Without going on for too long about the ins and outs of the various releases of the movie, because most people know the whole story with Philip K. Dick and Ridley Scott and test screenings and all the rest of it, suffice it to say that there have now been a lot of different cuts of this movie. According to that oh-so-accurate source of movie information, Wikipedia, there have been seven different versions shown to audiences. Yet The Final Cut is supposed to be THE edition, the fully sanctioned, everyone-involved-wants-this-one, ultimate version of the film, never to be bettered. So… why is the last line so awkward and amateurish? Lesser films than Blade Runner use that technique all the time. With most modern horror movies, or sci-fi movies, or any film where there’s a twist and you might need to recall information you were given earlier in order to process new information, you can still go out to the bathroom or for more popcorn without fear – the film will handily give you a flashback scene to explain everything when the time comes anyway. These are particularly irksome when the flashback is to something that literally just happened, mere minutes previously, but they’re always at least mildly irritating, because they work on the assumption that the audience can’t work anything out for themselves. Films need to credit their audiences with some modicum of intelligence; a twist or a conclusion is always much more satisfying when you’ve done some of the work for yourself. In films that aren’t very good, this lazy technique of reminding us what went before isn’t so annoying, because it means you can nap when it gets overly boring. But in Blade Runner, when the film has been cut and recut and argued over and meticulously planned and shot beautifully and edited perfectly, that line is painful. Painful. It ruins that final, stomach-dropping moment for me, because I’m distracted from it by the random voice-over. I want a version where Deckard finds the unicorn and there’s just… silence. A silent fade-out would be perfect. I know, I’m asking for version 8 of a film that already has more cuts than any film really needs, and this ending is a million times better than the ending on the original theatrical cut, but… I’m part of the instant gratification generation, and I’m demanding. I don’t want laziness in my Blade Runner.
