Blade Runner fans What's the best version?

lived in houston for a long time ... can't speak highly enough about the rot ... great, great little theater ... the final cut is great ...

have some drinks, sit back and enjoy the big screen ...

can hit up late night pie after the movie ...

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Do it without thinking twice.

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Im planning on it. I've seen it with the voice over, so this will be different, good.

tiderider. I often check the River Oaks midnight schedule. Great way to see some classics on the big screen.

I've seen the original theatrical version approximately half a dozen times, the director's cut over a dozen and the final cut 3 or 4 times at this point. I must say that the "director's cut" (which Ridley himself did only as a response to the unauthorized workprint release - Ridley is "happier" with 1992's Director's Cut than the theatrical, but was ultimately unsatisfied with that product as well) is obsolete at this point. So, the only "true" choices are the theatrical release and the final cut. The Final Cut has all the improvements contained in the so-called Director's Cut and more. There were handful of continuity errors and a glaring problem with a particular stunt performance.

Big differences from Theatrical to 1992 DC - 1992 DC deletes the voiceover and adds the short version of the Unicorn Dream. Final Cut adds the full version of the Unicorn Dream.

Most body double/stunt performer sequences work in films because of a fast cut, facing away or clever use of intercuts. In Blade Runner (probably the most brilliant "in camera" special effects picture, likely to remain so for the foreseeable future with the rise of CGI), there was a particular sequence that the principal actor couldn't film because of the risk and the physical demands of the stunt. 40+ year old stunt woman Lee Pulford had to make a run through plate glass and she actually suffered minor cuts doing the stunt (and a great job, overall, on the stunt work).

Problem was (in addition to this being a slow motion scene - a nightmare for continuity, along with close ups, for a stunt performer insert) - they gave her a wig that bore little resemblance to the hair style worn by Joanna Cassidy's character, Zhora during the film. When Ridley made the "final" changes for the final cut, the most significant was a shot-for-shot replacement scene for the head of Zhora during that scene. They consulted the original prints, made Cassidy's hair up the same way and reshot the scene in green screen. They digitally replaced Pulford's head with Cassidy's from the reshoot from a quarter century later.

Other improvements in the final cut include fixing some continuity errors on the number of replicants, again dubbed in by M. Emmett Walsh, as his character spoke the conflicting lines in the original.

I know there are a host of other technical fixes, such as digitally removing signs of the lifts for the spinners, and seamless things like that. But, I think I've covered the significant content based ones.

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Im planning on it.

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THAT'S THE SPIRIT

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I have the collectors edition with all the versions of the movie. Personally I like the original 1982 theatrical release with voice over.

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Me too. Five different versions for those of us who have nothing better to do than watch five...different...versions...of...the...same...movie.

I don't mind voice-overs -- they're actually very much in keeping with noir -- but I personally think the BR ones were clumsily written and delivered. But I'll allow that's just an opinion. However, I hate the "happy ending" of the theatrical cut. Nothing wrong with happy endings in general, but this one felt completely shoehorned in and was a jarring change of tone from the rest of the movie. It felt very "Oh, and by the way, the themes and emotional resonances and motivations we spent the entire movie establishing? frick 'em. Things are lookin' up for Our Heroes!" It simply didn't work for me and would have actually lowered my opinion of BR from All-Time Great to Pretty Good had I not seen the Director's Cut before I saw the Theatrical Cut and thus knew there was a better version out there.

I have 7 versions of this movie, the best to me is the original 1982 theatrical release. The second best is the version released in The Director's Cut of 1992.

Here are the main 6 versions:

The Denver/Dallas Sneak or work print version

The San Diego Sneak

The US Theatrical Cut

The International Cut

The Director's Cut

The Final Cut

None of the versions will excite you