Blade Runner Ridley Scott

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an 88% approval rating based on 130 reviews, with an average rating of 8.50/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Misunderstood when it first hit theaters, the influence of Ridley Scott's mysterious, neo-noir Blade Runner has deepened with time. A visually remarkable, achingly human sci-fi masterpiece."[88] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 84 out of 100 based on 15 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[89]

Initial reactions among film critics were mixed. Some wrote that the plot took a back seat to the film's special effects and did not fit the studio's marketing as an action and adventure film. Others acclaimed its complexity and predicted it would stand the test of time.[90] Negative criticism in the United States cited its slow pace.[91] Sheila Benson from the Los Angeles Times called it "Blade Crawler", and Pat Berman in The State and Columbia Record described it as "science fiction pornography".[92] Pauline Kael praised Blade Runner as worthy of a place in film history for its distinctive sci-fi vision, yet criticized the film's lack of development in "human terms".[93] Ares magazine said, "Misunderstood by audiences and critics alike, it is by far the best science fiction film of the year."[94]

Cultural analysis

Academics began analyzing the film almost as soon as it was released. One of the first books on the film was Paul M. Sammon's Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner (1996),[95] which dissects all the details concerning the film making. He was followed by Scott Bukatman's Blade Runner[96] and other books and academic articles.[97] In Postmodern Metanarratives: Blade Runner and Literature in the Age of Image, Décio Torres Cruz analyzes the philosophical and psychological issues and the literary influences in Blade Runner. He examines the film's cyberpunk and dystopic elements by establishing a link between the Biblical, classical and modern traditions and the postmodern aspects in the film's collage of several literary texts.[9]

The boom in home video formats helped establish a growing cult around the film,[73] which scholars have dissected for its dystopic aspects, questions regarding "authentic" humanity, ecofeminist aspects[98] and use of conventions from multiple genres.[99] Popular culture began to reassess its impact as a classic several years after it was released.[100][101][102] Roger Ebert praised the visuals of both the original and the Director's Cut and recommended it for that reason; however, he found the human story clichéd and a little thin.[39] He later added The Final Cut to his "Great Movies" list.[103] Critic Chris Rodley and Janet Maslin theorized that Blade Runner changed cinematic and cultural discourse through its image repertoire and subsequent influence on films.[104] In 2012, Time film critic Richard Corliss surgically analyzed the durability, complexity, screenplay, sets and production dynamics from a personal, three-decade perspective.[105] Denis Villeneuve, who directed the sequel, Blade Runner 2049, cites the film as a huge influence for him and many others.[102]

It has also been noted for its postmodernist approach and that it contributes to the historical development of modern dystopia in film.[106] Furthermore, the futuristic version of Los Angeles has been widely discussed by academics with some comparing it to Milton's descriptions of hell in Paradise Lost.[107] A 2019 retrospective in the BBC argued that elements of the film's socio-political themes remained prescient in the real year of the film's setting, such as its depiction of climate change.[108] From a more philosophical perspective, Alison Landsberg described Scott's direction of the film as a "prosthetic memory"—an action that has never happened and appears to be divorced from lived experience, yet it defines personhood and identity within the wider Blade Runner universe.[109]

Awards and nominations

Blade Runner won or received nominations for the following awards:[110]