"Blade Runner", by Ridley Scott

There is a time before Blade Runner and an after Blade Runner. Before this wonderful 1982 film, Science Fiction in movies was nothing more than a vaguely defined concept, devoid of any precise form. It was an abstract construction linked to scripts or literary works, but lacking any recognizable identity. After Ridley Scott's masterpiece was released, the science fiction in movies evolved  to a world full of possibilities and stories to tell. These stories started to share common elements that have afterwards gemmed an almost infinite number of inspired and visionary works set in worlds resembling closely those imagined by Philip K. Dick, who elevating  us with this novel, laid the groundwork for the future of this genre.  

As for the technical aspects, there is much to say but everything can easily be summed with just  a few words. With this film we reach an incredible stylistic perfection, a  beautiful narration and richness of contents that in our opinion has never been reached again in any following audiovisual work.  Needless to dwell too much on the directorial aspect: the staging brings us in a squallid and overpopulated futuristic Los Angeles, sunk between skyscrapers full of lights and depicting a suburban neighborhood in which poverty and rain paint highly evocative scenarios of degradation. The masterful Photography highlights a dirty, dark and at the same time psychedelic world, illuminated only by neon lights and disturbing holograms as tall as buildings. The soundtrack is as stunning as are the visuals: a devastating and melancholic mix of blues and pulsating electronic calls that perfectly accompanies thestory to be told. The union of all these elements transports the viewer into the squalid life of Rick Deckard, a bounty hunter on the trail of a series of replicants that must be "withdrawn"; his continuous moral dilemmas are never treated with superficiality, but rather brilliantly and deeply described, resulting  still actual and shareable by any one of us.

 Blade Runner is a magnificent and stunning representation of its genre. A portrait of a world that has yet to come or maybe that is already here.  A crude  illustration of the decline of a superior  civilization that believed it could fly up to the stars, while sanking inesorably in a place where, perhaps, there is no way back.