BLADE RUNNER - THE FINAL CUT - IN MOVIE THEATERS

One of Maria’s favorite films was the Sci-Fi cult classic Blade Runner which debuted 25 years ago and which is now back on the big screen as the revised film BLADE RUNNER: THE FINAL CUT. The film originally opened to mostly mixed reviews in 1982, and has undergone many changes in the years since. To some it is remembered as the film with the dubious distinction as opening at the same time as Spielberg's E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) (which in effect rendered the film almost irrelevant in the public mind). But many have sworn allegiance to it not only seeing it as a “classic" but as one of the most influential science-fiction films of all time.

The film was originally a box-office and financial failure, receiving moslty negative reviews from film critics who called it "muddled and baffling" and from viewers who thought its vision of the future was too "dark and gloomy". It also didn’t help that at the last minute the studio forced the director to use a voice-over narrative throughout the film, (ironically making it more confusing), and that the biggest actor of the day, who starred in the movie, was unfortunately miss-cast.

The Movie was directed by Ridley Scott, who at the time was one of the hottest young directors having just finished his hit Alien (1979), and had the casting coup of the year in Hollywood getting Harrison Ford as the lead. Ford was between Star Wars films and had just completed the first of the Indiana Jones movies and was arguably at the height of his popularity.

The ambitious, enigmatic and visually complex film is a futuristic film noir, detective thriller with all the requisite parts - an alienated hero of questionable morality, a femme fatale, airborne police vehicles called "Spinners", dark sets and locations in a Los Angeles of 2019. Ford plays Rick Deckard a weary, former police officer/bounty hunter who is reluctantly dispatched by the state to search for four android replicates that have been created with limited life spans. Tthe film mixes in some Western genre elements as well, and is thematically similar to the story in High Noon (1952) of a lone marshal facing four western outlaws. These four genetically-engineered androids have escaped from a slave camp from an outer planet and are now driven by fear, having come to Earth to locate their “creator” and force him to prolong their short lives. The film's theme, (the quest for immortality), is weaved throughout as is the question of who is really human.

For sure, one element of the film that critics and fans univerisally agree on is its stylized and imaginative visual effects portraying a future Los Angeles that echos other classic Sci-Fi films: Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1927), Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and a small Sci-Fi movie Maria loved Silent Running (1973). Since the movie opened, many films have attempted to duplicate the stylized look of Blade Runner, including Batman (1989), Strange Days (1995), The Fifth Element (1997), Dark City (1998), The Matrix (1999), and I, Robot (2004). (Of note, the film's screenplay was based on science-fiction writer Philip K. Dick's 1968 novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? another of Maria's favorite Sci-Fi books.)

The first of what became many "revisions" of the film occured in 1992-in the revised 'Director's Cut’ which was released to mark the film's 10th anniversary - it dropped Harrison Ford's mostly redundant voice-over and restored the film's original dark and contemplative vision. Many Blade Runner afficionados prefer the subtlety of the images in the restored version rather than the slow and monotonous tone of the earlier 1982 film with the voice-over. The 'director's cut' also substitutes a less upbeat and shorter, more ambiguous, non-Hollywood ending, and has inserted a new scene of a 'unicorn reverie' (an unused take from Scott's fantasy film Legend (1986)). Fans treat both films as separate entities in their own right: in the 1982 release, Deckard is human. In the 1992 director's cut, Deckard is a replicant, etc.

Now today there is the Final Cut Edition with director Ridley Scott going further to mark the film's 25th anniversary. This "definitive version" containa never-before-seen added/extended scenes, added lines, and new and improved special effects. Among the changes, the "unicorn" scene is made longer - to reinforce the idea that Deckard is a replicant.

So, if you have time to spend and want to see a "classic" Sci-Fi film check out Blade Runner: The Final Cut. It's in theaters today...and yes...it’s playing at the Ziegfed!

Remember Maria by donating to the Inner-City Scholarship Fund

(Maria on her 6th Bitrhday June 16th 1972)
This Saturday June 16th would have been Maria’s 41st birthday. And while she has left this earth she still remains with us in our hearts and minds. Her caring and giving spirit still endures in the charity she championed for most of her adult life.

As some of you know Maria sponsored underprivileged students from the New York inner city. The organization is The Inner-City Scholarship Fund (ICSF).

The ICSF is an ecumenical, not-for-profit corporation founded in 1971 by the late Terence Cardinal Cooke and a group of prominent executives of all religious beliefs. Its goal is to raise money for the Archdiocesan, inner-city schools in Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island to help bridge the gap between tuition charged and the actual cost to educate each student. A couple of key statistics that illustrate both the challenges and great success of the program:

64% of students live at or below the federal poverty level

50% of Inter-City Scholarship Fund students live in single parent homes

99% of students in the Inter-City Scholarship Fund graduate

92% go onto college

These kids are dealt tremendous odds to overcome every single day but somehow they manage, with the help of the ICSF, to endure and keep their dreams of a better life alive. For more details please go to the ICSF website. The link is located on the left hand column of this blog under Maria's Charity.

Currently, there are two students under Maria’s name that we are continuing to sponsor. The goal is to guide and finance these two students through high school (the directed goal of the ICSF). Both are performing well. One, is in high school and the other is in the second grade (Letters from this student and her report card can be seen at the end of this post).

Any amount would be appreciated, as it was a charity that was very important to Maria. The Address and contact info is:

The Inner-City Scholarship Fund.

Attn: Ann Reidy

1011 First Ave.
Suite: 1400
New York, NY
10022-4112

Please make a note that the donation is in dedication to the memory of Maria Helena Salazar. Check can be made out to: The Inner-City Scholarship Fund.

Thank You.

Frogs: A Chorus of Colors

Maria was a lover of all creatures big and small. Growing up in Puerto Rico, from the age of 5-10, Maria was exposed to a myriad of tropical animals and insects. From this she developed a special passion for frogs. The fall before she passed away Maria went to the American Museum of Natural History, a museum she loved, for the last time with our Mom and saw an elaborate exhibit they had on exotic frogs called A Chorus of Colors. Starting May 26th, the exhibit returns to the American Museum of Natural History (see info and link below).

American Museum of Natural History
The Museum is open daily, 10:00 a.m.–5:45 p.m.
To get the most up to date information, please call (212) 769-5100.

http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/frogs/?src=h_h and will run through September 9, 2007.

May 25, 1977

On a clear, beautiful spring Saturday in 1977, my whole family took the train from our home in Scarsdale to New York City to see what my father promised, “was a very special film”. It had to be. Why would we all go to the City to see a movie? We had heard rumblings about this film on the news, (a cover story in Time magazine was circulating around the house the previous week), but that was it. Nobody knew this movie was coming or how special it was going to be. This was, after all, years before the Internet and the advent of the multi-million dollar movie marketing campaigns, so awareness of this movie, especially for us kids, was small. In fact none of us (Maria and my brother Dan) was even anxious to see it, but our Mom and Dad assured us this was going to be a special event and that we needed to see it on a big screen (this was also years before the big MoviePlex theaters were common and the City was the only place one could see a film on a big screen!). So, it was safe to say that by the time we all jumped into a cab at Grand Central Station and headed to the Ziegfeld Theater on west 54th street for the matinee showing, that none of us knew what we were going to experience. We sat in the beautiful and spacious Ziegfeld Theater, with a few hundred other people that afternoon, and for the next two hours we were utterly and literally transported to another world. The movie awed us, it delighted us...and yes, hyperbolic though it might seem to say so, it changed us. For Maria, and myself it was a childhood altering seminal event, an experience that brought us closer together and one we would remember fondly for years to come.

The Movie, and the event, was of course the opening weekend of George Lucas masterpiece Star Wars (which opened 30 years ago today). We all know the story. A grand tale of heroes and villains, in an old-fashioned fairy tail saga about dangerous, exotic lands, amidst an evil kingdom with a despotic ruler (and one of the greatest villains in motion picture history to boot) all opposed by a rollicking collection of buccaneers, including a pirate who was one of the good guys, a damsel “princess” in distress and of course a young hero who reverberated all the recognizable human notions and virtues that young kids identified with: honor, courage, the love of freedom - and of course in the end –faith. All the while watching the movie we felt as though we were apart of something joyous, a celebration of not only the art of cinema but also the unbridled joy of believing in the stars and the simple yet grand celebration of good triumphing over evil.


But it was more then a “kids” film to us. The whole experience seemed deeper, as if this movie was speaking to us directly in a non-patronizing but at the same time grandiose way. We were, after all, children of the 70’s and we were even at our young age acutely aware of the prevailing cynicism in our culture. But then came Star Wars, a movie that truly spoke to us, in a simple, positive and life affirming way. And that was in many ways the secret to why we loved the film. We couldn’t believe it was made for “US”. That adults would conceive such a story on an epic scale, with state of the art special effects, and a John Williams score that seemed to be made for a much bigger and more important film (for adults). No, this entire enterprise was for us, and the experience was ours and ours to keep and share with not just our siblings but for all our friends as well.

But for Maria and I, it was an experience that truly brought us closer together, better then any other event of our childhood. When the lights came on in the theater, soon after our newly anointed heroes received their medals (Maria always thought it was unfair that Chewbacca didn’t receive one) I truly saw Maria in a different light. Maria was 10 when we saw Star Wars that afternoon in the big city, on that big screen at the Ziegfield. By then she had already read countless books that dealt with the similar morality play that was at the heart of Star Wars. Maria was a ferocious reader of all subjects but the genre of fantasy was her favorite. She had read, to this point, Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Lewis Caroll’s Alice in Wonderland and all of L. Frank Baum’s Wizard of OZ books (to name a few). So this genre and world of fantasy was not a new one for her to experience. But Star Wars was different for her and I, and our relationship in a couple of ways.



One, Star Wars for Maria didn’t just reaffirm her love and passions of fantasy, but the movie made the genre seem legitimate more mainstream, in a way other books and movies couldn’t. For Maria, her books were a pleasurable escape that she shared with herself and in most cases only by herself. Star Wars brought all the quality of the fantasy genre on a stage that made it easier for everyone to appreciate and this allotted her to engage with others with a mutual respect for the subject she loved. Thus, for the first time she could share her passions with others. It was as if Star Wars removed a certain stigma that was associated with these tales and with it came a certain kind of badge of honor to say you loved Star Wars no matter who you were.

Second, for me personally, Star Wars made me finally “get it” about Maria. I was 9 when we saw the movie together and while young, I never gave much thought to why my sister always read so many books. After seeing Star Wars and talking about every detail of the movie on the way home on the train that spring day 30 years ago, I finally “got it” why Maria love to read. It allowed her to dream of places she had never been and to discover worlds and people that never have existed. It all encouraged me to read these books that were so close to her heart and to share these experience for myself. She would tell me “If you loved watching Star Wars you should read Charlie and the Chocolate factory" (I read it that summer). Which brings a great irony to this story about a movie. Star Wars, through the eyes of my sister, made me want to read books! In many ways it still does today.

Today I work in midtown, three blocks from the Zieglfeld, and everyday I walk by the old theater and not a day goes by that I don’t remember that spring day 30 years ago. It has been persevered in time and it reminds me that there was a place in my childhood when the purity of innocence existed on a movie screen, and this simple, but elegantly crafted fable still resonates with magic, magic I shared with my sister that spring day. Because it was so innocent, in a way no film can ever be so innocent for me again, the images of that film and the memory of seeing it for the very first time with my sister sitting safely next to me has been forever placed deep in my heart and conscience. It was a day Maria and I both feel in love with the stars, and it was something we shared the rest of our lives.

-Bob Salazar
5/25/07