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.

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.

I have seen just about every iteration of Blade Runner out there and own both the DVD set in the brief case and the Blu-ray equivalent with the Spinner model. I am glad that RangerKris decided to use the Final Cut as the source material, as this is the most refined of all of the versions in my opinion. I've watched this film in different forms, including both first runs in the theatre, at least 20 times and I thought I knew every nuance possible. That is why I was so intrigued that this Fanedit takes a completely new POV and doesn't try to "improve" on the original(s). Thank you RangerKris for that.

Technically, I'm not going to comment much as others have already dissected this with a fine toothed comb. Visually, I think the HC B&W looked gorgeous in 1080p on my large plasma display. I think it even made the scale model sets look more convincing. Aurally, the music edits were well placed and helped move the story from the new POV. It seems some other sound editing was done with the dialogue too, such as the scene in Abdul ben Hassen's shop. It seemed even more distinct than the fixed up version in the Final Cut.

My only slightly critical comment on the edit is one that others have mentioned: the non sequitur appearance of the police Spinner floating up in the background during Roy's last scene on the roof. The only thing I think you could have done there was just loop Roy's last close up (without the dove) to keep the poignancy of the moment.

All in all, very well done from a dyed-in-the-wool BR fanatic.

I don't watch as many fanedits I should these days, but there are some that people obviously want to see, and it appears that me too!

Why some fanedits brings a lot of interest?
- Clever take on a very well known and loved movie: check.
- Smart editing (here: reorganization of some scenes that feel like if they still happen in chronological order): check.
- A strong visual change that serves the purpose of the movie (here the B&W): check.
- A narrative that still works very well despite a lot of cuts: check.

Some minor things that bugs me a little:
- Some pixelate picture from time to time. But overall it's beautiful. Just a bit too much compression on the smoke, the fog... things like that.
- We see a police flying car stopping by the roof top in the background during the last scene (Roy's face down - blurry car in the background). It's not jarring as it is, but it made me think about what comes next in the original movie.
- Movie's maybe a bit too short now, but hey it's the price for having this interesting new take.

Of course I loved the relation between Deckard and Rachel in the original (it's the soul of the movie to me) but somehow THIS take of the movie does not need it and it does make the replicants the main characters. The relation between Roy and Priss is now the soul of the movie, and it works.

A very good fanedit that gives you what it was supposed to give.