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Comment by scotty79 | Hacker News Reader

Funny. "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" is one of the cases for me when book is way better than movie. I literally feel asleep on Blade Runner. Twice. Then again maybe I was too young then to even watch this.

I think I should try and watch Blade Runner again.

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Please do try! I have original VHS versions of both the theatrical release (hard to find!) and subsequent director's cut which became the mainstream. Now you can find them all on DVD. I recommend watching the director's cut, then the original theatrical release. Changes aside from the voice over are really subtle, but important! If you want to go for completeness, watch the final cut as well.

Maybe I'm just a hardcore fan, but I did that with my girlfriend while explaining all the differences and she really liked it.

"... I have original VHS versions of both the theatrical release (hard to find!) and subsequent director's cut which became the mainstream. Now you can find them all on DVD. I recommend watching the director's cut, then the original theatrical release. ..."

The directors cut is underwhelming. I only just noticed the latest release with not 2 but 5 versions on DVD. I had the chance to see the original version when it came out. It really did change the way SF was portrayed on film. Gone was the shiny white, clean environments of say BG or ST. Guess I'll have to ask Syd Mead which is his favourite release when he's in town ~ https://www.alumni.rmit.edu.au/NetCommunity/SSLPage.aspx?pid...

To me the two of them just feel totally different. I love both but have a hard time seeing them as two forms of the same thing. That's quite different from most book/films where I see the one (usually the film) as a pale imitation of the other.

I think this is the reason why Blade Runner is a good moving. Rather than revering the source material and trying to follow it closely, the makers told the story in a way that was designed as a movie from the ground up. The result is that it can stand on its own legs, rather than being a knock-off. It follows the attitude of Jorge Luis Borges on translation, that the translator should work as an author and not just a transcriber.

> "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" are one of the cases for me when book is way better than movie.

You're just saying that because the Mood Organ made you want to say that...

> Mood Organ

Um, I meed Prozac / Zoloft / Fontex, Seromex, Seronil, Sarafem, Ladose, Fluctin , Fluox , Lovan ...

You've just managed to trigger the spam filter in my email client simply by proximity :)

The movie really is amazing. It's so full of such intense detail. I give it a watch at least a couple of times a year.

But an absolute bore to watch when I was younger.

Do watch it again as the movie is rather different but good nonetheless. But I must say the book is far better and up on my list of favorites.

Almost all books are better than movies, even novelizations based on movies are often better - "Revenge of the Sith", "Ironman", and "Terminator Salvation" for examples are all much better than the movies. The only times I have seen movies that were as good, or better than, the novel were where they were very different.

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