Blade Runner: Tears in the Rain

Want to watch Blade Runner, but you either only have 1 hour and 15 minutes or are someone who finds the official versions of the film boring? You're in luck, rangerkris' technically flawless Tears in the Rain edit distils the film down to a relatively fast paced action noir. The film retains it's title as one of the most visually stunning films ever made, but in a whole new way with the switch to black and white. The only slight issue, as other people have mentioned, is that Rachel is introduced, kills Leon and then disappears, but it didn't bother me at all.

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For the most part, this edit works. I can be right in there and I believe that these poor androids are the heroes. Then the killing starts. In danger or not, there are things the "heroes" do that are undeniably villainous. I also thought it was a little strange to give Deckard as much screen-time as he got. Much of it made him seem to relatable, especially towards the end. Though that stuff really couldn't be removed, I believe it could have been edited (both visually and audibly) to make Roy seem more like a cowering animal lashing out, and Deckard is like the villain in a horror movie willing to do anything (Like re-adjust his broken fingers) but we spend too much time watching him be afraid for his life. That said, I reiterate that outside of those instances this edit works extremely well, especially in the scenes between Pris and Sebastian. Would recommend.

Blade Runner is in my top ten favorite films. I never grow tired of watching it and I am obsessed with the score by Vangelis. The original film is a visual masterpiece, entirely devoted to pulling the viewer into this vision of the future and letting us marvel at the awe and wonder of this strange new Los Angeles. This version is more personal. It doesn't replace the final cut of the film - although I'd much rather watch 'Tears in the Rain' than listen to the clunky narration in the theatrical version - but it is a nice way to really focus in on the replicants and their struggle: "living in fear." In many ways, I understand 'Blade Runner' more from watching this version. Being able to see Rutger Hauer's journey completely strung together and as - in a way - the film's protagonist put everything in a new light. Watching this film also made me wish the actual movie were in black and white, an underrated medium that elevates almost every film it's applied to. The only failure in this edit is the Sean Young character, who is introduced, saves Deckard, and then disappears. This isn't necessarily a failure on the editor's part - as the scene of her saving Deckard is necessary to the replicants' plot - but shows a limitation in creating a fanedit with this premise in mind. Still, I highly enjoyed this edit and couldn't help but shed a tear during Hauer's death.

Blade Runner is one of those films in which people profess to like more than they really do. Or, perhaps through the lens of nostalgia or some facsimile, people enjoy remembering it more than they enjoyed watching it. Speaking for myself, I never liked it. And, among my film enthusiast peers (who confided in me in hushed tones), they too admitted their general malaise for the movie. Whatever ending or version one watches, the film never settles in a place in which characters are worth rooting for or where subtext is given more than a cursory glance. In short, it is a film ripe for an editor's eye who might be able to wrangle a more satisfying experience out of it.

Sadly, Ranger613's Tears in the Rain isn't quite it.

To the editor's credit, despite cutting a third of the original's run time, the edit never feels rushed. The only oddity worth mentioning is the lack of narrative conclusion to the part played by Sean Young. The idea that a replicant can be fooled into thinking it's human never has a subtextual callback. Her character is necessary though and cannot be completely edited out as she comes to Decker's rescue at a critical juncture that (probably) cannot be remedied with the tools available to any editor. To this extent, I forgive this short coming.

However, at just an hour and ten minutes, the film still felt laborious in the latter part of the second act and much of the third.

Two things that can save a dull movie are fascinating soundtracks and exquisite cinematography. Speaking to the latter, Ranger613 goes big by opting for a black-and-white, high-contrast take on the (admittedly) already great camera work from the original. However, puzzling to me was that his edit lacked sharpness and was unfortunately plagued with pixelation and artifacting in the darkest parts of the frame. When I saw that the film was under 90 minutes, and was over 7 gigs without extra features, I just assumed all those 1's and 0's would be going towards a crystal clean image. But this is not the case. I'm not sure if the editor had the ability to make this on a source that was HD, but if not, that was certainly to the detriment of this project. This is the kind of movie that needs a superior image to really sell the experience.

Regarding the film's score, it appears that the editor never felt compelled to address it. The synthesized sounds might, by some, be argued as a layer of subtext to model the plight of the replicants (synthetic humans, synthetic music, etc...). I find it a cheap reminder than we're watching something from the early 80's. I'm under the impression that an overhaul to the film's score would help breathe more life into the more mundane points of the movie. I admit I could be alone in this assumption.

Ranger613 has stated that his edit is not supposed to be a "fixed" version of the original (a film he, unlike myself, claims to be among his most cherished). Rather, this edit is merely a different or alternate take on the material at hand. In this respect, it really does come off as something unique from its source material. The original is a long, bloated experience, while this is curt and focused. This edit better correlates with the visualization of a short story, not a screenplay. I liked this, and I sense there's room to take this concept even further.