Dangerous Days: Making Blade Runner

I love this movie (not religiously) and the making of shows you how much went into this film. Bladerunner was the first film I saw that had real weight to it: a punch looked like a real punch, a landscape looked like a real cityscape and characters had real depth. as a kid in 1982 all I remembered was the opening scene issuing forth gasps from the audience of "Jesus Christ", I was hooked. today I still think it has many layers and still deserves its place as a masterpiece. In Dangerous Days, I love the way the cast were shell shocked by the screening of the film with some going on to ask how do they top this. The Bradbury Building is haunting to look at as it was, not now that it has been renovated. P.K.Dick at first hated it then couldn't believe how they had recreated his vision.

If any of you liked this but felt it didn't touch upon enough, here are a few pointers to Bladerunner's rich development: Moebius (who now regrets his refusal to work upon the film) wrote and illustrated "The Long Tomorrow" a very good template for Ridleys Vision of the film and a must read for fans of the film. The artwork of Syd Mead is as haunting and beautiful as the film, again a must see. The novel is different to the film but strangely compliments it and is its equal counterpart. and lastly what is odd about the scriptwriters of blade-runner is they haven't just picked upon the novel to encapsulate the theme of the film, but have encompassed most of Dicks entire works in its dark futuristic feel. I bet you didn't know that PKD wrote many books with blade-runner like cities that included ruthless detectives, flying cars or white haired black cloaked replicants or psychotic female counterparts with high intelligence. Bladerunner isn't the book that portrays the film best, there are other books by him that portray the film better. In fact his vision is so much like blade-runner that you can't imagine anything else when reading some of his other novels. I would say that there is a blade-runner signature in nearly all of his books, that would explain his surprise upon seeing a draft of the film because you can see it in his work.

hope this helps those out there who want to dig a little deeper.

"This movie, to me, embodies the elegance, the power, and the uniqueness of a film experience."

Dangerous Days is an exhaustive (almost 4 hours!) documentary about the making of Blade Runner. It's (obviously) mostly for hardcore fans, but it's quite a treat for those people who can't get enough information about that landmark sci-fi movie.

Almost everything you could possibly want to know about the film, from its conception, to casting, art, filming, set design, and its release, is covered in detail. There are tons of candid interviews with the actors, writers, Ridley Scott, financiers production designers, and many other people who were involve with the creation of the movie, as well as reactions from other directors like Guillermo del Toro about their own personal thoughts on Blade Runner. Plus, we get an entertaining view of all the backstage drama (and there was quite a lot of it) that went on during the film's production. There is also a lot of unused scenes, behind-the-scenes set footage, and designs sprinkled liberally throughout, that (as far as I know) you can't see anywhere else.  

I actually learned a lot about the filmmaking process in general, from watching this.  Despite the lengthy running time, I was interested the whole way through. This is a gold mine for people who love all things Blade Runner. I wish these kinds of thorough documentaries existed for more of my favorite movies.

Making a movie can't be that fraught, surely? It would appear it can, even a glorious SciFi opus!

Blade Runner is one of the most iconic and beautiful SciFi movies ever made but the production is notoriously difficult.

This documentary gets everyone involved discussing openly, apparently at least, their involvement and the various trials and tribulations.

Everything about the original production is discussed from budget and financial pressures to in depth technical details on special effects and directing.

Writers, director, producers, actors and even the crew speak about everything from script changes, number of takes, falling behind schedule, casting, lighting and ,well, everything!

A little sad to be reminded that Brion James passed away in 1999.

On the whole though the viewer will find this insight into making classic cinema refreshing.

Things to look out for: the tee-shirt war, script changes, beautiful production setups, nice to see the producers get their say, deleted and unfilmed scenes.

Wonderful insights into a type of film making that was pioneering at the time.

This is a great movie of a great movie. Ridley Scott is a great director. Dangerous Days captures so much of the original movie. You don't have to understand every shot in the movie just enjoy it. It had a large impact on all the space movies to come. So many later movies copied elements this movie. Very well done.

For people who have never understood the backstage of Hollywood movies, this documentary is a treasure trove. It lasts forever, more than three hours, and discusses everything from Ridley's tyrannical direction and attention to detail to the way the art department designed vehicles and architecture. On the other hand all that stuff can get boring after a while.

What is sure is that the film contains a lot of information that could be of interest to film fans, amateur filmmakers and probably even professionals. Even if you have enough of that crappy overpraising that you see when people in showbiz talk about each other, it is not too much and some of them are downright honest about things: what they liked, what they hated, etc. Harrison Ford, which everyone praised as a very technical, very professional actor, actually hated working for the movie and was only happy when close to completion.

Also the financial underworkings of the film are very interestingly exposed. You cannot bring your own people because of unions, you spend obscene amounts of money for things that might seem trivial, like choosing the perfect mug to sit on the table in a scene from 100 different models or filming nature scenes, etc. It explains a little why movies like these need tens and hundreds of million of dollars to make and why, even with stupid stories and bad direction or production, films still feel professional because of the army of trained technicians that take care of every minute aspect.

All in all a very instructive documentary, kind of long. Don't expect a lot of juicy, funny stories either. It feels more like a log of the production of Blade Runner, than an attempt at a particular perspective or viewpoint. Useful, interesting, not very engaging, though.