BladeZone's Off World Forums

OK, hands in the air for those who think Philip K. Dick, the brain and genius behind this film, had liked this.
I?ve read a couple of articles on the web that Dick was impressed by some sequences he was exposed to. I?ve bet he would be pleased with the final product if he had been alive! Don't really know. He could like and hate it right ?!

If he's anywhere as critical as we, the fans of Bladezone, are about Blade Runner...I'd say definitely. I mean it's a perfect match to what Dick's thoughts and personality. If you read about Dick you know he often felt paranoid and isloted. The idea that big brother is watching, or we are always being spied on by someone high up. Blade Runner gives us just that. THe dark and islotated world where all the "humans" have migrated Off-World, leaving the sludge behind on Earth. Humans being, the ones healthy enough to migrate and pass medical inspections.

The hover cars, oh man. Who would have thought a car could look so cool? And it flies! Ridley didn't do it Jetson style, or Buck Rogers style, he did it so it looked modern and believeable, while retaining the futuristic design. I think if Dick wanted it to be a ship sort of thing, he would have said outright "Deckard gets in his ship and heads out." No, he wrote it as hovercar, and that's what Syd Mead and Ridley Scott put on a screen. A car.

I do think Ridley hit the nail right on the head when he did Blade Runner. I can't say the same for Paycheck, Impostor, Total Recall or the Minority Report, although those were good movies, I do think Dick would have his nitpicks with them. I think a Scanner Darkly is getting there though, if we can see the final movie.

I think I'll post more later, this is a good topic.

This is a good topic question. I, too, will have to reflect more on this. My first impression... yeau...I'm sure he would have liked it.

Thinking...if it was my story and I saw the finished motion picture I would certainly have some issues with it too.

?I would have liked to either see Holden with a larger role/part, or have Phil Resch in the movie.
?I would question the "love scene" between Deckard and Rachael.
?Maybe have "Buster Friendly and his friendly friends" playing in the background in one scene.

Just some thoughts off the top of my head.

Cheers!

I think he would have liked it as a film (minus happy ending, that can piss anyone) no matter his involvement, because it is a great film. As an adaptation of his work, I think he'd liked them to highlight even more the animal and empathy themes, and I agree with KippleZone , maybe he'd rather had a larger "Resch" character and other issues, but I think all in all he'd be pretty pleased with the final form of the film, given the constraints of time, budget, studio decisions, etc... Of course we'd all like to see someday a direct film translation of DADOES, with the mood boxes, Buster and Rachel being identical to Pris, and... and... but I don't think we'll see it soon.

Another thing I think about sometimes is all the good/weird novels we didn't get from him in these 25 years... I wish he had had the longevity of Asimov and Clarke. He'd be pretty good a writer to have at this moment in history, and his absence has been a great loss in the documentaries and Blade Runner history throughout these years.

I believe he would have liked the imagery, but the movie stayed a bit far from the book. I'd say 50/50 chance...One of those love hate relationships.

Scott did show him a couple of minutes of the film, but I think most were special effects scenes and that Dick was left deeply impressed. He also did like the final screenplay (though he despised the first versions.) Don't know about the "Love relation" but as said before he was driven by brainghosts and little paranoid.

...

The story goes that he was blown away by the 20 mins
or so of effects footage that was played to him at the
EEG effects facility asking 'how is this possible'?
He was amazed that the images of the BR world
on the screen were so similar to those he'd imagined
when writing the book.

PKD had initially been quite frosty towards BR
partly because of a dispute about a deal involving
him being asked to produce a novelisation of the film.
This deal also involved PKD 'supressing' his original
DADOES novel. It never came off.
Dick had also apparently badmouthed 'Alien' quite publicly and
Ridley Scott had let it be known that he'd never actually read
DADOES in its entirety, so things were a bit prickly to begin with.

Dick thought that Hauer made the perfect Batty but was disappointed
that certain ideas in the book weren't going to be carried over to the movie.

This is a PKD quote from 'Future Noir' which i've just read for the second time!

Yes, he definitely would.

He had antipathy towards Hollywood and he wasn't happy about the first versions of the script, but he was excited after he saw first working sequences.

Though I think it's good he didn't live long enough to see some other adaptations of his works...

After much thought on this I believe, overall, that PKD would not have liked the movie.

The atmosphere and noir ambiance was "right on". But the characters strayed from their nature, and the storyline was not only changed but is flawed.

That said...I feel what enthused me about Blade Runner was the soundtrack, the technology introduced, and the ambiance. Those qualities are what I feel Philip K. Dick would have approved of most of all.

I recently posted a link to a documentary about PKD - it's stated in that program, that although PKD was impressed by the visuals he didn't like what they had done with the story and characters - he thought they'd put too much emphasis on the violence/shooting/killing in an effort to churn out a hollywood blockbuster while ignoring what PKD considered to be more important themes in the book.

So, I would say PKD would not have liked the final product.

I think PKD would've liked it because it was true to the message presented in his book. It deviated from the novel in many ways, obviously, but it did justice to the source material. Far moreso than other film adaptations such as Jurassic Park, which is so much different from the novel and doesn't even come close to being as great. At least Blade Runner is just as good as the novel it sprung from.

He would've loved the art film in Blade Runner but at the same time he would've hated its mainstream side.

according to the book - counterfeit worlds, PKD loved what he saw of the film. more to the point, he was amazed that the vision he had in mind could ever be reproduced on film.

Ridley and PKD has a private screenig of the special effects footage. it was here that Philip expressed his admiration to Scott. unfortunately, PKD never got to see the theatrical release of the film.

here is a letter PKD wrote about the film HERE

That was very interesting. Thanks! This proves that all the people who say PKD hated the movie (or whatever he saw of it) are wrong.