Thu, 1 September 2005
Out of the past and straight into the future, Ridley Scott blends film noir and science fiction in "Blade Runner." Richard and Shannon query this unusual mix, and ask how a style that is often as outlandishly unrealistic as noir could be used to make science fiction feel more grounded and approachable. They consider why, aside from strong performances by Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, and Daryl Hannah, this film achieved such renown, and came to be considered the epitome of neo-noir. Like the DNA of the humanoid Replicants in the movie, the filmic code Scott created in "Blade Runner" has proved to be as ineluctable as it is generative. This podcast is brought to you by Clute and Edwards of www.noircast.net. To leave a comment on this episode, or make a donation to the podcast, please visit "Out of the Past: Investigating Film Noir" at outofthepast.libsyn.com/
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Comments[4]
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Hello Clute and Edwards I could not find a direct e-mail link so I’m using this comment link. I hope that’s okay. I thought you might be interested to know about a “Future Noir? animated feature. You can download the trailer at: http://www.zipworld.com.au/~raz/nima/SL_Tumb/ Cheers Peter Peter Rasmussen Nanoflix Productions http://www.Nanoflix.net
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need help - watched a movie YEARS ago - what seemed to be a sci-fi / best that i can remember the movie was about these three individuals that awoke separately (at the moment of their death suicide/murder/? ) to find themselves the only people on earth - the film implies some sort of experiment in a laboratory was the cause of this situation - but further into the flick shows that they may be in the afterlife ( perhaps a dead parallel earth ) each of these \"survivors\" 2 men ( 1 black + 1 Caucasion) & 1 woman (Caucasian) eventually searching for life all encounter each other and set off together exploring the city and beyond - i remember one of the men bonding with the woman - the place is what seems to be set in the UK somewhere ( could be Australian - New Zealand ) actors all have accents ( i estimate from memory ( but not sure ) the movie was made sometime in th e1970\'s - 1980\'s - - - - MAn !! I have been searching and searching for this film without success - PLEASE PLEASE help send me an email with any clues : davecamm@gmail.com
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Hi, I\'m a late-comer to your excellent podcasts and over the last week have been flying through them with the giddy excitement of a child in a candy store. Having listened to them out of broadcast order, Bladerunner is actually one of the last I\'ve listened to and one which I was greatly anticipating being a big fan of this particular film. Sadly I have to say that many of the observations that you\'ve made about the movie are erroneous and seem to be based on misconceptions you have about the nature of the source material and it\'s long journey to the screen: i) The Philip K Dick original is a full length novel and not a short-story as it is frequently referred to as being. ii) Said novel does contain many elements of the hard-boiled crime novel even if it\'s not specifically \"Chandleresque\", as seen by its\' decaying urban setting, it\'s psychologically scarred, morally uneven protagonist, it\'s sense of paranoia and existential foreboding, it\'s presentation of a \"mystery\" plot that is quickly forgotten and actually not that important in the first place etc. iii) The choice to make the movie a \"noir\" wasn\'t one that Ridley Scott made, it was (as I said above) present in the original novel and in every previous version of the screenplay, long before he was attached to the project. iv) I also fail to see how \"film noir\" would be possibly used as a \"grounding device\" to make Science-fiction acceptable to the audience, when at the time of it\'s original release, said audience would have been far more aware of the likes of \"Star Wars\" and \"Alien\" than they would of \"Double Indemnity\" or \"The Killers\". I\'m sorry to come across as a pedantic bore, but if you\'re going to present \"facts\" with any degree of authority, you have a responsibility to your audience to make sure they\'re correct. Oh and BR was Scotts\' third film as director, not his second.
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Great Podcast! Blade Runner is one of my all time favorite movies. I have even forced my kids to watch it. Your discussion of BR in the context of Noir was fascinating, and since I am not a Film academic, created a wonderful and completely new perspective for me. I can now appreciate this film even more, and when I once again force my kids to watch it with me, I will quote you guys and sound brilliant to them. Thanks for the self-esteem. JT
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