Original or Director's Cut? Bladerunner

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

The major changes in the Director's Cut: Annoying voiceover with Mickey Spillane-ish comments by Deckard eliminated. Original, Hollywoodish "happy ending" which felt incongruous with the tone of the film is deleted.

AND, a very brief scene is added that adds enormous significance to a throwaway detail in the last scene of the film. Something which I didn't understand the meaning of until I read an interpretation of it on a message board which explained it perfectly to me.

Obviously I'm biased in favor of the Director's Cut. When I first saw Bladerunner in the theater on initial release, I was SO FRUSTRATED because I felt, here is a film that is so beautiful and NEARLY perfect, but has these SEVERE flaws, the most glaring to me of which was the tacked on ending scene and voiceover. But I was annoyed by the voiceover throughout the film also. I thought Harrison Ford did an excellent job as Deckard, but I just didn't feel he had the right voice for the Sam Spade routine and I thought it unnecessary.

Then, years later, when the Director's Cut came out and I bought it, I was overjoyed watching it, because I thought, this validates that Ridley Scott's vision of the film is probably a lot closer to what I was thinking than what the studio apparently made him cobble into the film. So it's my favorite Director's Cut ever, because it essentially "fixed" what I saw as the main problems with the original instead of just adding on stuff that was on the cutting room floor for good reason.

I never understood the addition of the fleeting scene with the unicorn (which I thought was lifted from "Legend" footage anyway) until I read something about it just the other day that made me slap my forehead in an "AHA" moment. I'm sorry I wasn't able to figure it out myself.

[Gatchaman]

1. I haven't seen the original in so long

that I forget if it's better or not, but I voted for it, only because it's not availale in any format short of an overpriced criterion laserdisc on ebay.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

2. Yeah, true collectors should be able to puchase a package with both

versions, not just for this, but for other films.

[BigMcLargehuge]

3. I know I am going to catch hell for this, but the Original studio cut

precisely for the voiceover. It filled in tons of gaps in the narrative that were indecypherable visually, and from the scant script. As for the ending, I sort of prefer the original, but I like the way the end was narrated in the studio cut, which emphasizes the point of the film, i.e. no one knows how much time they have.

Don't get me wrong, I love the directors cut, but I think the studio was right in asking for the additions they did.

Neither version holds a candle to the book though.