Future Noir: The Making Of Blade Runner [Paperback]

The book reads easily and well, Sammon's style informal. He writes as one BR fan to another, a great approach. The production details are thorough, insightful, and wonderful to read, 441 pages in 18 chapters, with nine appendices containing interviews, production details, the cast list, etc. Sammon is a total BR devotee, I compliment and commend him on his achievement and the recognition of those who worked so hard to make BR.

There is vast information throughout from all members of the cast and crew, all of them supportive of Sammon's effort to tell their story. There is surprisingly liberal information from the movie's principals, Ridley Scott, Harrison Ford, Sean Young, Michael Deeley, Syd Mead, Hampton Fancher and David Peoples. One disappointment is the absence of direct input and comment from the soundtrack maestro, Vangelis. Sammon nevertheless gives him thorough justice.

Wonderful esoteric tidbits abound through the book, such as the revelation that the original lead was not Harrison Ford, but Dustin Hoffman. Edward James Olmos provides great background on his preparation for his role as Gaff and his detailed construction of his Cityspeak dialog (most of it sadly unused). We learn of fantastic special effects scenes never realized, and that in the background in one of the aerial city shots is a painted Millennium Falcon model. We learn that the process of creating this movie was a years-long, highly personal effort, first by Hampton Fancher to secure rights and create a screenplay, then later by Ridley Scott and other members of the team who continued to craft the film even after they were fired by the production company. It is a story of dedication to craft and art from a group of artists looking to raise diverse artistic, social, moral, and ethical issues with this genre-transcending film. I often was reminded of the documentary Hearts of Darkness, the story of Francis Ford Coppola's unending dedication to and struggles with the making of Apocalypse Now.

Highlighted superbly in the book is the true key to BR's success, Ridley Scott's intense attention to detail, his relentless questioning of the larger context and physical placement of the story. For example, Scott insisted on instructions painted on the futuristic parking meters in the street scenes. Absolutely illegible in the finished film, this sort of detail nonetheless set a compelling, even subconscious tone for the set and those who worked within it.

Particularly entertaining is Chapter 8, the scene by scene account of the shoot, with comment from the actors, producers, specialists, crew, and Scott. Also very useful for the true BR fanatic are the appendices listing all of the various BR versions, their formats, availability, and catalog information. Sammon does the same for the various soundtracks and musical compositions heard throughout the film, even the music and lyrics from the advertisements sported on the ad-blimps. Especially enjoyable is Appendix C's detailed list of "blunders," a compendium of the film's both obvious and subtle continuity errors, dubbing flaws, and inserted footage.

There are dozens of illustrations throughout the book, and Sammon gives due credit to BR's still photographer for the hundreds of stills that BR fans know and collect. The main problem is that the ONLY color photos in the entire book are on the front and back covers. The B/W photos in the book are small, grainy, poorly reproduced, and do not reflect Sammon's praise. These sorry photos do not allow the reader, who hasn't seen many of these never-before-published stills and production drawings, to revel in the details.

Sammon is overly obsessed with cataloging ALL of the different versions of the film, and detailing the most minute differences. We have chapter after repetitive chapter discussing the differences between the Workprint, the pre-release revisions, the theatrical release, the various video, broadcast, and satellite releases, as well as the competing director's cuts. The fascinating core tale of the political, economic, and artistic fights over all of these versions of the film is lost as Sammon loses track and focuses too closely on the details of the different versions, obsessing to the point of irrelevance on miniscule details. For the BR fanatic this is invaluable, but for most readers this makes the narrative tedious and repetitive, given this technical information is available also in Appendix B.

Sammon's promised discussion of BR's influence on sci-fi film is absent. His subtitle, "The Fascinating Story Behind the . . . Most Influential SF Film Ever Made" promises a discussion of BR's influence on filmdom. His discussion is poorly introduced, disorganized, and sorrowfully weak on supporting facts and testimonials, leading ultimately to the conclusion that BR simply is NOT the most influential sci-fi film of all time. In fact, the paltry six-page discussion of BR's influence is one of the shallowest, most poorly researched and organized parts of the entire book. Sammon's strength and enthusiasm clearly lie in the film's production details. Nowhere in the book does he cite any filmmaker, actor, editor, producer, or special effects artist describing BR as an influence.

This book is an invaluable acquisition for any die-hard BR fan, and a great memoir for any student of filmmaking. It's not for the casual BR or film fan; it's a cult book, just as Blade Runner is a cult film. Disappointingly, Sammon fails to deliver a crucial element of his work, a thorough and convincing discussion of BR's influence on cinema and its place in greater filmdom.

The novel is simply an overwhelming wealth of information on all things Blade Runner; chapters focus on every minute detail such as the evolution of the story as it passed through the hands of Phillip K. Dick's novel, Hampton Fancher's screenplay, then into the hands of David Peoples and Ridley Scott. Chapter VIII is such a delight, as it meticulously works through each scene in the film, stopping along the way to add tidbits of info such as exclusive interviews with the actors. Sammon apparently also had the luxury of roaming the set of Blade Runner, and he reveals things such as the futuristic magazine covers he would see on the magazine racks and many other incredibly obscure decorations the design team threw in that are virtually impossible to see when you watch the film.

Like the other reviewers, I agree that Sammon is not perhaps the most skilled writer, and the prose of the book is very choppy and (especially in Chapter I) pretty corny. What troubles me most, though, is that Sammon has a particularly annoying habit of throwing out names without properly introducing them and explaining their role in the Blade Runner universe. Mercifully, there is a cast and crew listing printed as an appendix, which is a great help. This, and some of the other errors in the book seem quite obvious, and it leaves one wondering who was in charge of the editing.

Anyhow, the book allows great insight into the workings of the film, all gathered from what must be piles and piles of notes and cassette-recorded dialogue Sammon collected over the years to produce a rather well-organized book for fans of the film to read. I have seen the film countless times, and the new perspectives and ideas gained from this book keep the film fresh and wondrous as the years go by.

Mr Sammon's writing is somewhat overenthusiastic, reading like a fan's website. But the sheer quanitity and interesting nasture of the material makes up for this.