polygene

This old film just has some important elements the bulk of current films seem to lack: strength of character, genuine heroism and an understanding of what true altruism and sacrifice mean. And Sam Jaffe, a terrific (now-unfortunately-deceased) character actor breaks the viewer's heart as the "regimental bhisti, Gunga Din," who takes constant abuse and gives his all, including his life, to carry water to the men of the Queen's regiment even in the thick of battle.

Funny, I don't remember it as a comedy, though I think there may have been some spots of humor in it, but then, I was rather young the last time I saw it on the Late, Late Show... too many years ago to even want to think about.

It's a wonderful movie and I hope the animated version, coming out next year, does the poem and story the same good service the 1939 film managed to do.

Highly recommended.

I found this story to be noxious and morbid, showing the very worst aspects of human nature. If I want to be saddened, sickened and depressed about what our species has become, I'll pay 50c and buy a newspaper, I don't need to go to the theater and pay six bucks to spend two hours being dragged through the misery and moral decay of mankind. In my opinion, this movie isn't entertainment, or even a good didactic mirror of the contemptible behavior in which some people engage, it's two hours of mind-numbing torture. However, if one's idea of an enjoyment is watching a film about children dying, horribly, in a bus crash, followed rapidly by the appearance of leech-like, ambulance-chasing lawyers, resulting in the reduction of every moral and ethical principle to a monetarily-based bottom line, then this is the movie to watch.

Blade Runner -- just as it played originally in theaters -- is probably my favorite movie of all time.

It has all the elements that make a film something really different and special. The film has depth, creativity and a great deal of meaning to it. It also has intense action; exotic sets and costumes; colorful characters, and a strange, evocative emotional texture... that's hard to put into words.

The reason I like the original cut, with Harrison Ford's narration, goes back to fond memories of a TV series called Dragnet. In that series, Jack Webb, the actor who starred as the long-suffering hero "Sergeant Joe Friday," also narrated the show's action. There was something very appealing and reassuring about his voice, and Ford, playing a rather different -- yet not so different -- policeman of the future in Blade Runner, brought back the memory of another good-guy cop from another time and place.

Based (albeit somewhat loosely) on Philip Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Blade Runner also owes some of its wonderful creativity to William S. Burroughs who, if I remember correctly, had some input into the writing of the screenplay.

A film worth every second put into watching it.