The new Palm Valley Film Club got off to a riveting start with a screening of Ridley Scott’s 1982 masterpiece Blade Runner – a haunting, eerily prophetic mixture of science fiction and film noir, boasting one of the most astonishingly designed futures ever put on film – a dark, decaying Los Angeles circa 2019.
As Trystan Swan pointed out in his informative introduction to the film, when Blade Runner was released in 1982 it received a tepid welcome, overshadowed by the more family- and user-friendly sci-fi movies E.T., Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Poltergeist. Audiences and critics alike found it too dark and ponderous. Blade Runner did not even place in the top ten grossers of 1982, beaten out by Tootsie, Porky’s, Rocky III and even the horribly misconceived musical Annie.
Over time, however, Blade Runner has gained a huge fan base – it is now listed as IMDB’s most popular film of 1982 – and is generally recognized as one of the greatest American films of all time. Its totally original vision of a dense, crowded, multiculturally diverse and dystopian Los Angeles future was unprecedented, and inspired countless films to come.
(Early in Blade Runner Harrison Ford is seen chowing down on noodles as his spacecraft flies by an enormous digital billboard advertising Coca-Cola. Trystan cleverly decided that the snacks for the evening would be Cup-O-Noodles and Coke.)
The Film Club’s next pick is Ridley Scott’s incomparable Alien, one of the scariest movies ever made.It will be shown in Mr. Griffin’s room US8 Friday April 24, 6 pm.
Snacks for the evening?
Breakfast Cereal & Chow Mein
(You figure it out.)
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