Blade Runner

BLADE RUNNER: POCKET MOVIE GUIDE


This book is a guide to the 1982 movie made from Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick - Blade Runner. A thorough exploration of Blade Runner forms the core of the book, looking at the conception, production, themes, critical reception and influence of the 1982 Warner Brothers movie in every detail.

Philip Kindred Dick (1928-1982) was a key figure in 20th century science fiction, famous for embracing drugs and the counter-culture in his work. Dick's fiction includes The Man In the High Castle, Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said, A Scanner Darkly, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Valis, The Divine Invasion, Martian Time-Slip, The Minority Report, and We Can Remember It For You Wholesale. Dick's themes included perception and reality, drugs, state control, global capitalism, surveillance, and paranoia.

On its initial release, Blade Runner grossed $27 million in the United States, placing it no. 16 in that year's box office chart (it was released on June 25, 1982, in 1,290 theatres in the U.S.A.). 1982 was the year, of course, of E.T. The films that came in way behind Steven Spielberg's Universal fantasy were Tootsie at no. 2, An Officer and a Gentleman third, and Rocky 3 in fourth place. Other sci-fi and fantasy flicks in 1982 included Star Trek 2, Conan the Barbarian, Mad Max 2 and The Thing. Blade Runner is often trotted out as another big, important picture that flopped on its theatrical release. That isn't quite true, but it certainly wasn't a hit movie by any standards. The opening weekend was pretty good, but the movie seemed to fade away rapidly after that.

Many reviewers and critics came out against Blade Runner on its first release, including Roger Ebert, Pauline Kael, Sheila Benson, and Janet Maslin. 'Muddled', 'gruesome', 'pretentious' and 'overheated' were some of the words used to describe it.

Since then, Blade Runner has rightly achieved cult as well as classic status. Its influence on science fiction and sci-fi cinema has been enormous (this book looks at some of the movies inspired by Blade Runner, including Ghost In the Shell, Akira, Brazil and Batman).


Fully illustrated. Pocket size. Bibliography, filmography and notes. ISBN 971861714251.

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