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new Blade Runner DVD


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Just got the 4-disc DVD set of "Blade Runner", which includes just about every version of the movie. I watched a nice tribute to Jordan Cronenweth of the 4th disc. The gaffer mentioned "A lot of people don't believe me when I tell them that we only had four 1K Xenons for the whole movie..." (not that that was the only lighting.)

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I rented the 5 disc collection in HD-DVD. I think having 5 discs is redundant because when you have to watch the entire movie you can't tell the difference. I would rather just watch the deleted scenes seperately. This movie is just another phony robot movie where you hire actors to act like robots rather than creating a real robot.

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This movie is just another phony robot movie where you hire actors to act like robots rather than creating a real robot.

 

Yeah, and they faked a city of the future rather than travelled forward in time to shoot in the real future...

 

Are you, well, nuts? A movie plot involves androids so realistic that you have to test them to figure out if they are human or not... and you think that the filmmakers could have built real robots back in 1981 that would pass for human beings? I hate to break it to you, but a lot of things in movies are faked, like when a character dies... they don't really kill someone.

 

A movie set in the future in particular has to fake things that don't exist in modern times. Like robots that walk around and fool people into thinking they are humans.

 

Unless you have some sort of hang-up with the whole literary device of androids, which I can tell you, serves mainly as a metaphor in Dick's novel for all aspects of humanity he disliked. The point usually is an exploration of what it means to be human, not about accurately predicting the future of robotics.

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Only the 5 DVD version in the briefcase comes with the toys.

 

I was given two different versions for Christmas. The 2 DVD set is probably enough for most people. It has the very well done remastered version and the second DVD contains the over two hour documentary. It's very interesting although it strangely leaves out information on Cronenweth. They barely spend a minute on him which I think should have been shared more with the production design coverage and Ridley's babbling.

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To give you an example let's go back to the 1930's Wizard of Oz movie where we had this phony tin man which was nothing more than an actor in a costume. Technological advancement was not an excuse because by that time a steam powered robot had already been invented that had a torso made out of a boiler and and its smoke stack was a cigar sticking out of its mouth. This steam powered tin man was capable of bipedal locomotion but it was incapable of balance and had to be propped up and it could only walk in circles. The complexity of this machine was no more complex than what you would find in a lego mindstorms robotic invention system yet their was no effort on the part of the film makers to build such a machine in order to make their movie more realistic.

 

Not all movies are this phony however. In the 1970's we had a movie called Damnation Alley that had a vehicle with three wheels on each side of an axle configured in a triangular arrangement so that these wheels could climb over rocks. This so called prop featured real patented technology and had a real custom made working drivetrain that actually worked.

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To give you an example let's go back to the 1930's Wizard of Oz movie where we had this phony tin man which was nothing more than an actor in a costume. Technological advancement was not an excuse because by that time a steam powered robot had already been invented that had a torso made out of a boiler and and its smoke stack was a cigar sticking out of its mouth. This steam powered tin man was capable of bipedal locomotion but it was incapable of balance and had to be propped up and it could only walk in circles. The complexity of this machine was no more complex than what you would find in a lego mindstorms robotic invention system yet their was no effort on the part of the film makers to build such a machine in order to make their movie more realistic.

 

Not all movies are this phony however. In the 1970's we had a movie called Damnation Alley that had a vehicle with three wheels on each side of an axle configured in a triangular arrangement so that these wheels could climb over rocks. This so called prop featured real patented technology and had a real custom made working drivetrain that actually worked.

 

Next you'll complain about C3P0 and how Star Wars was phony...Stop destroying my childhood...lol

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What got me about Star Wars was not so much the phony robots which could have been excusable for the technology available in the 1970's but rather how George Lucas dealt with the problem of artificial gravity by pretending the problem did not exist. You see when you compare this to the movie 2001 a Space Oddyssey Stanley Kubrik went to great measures to build mock ups of centrifuges by mounting drums on ferris wheels in order to simulate the living quarters of space ships. The result was an entirely credible and realistic demonstration of what the technology of interplanetary space travel will be like. Also what bothers me about Star Wars are these so called loud explosions in space. This is impossible because sound does not travel in a vacuum but I guess George Lucas is more concerned about the entertainment value of his movies than their scientific accuracy.

Edited by Thomas James
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What got me about Star Wars was not so much the phony robots which could have been excusable for the technology available in the 1970's but rather how George Lucas dealt with the problem of artificial gravity by pretending the problem did not exist. You see when you compare this to the movie 2001 a Space Oddyssey Stanley Kubrik went to great measures to build mock ups of centrifuges by mounting drums on ferris wheels in order to simulate the living quarters of space ships.

 

 

Yeah, but what happend to that gravity in 2001 when they get to they got to the moon? The way they are walking around the monothith like they're at the construction has always ruined the illusion to me.

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I guess George Lucas is more concerned about the entertainment value of his movies than their scientific accuracy.

 

if I remember correctly, Star Wars didn't have any intention of being scientifically accurate. Isn't the first thing you see in the movie "a long time ago, in a galaxy far far away"?

 

Anyway, just finished watching the behind-the-scenes disc of the Blade Runner set, and I have to say it's truly impressive. Now I'm really curious to watch the workprint version of the film..

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I was glad to see that the latest cut of Blade Runner solved the white bird (pigeon or dove?). The original release cut to the bird flying into a blue sky along a smoke stack. Frankly, I always thought that was a backlot shot. You know, the guys are sitting around the Steenbeck complaining they need a cut-away to verify that the bird has flown out of Rutger's hands and to substantiate the symbolism. Some guy goes out on the lot with an old Arri II and a magician's pigeon and gets a shot. The new one is a perfect CG for the bird to fly up into. That always bugged me. The new one puts all that to rest for me.

 

Sorry to obsess about it.

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What got me about Star Wars was not so much the phony robots which could have been excusable for the technology available in the 1970's but rather how George Lucas dealt with the problem of artificial gravity by pretending the problem did not exist.

 

At least in some 50s movies they'd mutter a line about 'the artificial gravity'.

 

But I don't recall 'Star Trek' ever doing that, I'm thinking they just ignored the issue too.

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So now we are on the subject of birds I think it would really be cool if these film makers would spend the money and invent a real flying robot bird. In the movie the Terminator 3 The Sony robot dog was featured and I myself am a proud owner of a robot dog.

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I was glad to see that the latest cut of Blade Runner solved the white bird (pigeon or dove?). The original release cut to the bird flying into a blue sky along a smoke stack. Frankly, I always thought that was a backlot shot. You know, the guys are sitting around the Steenbeck complaining they need a cut-away to verify that the bird has flown out of Rutger's hands and to substantiate the symbolism. Some guy goes out on the lot with an old Arri II and a magician's pigeon and gets a shot. The new one is a perfect CG for the bird to fly up into. That always bugged me. The new one puts all that to rest for me.

 

Sorry to obsess about it.

 

Shame they changed that line to "I want more life father"

 

was way better the way it was.

Edited by Ruairi Robinson
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