Dangerous Days: Making Blade Runner

Dangerous Days was the working title for the film Blade Runner.

Clocking in at 3 and-a-half hours in length this making of feature on Blade Runner is way longer than the movie itself. It is a comprehensive look at a film that failed upon its release but has become a cult hit and a film way ahead of its time.

My interest in this documentary was only aroused when I heard Harrison Ford took part in this. For years Ford would not talk about Blade Runner leading to speculation that he wanted to distance himself from the film or he did not enjoy making it or its fraught difficulties on set was just too much for him.

His participation in this making of film and express words that he did the voice-over very much under protest because he backed Scott's cut of the film but was under contract and therefore obliged to do it pretty much dismisses those accusations that he was embarrassed with the failure of Blade Runner.

The film has it all from the script writing phase to getting a shooting script ready to the tensions on set, getting the special effects to be outstanding to the post production editing that led to the conflict with the director's vision of the film, the box office failure and then its re-discovery as a classic.

This is aimed at fans of the film but it should be a must see for anyone who is interested in how films are made.

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.

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 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.

The "Making Of" featurettes we see with DVDs sometimes grow into feature-length proportion. "Dangerous Days" takes its name from an early title for the "Blade Runner" movie, and it's beyond feature-length on its own.

This is a decent production, and a must-see for fans of the film. However, compared to other Making Of... featurettes, Dangerous Days is over long and might be dull for those who don't fully appreciate the source material.

To my mind, "Hearts of Darkness", the Making Of... documentary for "Apocalypse Now" is about the best Making Of... documentary there is. I would also include the full-length Making Of The Abyss as must-see viewing for science-fiction film buffs. Dangerous Days falls short of these.

Both "Apocalypse Now" and "The Abyss" featured film-making that went past the edge of human physical endurance. People were risking their lives and sanity to get the films made, and it shows as superior documentary-style drama. "Dangerous Days" mostly shows film-making that goes past the edge of endurance of the film crew for director Ridley Scott, and past the patience of the producers. Yes, it's dramatic, but not nearly as much as Martin Sheen about to get eaten by a ravenous tiger (Hearts Of Darkness) or Mary Elizabeth Mastrantionio nearly drowning at the bottom of a man-made water pit (Making Of The Abyss).

I would put Dangerous Days in roughly the same category as the Making Of... featurettes you get with the Star Wars DVDs, except that it is very long.

The pieces I found the most interesting were the features with Hampton Fancher and David Peoples, who were rival writers for the Blade Runner script, and the special visual effects segment which shows some of the thought process behind the particular model-making and lighting events in Blade Runner, without being all George-Lucasey in terms of the granularity of explanatory detail. Alternate screen tests also make for interesting viewing.