Blade Runner

This weekend was the midnight movie I've been waiting for: Blade Runner. Easily my favorite movie of all time, having watched it at least one or twice a month for nearly twelve years now. And all that time, I had never seen it on the big screen, until now.

My first exposure to Blade Runner was in college, watching a bootleg copy of the theatrical cut at a friend's house. I was blown away by the visuals of the film, but was turned off by the boring as hell voiceover narration throughout the film. When my friend moved away, he sold me the tape for a dollar, and somewhere along the way, it disappeared.

I didn't see it again for nearly a year later, when I was fresh out of college. I was in my first apartment, sans cable TV, and I found a VHS copy of the director's cut at Vintage Stock for five bucks. Good deal, figured it was worth another viewing. Lo and behold, no fucking narration! This film now officially kicks ass!

I wore down that videotape shortly before I upgraded to DVD. It was supposed to be the first DVD I purchased, but the store that i bought the player from was out of stock of the movie. So, Blade Runner wound up being the third DVD I ever owned. I never lent it out, so when it turned up missing, I suspected theft. But fortunately I found a replacement copy at the bargain bin at Wal-Mart. The thing I remember about this purchase was that Son-In-Law starring Pauly Shore was right next to it in the bin, and was selling for a dollar more... Further proof that Wal-Mart is pure evil, when they think that Pauly Shore is more bankable than Blade Runner.

This past fall, with the release of the Final Cut on DVD, marked the fifth and hopefully final time I need to buy this movie, short of when I eventually upgrade to Blu-Ray. I got the four-disc edition, simply because they were sold out of the five-disc edition. No biggie. The four-disc, from what I can tell, has everything but the kitchen sink, which leads me to believe that the fifth disk is, in fact, a kitchen sink.

The Final Cut, in essence, is what every special director's cut should be. It's not a George Lucas hey-see-what-I-did-on-my-computer? redux/abomination. Nor is it a David Lynch you're-gonna-watch-every-frame-we-filmed-Goddamnit edit. It isn't even a Steven Spielberg how-did-this-movie-wind-up-being-shorter-than-I-remember? special edition. No, Blade Runner: The Final Cut was a light touch. Fixing a continuity error here, airbrushing out a stunt wire there, and, of course, adding the go-go dancers wearing hockey masks. They still left in one big continuity error in my opinion, but if you don't notice, I won't talk about it.

When it came time to design the poster for the midnight movie at the Circle Cinema, I took my time, spending close to 26 hours doing the illustrations, with Blade Runner playing in the other room while I worked. Once the artwork was done, I put the movie away for a while, vowing not to watch it again until I see it one the big screen. That was two months ago.

The movie played both Friday and Saturday night, and I was first in line both times. I saw it Friday with about seven of my friends, with a couple of them having never seen it before, so afterwards I had to answer some questions. Saturday, I saw it with Tony and Jenny, who are two of my favorite midnight movie buddies. They not only forgive me for completely geeking out over these things, but often join me in the geekness.

Every time I see this movie, I spot something new. I don't know if ti's poor memory retention, short attention span, or if the film truly is that richly detailed, but there's always one little thing that I discover each time. Seeing it on the big screen, with theater sound, I noticed quite a lot. Little bits of dialog that sounded drowned out on my TV came through loud and clear. And for the first time in my life, I realized that I need to upgrade to HD, because I saw things on the big screen that I would never had noticed on my crappy TV.

There's just something about seeing your favorite movie on the big screen for the first time. It made my Twizzlers taste sweeter, the Cherry Coke a little fizzier, the seat a little more comfortable. My life is richer having experienced this.