but then again the TE was pretty awesome. It certainly rocked my world in the 80s. But still, I'm TOTALLY jazed about the Final Cut of Blade Runner coming out! I can't wait.