I enjoyed the script more than the movie actually. Some of my favorite lines were cut out, but I think that was a good choice since they weren't necessary for the plot; just adding some humor, such as the "Elephant shit" dialogue. However, I was disappointed by 2 things that didn't make it from script to screen: 1. Holden - whom I saw as a mentor to Deckard specially with the "GOD" dialogue. 2. The End - I liked the script ending because it paid off for all the setup that got the idea of deckard being a skin job brewing in the back of my mind. Rachel's question whether he had himself taken the V-K test - His emotional responses as though he was testing his emotions not just Rachel's. All these boil to nothing in the movie. Did anyone else feel the same way? Another thing: The movie was released 30 years ago, and now we're in 2011 only 8 years away from Deckards' world which seemed so unrealistic, and "off world". So, I was wondering how did those who watched it in the 80's feel when they saw the movie for the first time?

I enjoyed the hell out of that script, a fun read. I've only seen the movie once, back when it was released in 1982, so I can't make a comparison like Anna did between the script and screen. However here are some of my impressions of the screenplay: * Interesting how the writing style varies, starts off with long blocks of scene description. Then suddenly on PP. 28-33, we have writing we would see nowadays: Individual lines suggesting specific camera shots. And it goes on like this throughout, switching multiple times. Reflective of two different writers and their respective writing styles? * There is even a third writing style, just a few short scenes where the sluglines are underlined and there is no space between them and the scene description. * And there is this: The credited writers are Hampton Fancher and David Webb Peoples, both of whom are born in the United States. And yet there are several U.K. versions of English words (e.g., "favourite"). Unless Fancher or Peoples was educated in the U.K., it leads to the question: Who rewrote the script? Ridley Scott? * Some of the descriptors are awesome: "Machine-gun smile... smearing light on his face... glass sprays like fireworks... big teeth biting the air like a rabid dog... slumps to the floor like empty clothes." The script is worth reading for this alone, to get your brain excited to use active verbs and strong descriptors in scene description. * Anybody who says a script must only describe what an actor can act and can not comment on the action, Blade Runner is yet another professional script that blows that 'rule' to kingdom come. Dozens of narrative voice asides and commentary. Bottom line: You write the story the best way you know how to tell the story. * Eyeballs: That motif runs throughout the script over and over and over again. I'm going to try to find the time to do an analysis of that for our Theme discussion on Thursday. Bottom line: As innovative as the movie is, the script is quite 'traditional': Character types, Protagonist metamorphosis, straight ahead construction of plot points and three acts. Which just goes to show a story does not need to be formulaic, even if its primary narrative elements reflect a tried and true formula. Indeed it can be a brilliant read.

You're so right about the imagery and non-cliché metaphors. I also noticed some contrasts used in the script; the most prominent was man vs. machine (mostly conveyed through dialogue lines, especially by Holden). But the first one that caught my attention was: Hades vs. Elysium. The first setting of the script is Hades, giving us a general feel of the world we're about to enter:

EXT. HADES - DUSK We are MOVING TOWARD the Tyrell Corporation across a vast plain of industrialization, menacing shapes on the horizon, stacks belching flames five hundred feet into the sky the color of cigar ash.

and then there's this:

Join us in a clean, fresh environment ... Enjoy the numerous recreation areas and resorts such as the famous Elysium Crater Resort!

Another contrast in the movie is mentioned in this quote:

[showing Deckard photos of the Replicants] BRYANT: This is Zhora. She's trained for an Off-World kick murder squad. Talk about Beauty and the Beast - she's both.

I'll see if there are others and we'll discuss them on Themes day.

Halfway through, page 68, what a great read, looking forward to the rest. I'm most struck by how it matches exactly what I remember seeing. How'd they manage that? So succinct, visually dense -- and layered with meaning. Packed with meaning. Hades, eyes, humanity, potent stuff. And it's us humans that are sweaty and imperfect. Anna, you found a beautiful passage, the opening: EXT. HADES - DUSK We are MOVING TOWARD the Tyrell Corporation across a vast plain of industrialization, menacing shapes on the horizon, stacks belching flames five hundred feet into the sky the color of cigar ash. The CAMERA MOVES INTO a window in the large pyramid-shaped building. A man is sitting at a table. Another man enters the room and sits down. The following scene is reflected in the eye until HOLDEN is seated. INT. TYRELL CORPORATION INTERROGATION ROOM -DUSK The eye is magnified and deeply revealed. Flecks of green and yellow in a field of milk blue. Icy filaments surround the undulating center. The eye is brown in a tiny screen. On the metallic surface below, the words VOIGHT-KAMPFF are finely etched. There's a touch-light panel across the top and on the side of the screen, a dial that registers fluctuation of the iris. ___________________ Just beautiful. So few words, and a whole new world is described. Ends up Syd Mead was involved in the process before the final draft, maybe that contributed to script being so succinct.

Here are some Q&A I found Re Blade Runner: http://stason.org/TULARC/movies/blade-runner/13-Blade-Runner-Questions-part1.html http://stason.org/TULARC/movies/blade-runner/13-Blade-Runner-Questions-part2.html

Nice catch, Anna, re man v. machine. It will be interesting to pry into various themes in the script on Thursday, and man v. machine would seem to be a central one.

Great, Anna. I read through them. Some fun stuff. I will include these links in one of this week's posts with a HT to you! Thanks!