Blade Runner: What Harrison Ford hated about classic SF

It took Ridley Scott no less than seven versions (even eight, if you count the first 4-hour cut of the film), and it wasn’t until 2007 with his version of Blade Runner: Final Cut that the filmmaker was completely satisfied with it. It is considered one of the greatest films in the history of cinema.

However, the adventure got off to a bad start… In March 1982, the filmmaker created the first print – known as the “Working Version” – shown at test screenings in Denver and Dallas by The Ladd Company, in partnership with Warner – producing and distributing the film).

The public’s reaction is catastrophic: they don’t understand anything, they don’t like the ending… The production for release in American theaters imposes a narration in Deckard’s voice and above all a happy ending, which removes all the glorious ambiguities of the work.

hateful voice

An imposed voice that was definitely not to Harrison Ford’s taste forced him to perform the exercise in spite of himself, as he explains Interview with Playboy magazine in 2002.

“I was contractually obligated to do the narration. When I agreed to do the film, I told Ridley that there was too much information given to the audience in the narration. I said… we’ll take it out and put it on. So that the public has that information naturally, we don’t have to tell them.

And he thought it was a good idea, so we sat at the kitchen table and changed. And when it was done, the studio said no one understood this ugly movie and we had to create a narrative. “.

Ford recorded his voiceover lines before seeing the full script, when he thought they were a test and would not be used in the final version. Not only that, but they were barely allowed to set their own tone on the lines.

So I was bound by my contract to record this narrative, which I did on five or six different occasions. Finally, I finally showed up to do it, and there was this old Hollywood screenwriter sitting in the room with a pipe taped to him. He was typing on that portable typewriter.

I have not seen this guy before, he gave me his pages. I still don’t remember who it was; Anyway, I told him: “Look, I’ve done it five times already. I’m not going to argue with you about anything. So I’ll just read it 10 times and you do what you want.”

Did I mess up the sound on purpose? No. I provided as best I could, given that I had no reference. I never thought they would use it. It was bad news.”

Like it or not, this version remains interesting; Still to see. That’s good, it’s been released by Warner on DVD and Blu-ray, which bundles the other versions of the film. No doubt fans of Scott’s film have had it in their hands for a long time.