Moody, never really warm enough, thinking about shooting some dumb fucking guy—I'm a real woman alright. This 1982 promo image of a gun toting Sean Young, a variation on one we shared a while back, comes from Blade Runner, one of the most awesome imaginative achievements in cinematic history. Young played a genetically superior flesh-and-blood replicant—sort of like a clone—who was anguished that she might not be a real woman. But let's go down a list. Genetically superior but not treated with due respect? Check. Trailed by a guy with issues who thinks he deserves on-demand access to her vagina? Check. Entire society telling her what she can and cannot be? Triple check. Young was real enough. Her main motivation was to reconcile her past and have hope for her future, and that overarching theme is exactly why Blade Runner is such a good movie. We've seen it, we'd guess, ten to twelve times, and we'll watch it again that often, at least.
1982 vision of a wrecked future gets better with time. Did we already mention that the Blade Runner sequel will suck? We did, we think, and then expounded upon Ridley Scott’s fiasco Prometheus. But Blade Runner is an undisputed classic, one of our favorite films, part of a top ten that includes for us Casablanca, Chinatown, Altered States (and a few non-pulp movies such as Dazed and Confused). It’s worth noting that the movie wasn’t well reviewed upon release. Critics have slowly upgraded their opinions over time to the point where Blade Runner now has one of the highest ratings you’ll find. The upgrades are nice, but it’s kind of funny how far over critics’ heads the movie went at the time. It premiered in June 1982, and first showed in France today the same year. The French promo poster isn’t wonderful, and that’s why below we have a collection of every still we could find in order to celebrate the watershed event of Blade Runner’s creation. These augment the promos we’ve already shared here, and here. Now let’s just hope they scrap that sequel. Update: Okay, the sequel was actually pretty good—but Scott didn't direct it.
Will murder for food. Ridley Scott’s sci-fi noir Blade Runner is now thirty-one years old, though its vision of a wrecked future still looks new. Studio meddling harmed the initial release, but once Scott was able to recut the film without the jarring narration and tacked on blue sky/beaming sun ending, the movie finally took its true, brilliant form. A Blade Runner sequel to be directed by Scott is in the works, but that isn’t good news. His incoherent Alien prequel Prometheus proved once and for all that big budget movies in Hollywood—even those guaranteed to be huge hits—must above all else be predictable lest 0.1% of their potential audience be turned off. Blade Runner took risks. Its sequel will not. Don't even bother hoping it will—you know better. But whatever happens we’ll always have the original. This amazing promo image of Daryl Hannah in character as the homicidal (and gymnastic) Pris symbolizes its genius.
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The headlines that mattered yesteryear.
1910—First Seaplane Takes Flight
Frenchman Henri Fabre, who had studied airplane and propeller designs and had also patented a system of flotation devices, accomplishes the first take-off from water at Martinque, France, in a plane he called Le Canard, or "the duck." 1953—Jim Thorpe Dies
American athlete Jim Thorpe, who was one of the most prolific sportsmen ever and won Olympic gold medals in the 1912 pentathlon and decathlon, played American football at the collegiate and professional levels, and also played professional baseball and basketball, dies of a heart attack. 1958—Khrushchev Becomes Premier
Nikita Khrushchev becomes premier of the Soviet Union. During his time in power he is responsible for the partial de-Stalinization of the Soviet Union, and presides over the rise of the early Soviet space program, but his many policy failures lead to him being deposed in October 1964. After his removal he is pensioned off and lives quietly the rest of his life, eventually dying of heart disease in 1971. 1997—Heaven's Gate Cult Members Found Dead
In San Diego, thirty-nine members of a cult called Heaven's Gate are found dead after committing suicide in the belief that a UFO hidden in tail of the Hale-Bopp comet was a signal that it was time to leave Earth for a higher plane of existence. The cult members killed themselves by ingesting pudding and applesauce laced with poison.
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