"Too bad she won't live. But then again, who does?"

I had a funny thought while watching Blade Runner last night at the Cinerama.

"I've never seen this movie before."

Now that's silly. I've seen Blade Runner at least half a dozen times. I even sat through an old VHS of the original version with a friend who swore that the voice-over enhanced the story [it doesn't]. But as silly as the thought might have been, it was also true in a way. I'd never seen Blade Runner like this. I'm not talking about sweeping changes in the story. This version is being marketed as "The Final Cut" but it's still largely the same. In fact I was surprised how few changes I could actually spot. The newness I was feeling was a result of the venue. I had never seen Blade Runner so big and so loud. Home theater systems are getting more and more advanced, but I'm convinced that nothing at home could recreate this experience. It's funny and a little sad that so few people have seen it this way. More than any other film I've seen this year [even Transformers] Blade Runner, a 25 year old movie, is the one that demands to be seen on the big screen.

I could probably write a great deal on Ridley Scott's skill at providing his audiences director's cuts that actually improve the films [see Kingdom of Heaven for the best example] but I still have American Gangster to see and the DCs of Legend and Gladiator in my backlog pile so I will save that for another day.