BladeZone's Off World Forums • View topic (2025)

So this past weekend, I finally had the great pleasure of watching and listening to half of Paul Sammon's commentary on the BR Workprint DVD...hope to finish up the second half later this week.

There's some really great info there, although you'd be certifiable to expect otherwise It's been years since I've read Future Noir, so I can't say for sure if the following info is included in Sammon's book, but I really enjoyed learning (or re-learning) the following tidbits: the narration for the BR teaser trailer was actually done by Morgan Paull, since Harrison Ford was unavailable; the Esper sequence arose entirely out of Harrison Ford's screenplay discussions with Ridley Scott & co., in order to provide more "detecting" for Deckard to do; and maybe happiest of all, that Philip K. Dick actually got to see footage of the Deckard-Zhora chase sequence on TV before he passed away (all these years, I'd only thought that Dick had seen a reel of rough special-FX shots for the movie, but to know that he actually lived long enough to behold Ford as Deckard was just heart-rending to learn).

My fave bit of the commentary so far, though, was when Sammon digresses from providing juicy trivia and details about the making of BR, and launches into a wholehearted & impassioned analysis of the scene where Deckard breaks the news to Rachel that she's actually a replicant. It's great to hear Sammon going beyond the usual movie-buff encyclopedic knowledge of a beloved movie, and talking about why he himself loves the movie so much. His argument about this scene being the emotional core (up to that point in the movie) of BR is very compelling, and I for one totally agree with it. Sammon's argument also shoots gaping holes in the criticism of everyone who's accused the movie over the years of being entirely emotionally distant. As Sammon says, this is the scene where BR suddenly becomes unnervingly emotionally raw and real, not just "eye candy," and forces the characters to confront the question: who am I? Sammon also nails it when he notes that this scene is the closest in spirit to Philip K. Dick's storytelling aesthetic of paranoia and obsession with the questioning-of-self.

(I still disagree with Sammon's (and others') interpretation of the Deckard/Rachel love scene as "rape"; to me, the duration of this scene seems initially rough yet ultimately consensual, and is more about Deckard's helping Rachel break down her emotional and sensual barriers and explore her sensual existence - and address the question "what does it mean to be fully alive?" - rather than just imposing his will on her outright. Check out the first love scene with Tony Cheung and Wei Tang in Ang Lee's unrated "Lust, Caution" if you want the love scene in BR to appear tame in comparison...and you could even argue that the aforementioned scene in Lee's movie isn't "rape," either, but rather willful submission on the part of the female, which it seems to me applies to BR's love scene as well. But of course, every movie is entirely open to each viewer's interpretation, and always in the eyes of the beholder.)

At any rate, I'm so glad that Sammon was able to contribute to the extent that he did in the BR Ultimate Collection, both in the Dangerous Days doc and the Workprint commentary. It's great to hear him really hold forth on the history of BR, and what BR means to him personally as a viewer. It's also great to read in the interview posted here on BZ where Sammon expresses his indebtedness to C.D. Lauzirika; I'm sure the feeling is more than mutual on Charles' part; both Paul and Charles probably truly "had each others backs" over the last several years, while Paul was updating 'Future Noir' and also sharing such vital contributions and input to Charles' definitive, once-in-a-lifetime BR DVD collection.

I'll admit I was a little amused to discover that when Sammon recorded his commentary for the Workprint DVD, he hadn't yet seen the Final Cut! Going by his commentary on the WP, he appears to have been informed of a lot of the updated material in the FC ahead of time, but I imagine his recording session was done before the FC was finally "locked" and signed off on by Ridley Scott. I have to chuckle thinking about how unbelievably thrilled Sammon must've been to finally behold the FC in all its glory; he probably had a tent pitched outside of the Venice Film Fest's theater last year (hell, I wish I'd've been able to pull an all-nighter there with him! )