I’m just about to watch a DVRed-off-TV version of Blade Runner (part of G4’s “Movies that Don’t Suck” series, which deserves praise in and of itself), the description of which I find really interesting.

Ridley Scott’s director’s cut of his sci-fi noir thriller adds scenes and a new ending, drops the voice-over [which I remember being pretty corny–there was so much corny voiceover in the 70s and 80s], and deletes some of the gorier moments. The story follows a 21st-century detective (Harrison Ford) charged with terminating deadly androids.

Now, “terminating deadly androids” aside–it’s a whole lot more nuanced than that–I find it interesting that the director’s cut chooses to delete the gorier scenes, and I think I’ll end up liking the movie a lot more because of it. I saw Blade Runner for the first time back in the early 90s, in college, I believe, if not in high school. I loved the story, but the thing that always turned me off was the gore. I don’t remember there being a lot, but I have the benefit of over a decade to fuzz
out my memory on that.
But usually a director’s cut will add scenes and not refine stuff like that, because usually the scenes added would increase the likelihood of an R rating (arbitrary though that is) rather than decrease the likelihood of it. And with such a great story as Blade Runner is, it has always disappointed me that it got an R, which would deter many people I know from seeing it.
Now, looking at the TV ratings on the DVR, this still says that it’s rated R (though I believe that G4 is one of the stations that edits for language, so that may be moot). But I am interested in seeing the changes and how it affects the story.