Blade Runner director Ridley Scott candidly reflects on the negative feedback he received regarding his science-fiction classic. Loosely based on Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Scott’s seminal 1982 film follows Harrison Ford’s blade runner, Rick Deckard, as he embarks on a mission to terminate four replicants. The movie wasn’t a big box office hit and nor did it strike a chord with critics upon its release, but it’s now widely considered a science-fiction masterpiece.
In a recent interview with Total Film (via Slash Film), Scott shares some of the struggles he went through while making Blade Runner, refecting on how misunderstood it was upon release. The director also shares some choice words for the critics who took issue with the movie for being “too slow“. Check out Scott’s full comment below:
“[The shoot] was a very bad experience for me. I had horrendous partners. Financial guys, who were killing me every day. I’d been very successful in the running of a company, and I knew I was making something very, very special. So I would never take no for an answer. But they didn’t understand what they had. You shoot it, and you edit it, and you mix it. And by the time you’re halfway through, everyone’s saying it’s too slow. You’ve got to learn, as a director, you can’t listen to anybody. I knew I was making something very, very special. And now it’s one of the most important science-fiction films ever made which everybody feeds off. Every bloody film.”
“I hadn’t seen ‘Blade Runner’ for 20 years. Really. But I just watched it. And it’s not slow. The information coming at you is so original and interesting, talking about biological creations, and mining off-world, which, in those days, they said was silly. I say, ‘Go f**k yourself.'”
How Blade Runner Changed The Science Fiction Movie Genre
Although Blade Runner may not have made too big of a splash upon its release, the film would eventually finds its audience, now holding a reputation as one of the most significant science fiction movies ever made. Crucially, the film is generally considered the be one of the first major works to popularize the cyberpunk subgenre.
Visually, Blade Runner was – and is – remarkable, with Scott’s film depicting a neon-heavy, crime-ridden, grimy cityscape. The movie didn’t feature a utopian science-fiction setting, instead showing off a darker vision of what might be to come, where every ounce of free space is dominated by large advertisements from greedy corporations. The streets are densely packed and filthy, and the film’s R rating allowed Scott to show off the violence and prostitution that accompanied city living.
Blade Runner‘s impact can be seen in projects like Alita: Battle Angel, Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Mute, Minority Report, the Cyberpunk 2077 video game, and a host of other projects. The movie takes place in the year 2019 and, while Scott’s vision of the future didn’t exactly come to pass, it’s not hard to see similarities between the world of the film and real life. While Blade Runner may not have been appreciated at the time of its release, it’s clear that Scott is having the last laugh.
