"The Light That Burns Twice As Bright ..."
Blade Runner - and by that I mean Blade Runner - is probably the most influential movie ever made. It's also a great example of Teslacle's Deviant to Fudd's Law; "It comes in, it must go out." So much creativity and imagination went into making it at every level that we're still discovering new richness, and seeing the old in a new light. It's the gift that keeps on giving.
The staggeringly brilliant screenplay now sounds, as Shakespeare, like a collection of quotes. The soundtrack is not merely themes scored for scenes, or tunes flown in from the director's playlist, it is an environment in itself, a soundscape, seamlessly integrated with the visuals, creating a detailed aural universe. Vangelis' contribution is his finest work, avoiding his usual simplistic synth anthems and achieving an emotional depth that amplifies and resonates with what's up on the screen.
Today's Warehouse Of Sound© carryaway is the original soundtrack album, the fan-made multi-disc Esper Retirement Edition, and a nearly two-hour "immersion" mix from 2017.
Covers by FalseMemoryFoam© Art Department Dept., except where obviously not.
Thank god it's not the "original" soundtrack which was that fake-ass 'symphonic' cover version by the mighty New American Orchestra. That Vangelis album from 1994 is much better, but it's no wonder that there are more boots of that soundtrack than any other, because even after almost forty years Warner Bros. Hasn't managed to do a very simple thing. Release the damn soundtrack in its entirety and a chronological order.
ReplyDeleteI second of course everything you said about that soundtrack. Though I would argue that "Antarctica" from a year later is also a mighty fine work. He really was on fire in 82/83.
ReplyDeleteI haven't heard it, but I doubt the same forces are at work. Everything on the Blade Runner soundtrack - speech, foley, music - blends together in a soundscape in a way I think is unique.
DeleteYeah, there is no comparison in terms of the music alone. I've never seen the movie which is really obscure (a japanese film about snowdogs?!). But still, it's a mighty fine soundtrack.
DeleteSince you like the soundscape idea, what do you think of the dialogue snippets on the original soundtrack? "Tears in Rain" with the dialogue is great, but I always hated to have to go through a minute and a half of the rattling Esper test before the Main Titles. I never understood why they would lead the album off with that of all things - it's not even a particular great or important soundbite...
I don't mind the dialog at all. It's 45 seconds long, and I think it's when he's "going into" the photograph, not the esper test.
DeleteRachel and the "empathy test" dialog leads in to "Blush Response". That is a minute and a half, but it's a pretty important scene. The integration of the dialog into the soundtrack is crucisl. Given the short (album length) groove time of the original album, I think they make a good job of editing the speech.
You're right, that's when he's zooming in the picture. I still found that a curious way to start the album. I'm sure there were more important pieces of dialogue than "hold it right there, print". But the magic of all this Blade Runner soundtrack floating around is that I can have a disc that is not doing that. I agree on the other pieces of dialogue involving Deckard and Rachael being better integrated...and they are more important to the plot/philosophy of the movie..."Nice owl. Is it artificial?" "Of course it is"
DeleteMusic to hearken back to the happier times of November, 2019.
ReplyDelete-Steward
where's the link?? I can't seem to find it.
ReplyDeletethank you. this is an amazing soundtrack package.
DeleteYou're welcome, Jake!
DeleteThrough the Tannhauser Gate
ReplyDeleteThose who are otherwise unfamiliar with the work of the great Phillip K. Dick (author of the source novel) are advised to read his best novel (IMHO) Ubik.
ReplyDeleteCheers Farquhar!
ReplyDeletestill perhaps my favorite film. of All the many in homage- Altered Carbon Season 1 is best most recent. & Sadly the remake of Blade Runner is totally unbearable to me. Thanks for this & all
ReplyDeleteThe Altered Carbon trilogy by Richard K. Morgan is really a great read -- a great concept fully and richly rendered and explored. Much better than the TV series which wasn't too terrible. The first book, Altered Carbon, is one of my all time favorites. I'm a big Philip K. Dick fan as well whose works seem to be the basis for almost every decent sci-fi thriller Hollywood has put out in the past 40+ years
DeleteErm, you've seen "Blade Runner 2049", right?!? It's not a remake or a reboot, it's a direct continuation of the original film.
DeleteI thought it was a great continuation of the somewhat overrated original. Don't get me wrong, I love many aspects of Blade Runner (the music, the visual effects, bits of the story), but I also get bored throughout the film. I love the world building of the film, whereas the plot is somewhat banal.
Yup. Seen BR 2049. Uh ... do I have to work up an opinion? I couldn't at the time ...
DeleteI was specifically asking bk about the "unbearable remake" when in fact we can argue "unbearable", but not "remake".
DeleteIt's amazing how divisive that movie is though.
It seems to fall into a absolutely love it/absolutely hate it division, though your comment, Farq, makes me think there's a middle class of viewers who...shrug?!
How many lines can you quote from '49?
DeleteFor right now, none, but I onky watched it once. And seeing how I misquoted the original above ("Do you like our owl?" "Is it artificial?" etc.) despite hearing that piece on the soundtrack a number of times I wouldn't use my ability to quote as a sign of a film being memorable or not.
DeleteIt was kind of a rhetorical question? Upspeaking? Not so much a test of your own personal powers of recall. "How many lines can *one* quote from '49?" might have been less inflammatory. Whether you have them tattooed on your butt or not, there are many speeches from Blade Runner that have gained popular currency, as a quick google will show. I don't think any lines from '49 have registered with audiences. And while there are great movies without sound-bite lines (Tarkovsy's "Stalker" ... uh ...), I think it's fair to say that a great script is more a requirement for a great movie than a sign of one.
Delete(This is as close to an opinion on '49 as I'm going to get, and it already makes me uncomfortable).
I get that this is rhetorical. I deleted the second point of my post because there is probably no point in discussing in details the relative value of BR 2049 and/or compared to BR, on a music blog nonetheless.
DeleteBut there's also something to be said for visual memory, isn't there? I might not be able to quote much, if any of it, but I can still remember and visualize a heck of a number of sequences from BR 2049, something that hasn't happened much in the last years other than Mad Max Fury Road. These movies are not so much interesting for their dialogue (despite being intelligent movies with intelligent scripts), but for their visceral impact. Not in an empty "look at that on the screen" sense, but in the sense of full immersion in their respective worlds.
And, as I said, Blade Runner mainly works for me on an aural and visual level. I'm not saying the story is bad or not memorable. It's just not as much a priority when watching this and that's why for me personally, the first part of the film (the "immersion in that world" part, if you will) is always more interesting that the second part and its necessary hunting down of the remaining replicants.
Thanks, as ever, for your thoughtful and rewarding comments, OBG.
DeleteHoly Shit, that's a lot of music - both old and new - to wade through. I already gave it two shots to make a soundtrack album I enjoy wall to wall and will now try again. Third time's the charm, maybe.
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