Tonya and PQBON's WebLog
"Blade Runner" replicated on DVD again - Yahoo! News
The director's cut first came out on DVD before optimal formatting standards had been established, said Doug Pratt, editor of the DVD-LaserDisc Newsletter.
"Shortly afterwards, it went into moratorium. The early adopters who bought the title have long since wished to see it upgraded, while other fans, who came into DVDs later on, have been unable to find it at all. It is the only 'big' sci-fi spectacle currently unavailable on DVD," Pratt said.
I'm one of the few early adopters of DVD who owns Blade Runner. Actually, when I bought it there was almost nothing else out on DVD so I didn't have much choice. However, I definately want the new boxed set with all three versions of the movie. I don't even remember what the theatrical release was like. The ending was totally different but that is all I remember. It will be interesting to see what is different in the latest directors cut.
UPDATE: m pointed out that this is a strange release given that HD-DVD and BluRay are knocking on the door. I see two things 1) nothing says that when they say DVD they mean only DVD and not both DVD and high definition DVD (HDDVD and/or BluRay) 2) HD-DVD and BluRay suck! They are expensive and heavily encumbered with DRM. I think consumers are going to be less into both formats the more they get into iPod video and other portable devices. That doesn't even mention movie jukeboxes and the like which are by design broken by both new disk formats. I wouldn't be surprised if just like every other media format Sony has ever tried to drive, it crashes into the nearest trees charring the skin of all early adopters (Beta, MiniDisk, MemoryStick, UMD, and others...).
It remains to be seen if BluRay will be the destruction of the playstation legacy. I personally think it will. It has already driven the playstation cost to the level of failures like NeoGeo (Hey sony, when you say people will pay for the highend console, you should learn your history. Several well featured but expensive game consoles were beaten up and had there lunch money stolen by less expensive less featured consoles!)
This really should be a separate entry on BluRay and HD-DVD but I'm saving that for some time in the future when both are actually available.
I own the director's cut on VHS. I recall the theatrical version (it has narration; that's the major difference), but it's been so long that I do have trouble recalling all the particulars.
Posted by: Alex at May 30, 2006 1:27 PMI believe the other major difference is whether or not you see the seen with the unicorn origami, i.e. one implies that Deckard is a replicant because his dreams are known, the other does not.
Posted by: kwc at May 30, 2006 3:55 PMI'm one of the early adopters of the DVD format that didn't buy Blade Runner when it came out on DVD. As I recall, the consensus on the DVD forums at the time was that having the director's cut of the movie was ok, but as an early Warner Bros. release, the DVD was noticably devoid of extras and came packaged in the cardboard DVD cases and was one of WB's poorer transfers. As the LaserDisc release of Blade Runner Director's Cut had made it's debut a few years prior, many of us within the DVD community assumed that Warner would later release the "screw-you-early-adopter" version as many companies had done early on by releasing several movies twice -- once as a "normal version" and then again as a "special edition". Initially set to have been released 5 years ago, this DVD set has been long awaited -- but with Blu-Ray and HD-DVD on the horizon, doesn't it make sense to simply wait and skip the DVD release?
The original theatrical version has a ton of voice-over work because the intial test audiences found the movie confusing. In later revisions, most of the voice-over dialogue is taken out. The original ending uses stock footage leftover from the Shining (bizarrely enough) and has the Harrison Ford voiceover at the end with the "happy ending".
Posted by: M at May 30, 2006 4:51 PM