I'd beg to differ re the visuals. I find the film to be eye candy of a high order. Tastes differ, or course. I'm often willing to overlook a film's flaws if it's prettily designed and shot. In this case, I think it's a triumph on many levels. I haven't seen it in awhile, so I shall have to go back and listen to the audio on my blu-ray 7.1 system. Tinny, muffled, or muted audio does suck, especially with a production such as this one. Frankly, I was surprised to read your comment. But I trust the source. :smile: It's a nice excuse to whip it out again.......:wink:
P.S. I haven't read the Dick novella, but I've read some of his other stuff and I've thoroughly enjoyed it all.
I don't complain about the quality of the film or it's audio, on my bluray it's pristine and crisp. I find the direction in this film is intense, there is never a boring shot and there is a lot to be seen.
Film vs. Novella - I don't think it's that easy to just say the book is better, I love the book but films and pages shouldn't really be compared. The novella is the authors universe and the film is the directors. The fact that he is making another film in the same universe is proof of that.
Lets not forget this was a low budget movie, and it tanked at the box office. I would guess the budget was more than 28 mill, but it wasn't; and it only raked in just over 6 mill at the box office, and didn't even break even in '82, grossing only 27 mill.
As for the voice over; the producers and exec producers decided the average viewer would be confused and not able to follow the film:
"
(A)n extensive voice-over was added to help people relate to Harrison Ford's character and make following the plot easier. [A]fter a draft by novelist-screenwriter Darryl Ponicsan was discarded, a TV veteran named Roland Kibbee got the job. As finally written, the voice-over met with universal scorn from the filmmakers, mostly for what Scott characterized as its 'Irving the Explainer' quality [...] It sounded so tinny and ersatz that, in a curious bit of film folklore, many members of the team believe to this day that Harrison Ford, consciously or not, did an uninspired reading of it in the hopes it wouldn't be used. And when co-writers Fancher and Peoples, now friends, saw it together, they were so afraid the other had written it that they refrained from any negative comments until months later." (
Los Angeles Times, 13 September, 1992)
There's a 1992 version of the film(my fav version) where there is no voice over, and the ending is not a happy hollywood one.