Dangerous Days - The Documentary (*spoilers*thanks*opinions)
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My take on Dangerous Days is OMG!!! This documentary (along w/the whole 5 disc set) is completely the nerd core event of my life!!!! This movie is the greatest of all time and it makes me so happy to know that others take this film seriously enough to produce such a wonderfully comprehensive documentary. I would also like to say thanks to Charles for not producing a puff piece and allowing all viewpoints to be heard (in the doc as well as the features which for me seemed like cut scenes from the popper doc.)
Thanks, Charles, coming from you, that's high praise indeed! The film is a kind of cinematic action painting, yes? Everyone throwing things at the screen, some missing and some hitting, ideas bouncing off each other or hittting and tumbling into new arrangements. With the exact same conditions and personnel, they'd make a different movie every time. Thank goodness their first attempt was a masterpiece.
Most great art often comes with turmoil. Many artists call it "labor pains". I remember a famous musician (can't remember who) when asked why he had such a turbulant life, and he said he needed to feel things 10 times more than everybody else for it to translate into his music and have everyone else feel it too. The director of the Exorcist (William Friedkin) actually fired a gun into the air unexpectedly in order to keep the tension on the set real and show in the actors faces. Ridley used a similar technique when he filmed the chest bursting scene in Alien, by not letting the actors know what was going to happen and have their expressions be authentic. I would have to agree that the miserable filming conditions, and behind the scenes tension helped make this film more powerful and authentic.
Charles de Lauzirika wrote:The one thing we came
close to including was a section devoted to Ralph Bakshi's developed-but-abandoned Blade Runner animated series.
We made contact with Mr. Bakshi and almost pulled it off, but he eventually bowed out. Maybe for the 2019 Edition!
Is there anything - and I mean any little scrap - that can be shared with the public at this point in time? A sketch or two, basic premise, anything?
Having long been a cherisher of 'what-could-have-been's (look no further than my thread in the game section ), the knowledge of such a project had pretty much set my brain on fire. Anything at all would be very much appreciated.
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Not completed?
It seems to me that its a shot from the Zora chasing scene, just an extra shot that did not make the cut, there's nothing to complete. I thought it would have fitted perfectly in the deleted, alternate scene section since it's one of the famous, iconic image we've know for years from photos.
Or maybe you say its not completed because its a whole scene that i've never heard of?
Anyway like you said its nice to have it in some way.
It seems to me that its a shot from the Zora chasing scene, just an extra shot that did not make the cut, there's nothing to complete. I thought it would have fitted perfectly in the deleted, alternate scene section since it's one of the famous, iconic image we've know for years from photos.
Or maybe you say its not completed because its a whole scene that i've never heard of?
Anyway like you said its nice to have it in some way.
Veteran Blade Runner
Posts: 1191
Joined: Sun May 14, 2006 7:11 pm
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I was really looking forward to including the "Deckard on car rooftops" bit in the deleted scenes section. In fact, after the Holden scenes, it was the one scene I was looking forward to finding the most because, as has been said, it's an iconic image from the film that never actually appeared in the film.
Unfortunately, the footage itself was kind of disappointing in two ways: 1) The shots are very static and distant, and not particularly exciting within the film's context and 2) there wasn't enough coverage in the dailies I had access to make the full gag work in a coherent fashion. It would have been really choppy and incomplete. It also would have completely ruined the flow of the mini-movie assembly I was going for. So, I included pretty much every scrap of it into Dangerous Days and the featurettes.
There's a ton of other outtakes and deletions I would have loved to have cut together into the deleted scenes section (like Batty electrocuting himself) but in order to really make those little orphaned bits work, I would have had to truly recut the entire film and create a true sixth version of Blade Runner, and as fun as that would have been to do, we wouldn't have had the time, money or space to make it happen.
Unfortunately, the footage itself was kind of disappointing in two ways: 1) The shots are very static and distant, and not particularly exciting within the film's context and 2) there wasn't enough coverage in the dailies I had access to make the full gag work in a coherent fashion. It would have been really choppy and incomplete. It also would have completely ruined the flow of the mini-movie assembly I was going for. So, I included pretty much every scrap of it into Dangerous Days and the featurettes.
There's a ton of other outtakes and deletions I would have loved to have cut together into the deleted scenes section (like Batty electrocuting himself) but in order to really make those little orphaned bits work, I would have had to truly recut the entire film and create a true sixth version of Blade Runner, and as fun as that would have been to do, we wouldn't have had the time, money or space to make it happen.
I was sick and skipped work so I watched all of Dangerous Days and the other DVD with featurettes and deleted scenes!
Truly amazing work Charles!!! I have yet to find any menu problems and I liked how you made a mini-film out of the 45 minutes of deleted/alternative scenes and added Vangelis music! I thought some of the voice-overs for this segment were amusing, but am glad they were axed from the movies. I still think the voice-overs suck and am glad they were axed for the Director's Cut and the Final Cut.
Like others, my only complaint are the missing storyboards from the DVDs. It would have rocked to have a slideshow of the storyboards with Vangelis music playing in the background.
Truly amazing work Charles!!! I have yet to find any menu problems and I liked how you made a mini-film out of the 45 minutes of deleted/alternative scenes and added Vangelis music! I thought some of the voice-overs for this segment were amusing, but am glad they were axed from the movies. I still think the voice-overs suck and am glad they were axed for the Director's Cut and the Final Cut.
Like others, my only complaint are the missing storyboards from the DVDs. It would have rocked to have a slideshow of the storyboards with Vangelis music playing in the background.
Rado wrote:Is there anything - and I mean any little scrap - that can be shared with the public at this point in time? A sketch or two, basic premise, anything?
I wish. I really thought we were going to hit paydirt once Paul Prischman (my associate producer) made initial contact with Bakshi and he seemed interested. But this is why I said in another post I feel like we only barely scratched the surface. Blade Runner is so impossibly rich in backstories, sidestories, what ifs?...the possibilities are endless.
It's been a few weeks and I've watched Dangerous Days twice now, and simply put, it's obvious that it's one of the best documentaries ever made about ANY movie. Compare it to Turner Classics' excellent "The Battle Over Citizen Kane," which was only two hours long, very well made but not nearly as exhaustive in its depth and scope, yet was nominated for a Best Documentary Oscar. At the very least, I really hope Dangerous Days manages to get a high-profile run on a quality movie cable channel, Turner or what-have-you; it would make for a great two-night showing, and more than deserves it.
One of the things I love most about how Charles put together Dangerous Days is its impartiality: how it gives total credit to those who worked on the film, and whose visions inspired the work, but also pulls *zero* punches when it comes to differences of opinion (let's just say it does a very un-Michael Moore-esque job of stating and presenting varying opinions, amen). It's the best kind of documentary: one that's in love with its subject, but also fascinated enough by it to care about presenting everyone's side of the story, conflicting opinions and even blunt criticism for the movie itself, rather than just being another worshipful, fawning, self-mythologizing PR piece. It's unsparing about the financiers' behavior, Ridley Scott's own behavior towards the American crew during production, and the relationships of everyone involved - which makes for totally fascinating and unhypocritical viewing. I love that Charles presents everyone's final take on the movie itself, and that Ivor Powell is able to say that he feels BR is visually and thematically brilliant, yet emotionally distant (even if others including myself disagree).
And hands down, the funniest quote in the entire DVD set has to be Frank Darabont's re: the original tacked-on narration during Roy's death scene. I'm honestly not a fan of Darabont's movies, but OMG, his quote about that sequence is hysterical, and almost worth the price of the entire set! I've watched it twice and have bust out laughing both times. Priceless, Charles, priceless
One of the things I love most about how Charles put together Dangerous Days is its impartiality: how it gives total credit to those who worked on the film, and whose visions inspired the work, but also pulls *zero* punches when it comes to differences of opinion (let's just say it does a very un-Michael Moore-esque job of stating and presenting varying opinions, amen). It's the best kind of documentary: one that's in love with its subject, but also fascinated enough by it to care about presenting everyone's side of the story, conflicting opinions and even blunt criticism for the movie itself, rather than just being another worshipful, fawning, self-mythologizing PR piece. It's unsparing about the financiers' behavior, Ridley Scott's own behavior towards the American crew during production, and the relationships of everyone involved - which makes for totally fascinating and unhypocritical viewing. I love that Charles presents everyone's final take on the movie itself, and that Ivor Powell is able to say that he feels BR is visually and thematically brilliant, yet emotionally distant (even if others including myself disagree).
And hands down, the funniest quote in the entire DVD set has to be Frank Darabont's re: the original tacked-on narration during Roy's death scene. I'm honestly not a fan of Darabont's movies, but OMG, his quote about that sequence is hysterical, and almost worth the price of the entire set! I've watched it twice and have bust out laughing both times. Priceless, Charles, priceless
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