Review for Blade Runner: The Final Cut (2 discs)

Introduction

Twenty odd years ago, I bought a widescreen CRT television with Dolby Surround sound. The first thing I did was watch my favourite movies in that format, which at the time were the Star Wars films, all three of them. Widescreen VHS was awesome, and those movies were the best thing since sliced bread. Of course, every movie I bought on video thereafter was in widescreen, and I realised that those Star Wars tapes were nothing special. Then around 2000, I bought my first DVD player, and straight away, I bought my favourite movies on that format, which at the time were The Matrix and Blade Runner. I was hit once more with the ‘sliced bread’ metaphor, and it was only through viewing subsequent purchases that the realisation dawned that those first two DVDs were actually pretty naff. Last year I finally upgraded to HD, and the first thing I did was buy my favourite movie, which is still Blade Runner. This time however, I decided to put it aside for a while, let some other movies stun me into insensibility before I started seeing the seams in the technology. For one thing, I know Blade Runner pretty much backwards at this point, and I can go for a few years without watching it. Another thing is that the last time, I watched the five DVD tin, with five versions of the film, and two discs full of extras. It finally got the SD transfer it deserved, but it left me pretty much Blade Runner-ed out for a while.

It’s been eighteen months since I caught up to the Blu-ray bandwagon, and I have now seen enough in the way of HD material to not be picking my jaw off the floor every time I watch a new disc. It’s also been nearly five years since I last watched my favourite movie, and hopefully I’ll have lost enough familiarity with it to stay glued to the screen for the duration. If you want to know my thoughts about the film, I’ll point you in the direction of my review for the tin boxset, and I’ll just concentrate on the Blu-ray here.

Picture

Blade Runner is present only in its Final Cut iteration on this Blu-ray disc, and is presented in 2.40:1 widescreen at 1080p resolution, using the VC-1 codec. It’s an early HD disc from 2007 (indeed Blade Runner was also released here on HD-DVD), but the quality of the transfer is hard to fault. The film is transferred with clarity and without any apparent flaw or artefact. It looks splendid.

The problem, if you can call it a problem lies in the source material. Movies shot in the eighties were shot on variable quality film stocks, where graininess and softness of image was often an issue. When you also take into account that Blade Runner is a future noir thriller, shot mostly at night, in dusty, smoky, and rainy environments, then you can understand that the epic clarity of Blu-ray that is afforded to modern cinema doesn’t apply to this film. The image doesn’t ‘pop’, but it does glow. Clarity in the foreground is superb, in the background the image tends to fade into shadow, while dark detail and contrast varies from scene to scene. While the transfer on that 2007 DVD may have finally hit the ‘sliced bread’ benchmark, the limits of the Blu-ray format aren’t tested by this film.


That said, Blade Runner does look superb, and with the greater colour definition and clarity of the transfer, I was seeing detail I had never seen before, appreciating the film’s imagery, the costume and production design at a whole new level. This is a rich, visual experience that has to be savoured. You can really appreciate the detail in the Tyrell Corporation building, while the VK test with Rachel takes on a whole new warmth.

An example of the lack of clarity in the source material happens early on, just before Holden VKs Leon. He’s standing at the window, and it’s presented at an angle which makes it look horribly aliased, replete with jaggies that had me all set to complain in this section. I had to pause it and get up close to realise that the wall is actually textured, and that texture extends to the edge of the window frame, making it look jagged. That texture is lost in the background and in the smoky atmosphere of the room.

Sound

You have the choice between Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Surround English, as well as Dolby Digital 5.1 audio in English, German, Spanish, French, and Italian. The case erroneously states a PCM 5.1 English track. There are many, many fine subtitle tracks to choose from. The sound initially strikes you as spectacular, with Vangelis getting the full 5.1 treatment. The film’s ambience comes across as well, with spinners flying in all directions, explosions going off every which where. It takes a while for the film’s vintage to restate itself once more. Just as the image quality dates the movie, so does the audio. Naturally in 1982, Blade Runner would have been a stereo feature, and it does become clear that the sound design does favour the forward half of the sound stage. There is also a slight dullness to the dialogue; it lacks the fidelity of modern audio recording for cinema, very much a sign of the film’s age.

But the lossless audio does enrich the experience transcendentally in comparison to the DD Surround of the DVD. There is so much more detail here to be heard, the life and vibrancy of the otherworldly locations and scenes really comes across well, and you can hear the background dialogue with a clarity such that you can determine what language the characters are speaking. I never realised that 2019 Los Angeles was such a melting pot until now.

Extras

If there is a downside to this release, it’s the garish Final Cut artwork on the Blu-ray cover. It’s a two-disc release with the second disc held on a central hinged panel. In a mistake with my purchase, both discs got the same artwork, giving the impression that I had two Blu-ray movie discs, instead of the bonus DVD disc.

In terms of content, the feature disc is identical to the first disc of the five-disc tin. It holds the Final Cut in HD, but the 37 second intro from Ridley Scott is presented in 480i SD. You’ll also find three commentaries on this disc. Put the disc in the player and it autoplays the film and you may have to escape to the main menu to ensure that your audio choice is selected. This is also one of the few discs that my Blu-ray player remembers even after it is ejected, so I can stop the film halfway through and come back to it the next day.

Disc 2 is the Dangerous Days, making of documentary, presented on DVD.

Click on the review for the five disc collection if you want more detail on these extra features.

Conclusion

Well I still love Blade Runner, if that’s any surprise. I love it even more on Blu-ray, although it has to be said that you won’t see the magic transformation in HD that you see in more modern features. People looking for ‘3D pop’, for hyper-real clarity, for a full-on surround impact are going to be disappointed, but then again, if you’re expecting a 30 year old film... Jesus Christ! 30 years! If you’re expecting a film this old to look absolutely brand new, then you’re on a hiding to nothing.

What you do get is the film looking pristine, as good as it possibly could look, and on Blu-ray, there will be no nit-picks about digital artefacts or compression to mar your viewing experience. You’re getting the film as the director intended, and I have to say it looks glorious. The whole attraction of Blade Runner was the creation of a realistic, lived in, enveloping future world, where you could pause any frame, and any aspect of that frame could prove inspiration for a dozen other stories.


The Blu-ray lets that world envelop and encompass you without flaw, without any reminder that you’re just watching a movie. The image quality and audio are both such that they now transport you into this world, and for me, this becomes the ultimate Blade Runner experience. The DVD that was released in 2007 was excellent, peerless, the peak of that technology. Blade Runner on this Blu-ray is hardly the same, but it’s just that much better than the DVD to make double-dipping essential, not just optional.