Blade Runner (1982): color-timing; different versions; audio mixes

[PDB]

Got ya. Cool beans Chew. I'd love to see the final results.

[The Aluminum Falcon]

I'd like to make use of limited sections of the VO and add in a couple of the deleted scenes.

Look forward to seeing your version. Agree with you and PDB's discussion from the previous page. Thematically, the movie really only makes sense if Deckard is a replicant, as his own inhumanity (killing Zhora and Pris, treatment of Rachael) is ultimately the counterpoint to Roy's behavior in the ending and his compassion to replicants in general. If Deckard is a replicant, then all his transgressions become void rather than a cogent critique of humans.

The only way I could see you spinning Deckard being a replicant as particularly interesting is that it essentially makes the whole hunt of the replicants one cruelly manipulative meta-performance (ala Vertigo or the like), with the Deckard replicant merely playing the part of the hard-boiled ex-cop. But, for that to be really be effective, I think you would need to build up the characters of Gaff and Bryant, so we get a sense of how actual humans are in this world.

Part of me wonders whether Blade Runner 2049 will have the main character turn out to be a replicant with Deckard's memories in homage to this interpretation of the film...

[spoRv]

HDTV Vs. HD-DVD: http://hd.maltebauer.de/bladerunner_1080...hd/01.html

[captainsolo]

I take it all back.
The mixes for the international and directors are different.
Essentially the 1982 mix was done for Dolby stereo and has some added emphasis on some sound effects and a general lessening of the overall dynamic range to be punchier and better able to be reproduced on cinema systems of the time. There is a bit of hiss in the channels but not much.
The directors mix has far more detail and dynamic range and one is able to hear much more of the sound design that was completely buried in the mix in 1982. Thus you get more distortion in some effects and much more hiss and noise in the channels but this is natural and it is a better track.
I'm quite shocked that I had never put them up head to head before in an direct a-b unfiltered listening test...but what does one do when the neighbors are away and you have tower speakers with these questions on the brain?

Essentially the 1982 audio is a bit cooked. Listen to any scene with the Criterion and then the DC LD and you can feel the difference.
Also in terms of transfer I think the best shot to see the superiority of the DC is in Tyrell's bed chamber as the candles have actual flames in the DC as opposed to yellow blobs in the Criterion. (I only have the CLV so that's merely a thought.)

Thus you need both tracks.
BR fandom never quite ends does it?

[Chewtobacca]

The mixes for the international and directors are different.

BR fandom never quite ends does it?

It certainly doesn't. Thanks for the analysis!  I'm curious as to the consequences for the audio on the branching disc, on which the three cuts share an M2TS at various points but there are nonetheless three English 5.1 tracks.  Perhaps, this is simply a consequence of the complications of three-way branching (as opposed to two-way branching), but I wonder if there's more to it than that and if it has to do with differences in the mix.

[captainsolo]

I need to go through that disc again when I get time but I'm pretty sure they standardized the audio so that it's one 5.1 track either with narration and happy ending or without.

[Chewtobacca]

That was my impression too, but it would be as well to check at some point.

[PDB]

Yes that's correct in both cases.

The BD 5.1 tracks are all the same with the additions or subtractions needed for each different cut. I've run them against each other while trying to create a new track and are the same thing.

Also like the captain said the two PCM tracks, the Criterion and DC, are similar but the DC has better details in the sound effects. You can hear certain background noises better in the DC.

[Chewtobacca]

^ Thanks for the confirmation in respect of the BD 5.1! I'm going to rip another three-way branching BD soon and see how it compares to BR.

[Stamper]

In the BD with the branched versions, I remember there were some differences in some instances with the original DC audio. LIke suddenly the DC audio branched into the IC audio or something.