Review Detail

Nothing of consequence was cut, in my opinion.

I've always liked the apparent good movie hidden underneath Bladerunner. The general trend in Riddley Scott's movies seems to be to have great aesthetical ideas that COULD mesh well together with the themes if those themes weren't either bogged down by bloat or additions to the movies. I would summarize Scott's achiles' heel as being unfocused.

This edit by Wakeupkeo brings that focus, as fanfixes tend to do, with what in my opinion is thematic clarity. The big selling point of this is the removal of the abuse scene between Deckard and Rachael. Not just a comfortable removal for more modern eyes, editing this out refocuses the narrative on the messaging, and there is a similar editing refocusing on the replicants with regards to their quickly kindled friendship with Sebastian that likewise makes them, if not "good", at least not morally unscrupulous. The original Bladerunner is pretty deep into a noir aesthetic with all characters being more or less assholes, but never not being an asshole. To me it feels oddly gratuitous and indulgent – another way to sum up Scott's general issues, for that matter.

And indulgent is how I would characterize the abuse scene, just to linger on that note a bit more. I don't think the point that comes across is necessarily that Deckard is an abuser, but that this abuse is necessary for Rachael's grasping of freedom, and as such it just feeds into pretty nasty stereotypes rationalizing partner abuse. Being a woman, I'm pretty biased in this reading, but to be clear I'm not against showing abuse in movies itself, but I think the implied idea that abuse leads to liberation is a pretty unhealthy messaging that just detracted from the core narrative about the replicants' struggle for liberation. "He hits you because he cares/likes you" is a trope I'd rather just not make excuses for why they should be included, and therefore I think this edit really has a substantial effect on the movie itself, rather than just being a censoring of uncomfortable content - in the sense of censoring profanity, that is, and not censoring speech. I will say, however, that the abuse scene is historically interesting and a good conversation starter if nothing else.

Bladerunner isn't just a movie about social themes, however, and I think Wakeupkeo has done a good job bringing that ambient, slow and dreamy experience that originally drew me to the movie (and which I thought Bladerunner 2049 did better, in the end) by abstracting elements in the movie. Even small things, like removing the date markings, help this, but I also enjoyed the removal of the unicorn passages, as it puts more focus on the world and the aesthetic. This means that it's a pretty lousy Philip K Dick adaptation, with his recurring themes about identity dissipation, by definition. But then again, Bladerunner never really was an adaptation to begin with.

There are a few editing hiccups that other reviews have made me aware of, but nothing that anything but really keen eyes would notice.

In conclusion, this is pretty much an edit that does EXACTLY what I wanted, and is perfectly in line with my tastes. I actually went hunting for a Bladerunner edit without this scene because I find the replicants relatable to things going on in my own life currently, and was delighted when the editor had also done other editing choices that I was interested in seeing! I fully recommend giving this a watch, whatever your opinion on the abuse scene is.