'Hawwww - You Brade Lunner!'

I go though phases, phases of obsession, usually with a musician, a TV program, an author or a movie, where I hungrily devour every snippet or morsel of information on said individual or production. That's the kinda person I am, some would say I'm sad, I don't really care. Some people are obsessed by football, nobody calls them sad.

At the moment, my phase is Ridley Scott's 1982 masterpiece, Blade Runner. The month before it was a little known British cult TV series called Ultraviolet (more on this in a later post methinks).

I've watched the movie twice in the past week, bought the 1992 directors cut on DVD, played the sound track to death, remastered the bootleg soundtrack I've had for yonks and read an excellent book which belongs to my father called 'Future Noir - the Making of Blade Runner' by Paul M Sammon.I love this film so much, and could very very easily eulogise for paragraphs on its merits, but I won't, plenty of folk have said it in words far prettier than mine could ever be.
Instead, let me tell you just one of the reasons I love it, or why I think I love it;

I love Ambient music (humour me for a moment), for those unfamiliar with it, this genre is largely considered to have started life as Eric Satie's 'Furniture Music'. Music that, whilst not 'musak' or 'easy listening' could be as much about a 'tone' or 'atmosphere' as about melody, counterpoint, harmony or rhythm. Ambient is now best summed up by the music of people like Brian Eno - remember the music for the bit in Trainspotting where the guy swims inside the toilet? That's Eno.

To me, films like Blade Runner, are almost like 'Ambient movies', they are a space into which I can escape, a film with such a strong and palpable feeling and mood, that I am almost travelling to another world. Ridley Scott has created a world so detailled I can sit transfixed, and totally absorbed for its duration, soaking in the vibes. It doesn't mater if there are plot holes you can drive a JCB through or that or if you can see the wires on an fx shot, or if Harry Ford's acting is a tad woodern, because it doesn't matter, its a soul drenched movie.

That's why I love Blade Runner.