This is my response to Kaitlin Pendley's posting. I put it in a new post so I could post a video.
I personally don't think this voice-over does this scene any justice. It clears up the ambivalence but does so a little too much. I imagine Ridley Scott intended the film to be ambiguous and the voice-overs take away that element. So, I agree with you that the voice-overs seem to be geared toward an unperceptive audience. I think this scene is powerful enough in itself. The emotion-driven staring contest and heart-to-heart spills do enough to illustrate what you point out as the "commonalities between humans and replicants." Here's the version I prefer. Around 1:50 in this video, you see the screen fade form a close-up on Deckard's face to a close up on Roy's. I think this is a very blunt illustration of the sameness of Deckard and Roy despite their being either humans or replicants.
Well, I can't get the video to work for some reason but here's the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kPocPwXzdM
Hey Jade. Thanks for your comment. Yeah, the scene is still very poignant with or without the voiceover. And I think you bring up a valid point that the camera work uses close-ups of Deckard and Roy's faces to emphasize that human and replicant are indistinguishable. And what you have to understand is not that I dislike this version of Blade Runner, but that it is not the movie I grew up watching. I associate the voiceover and the theatrical version of the film with my dad- we watched all these crazy sci-fi films growing up (took me awhile to like them. ;) ) So a removal of those elements is sort of a removal of the past for me I suppose- and I'd rather keep the memories. I'm sure any of us would feel the same way about any film- what if they redid Harry Potter and added/took away from the film? Our generation would be miffed. :)
ReplyDeleteAnd for future reference, you can include a youtube video by getting the embed code, which is next to the share button under the video. (I just recently discovered this.)