Retrofitting Blade Runner: Issues in Ridley Scott's Blade Runner and Phillip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Paperback – 1 Jan. 2003

I first read this book in 1994 and I am glad I could get it in my possession even after all these years.

Worth every penny. Absolutely wonderful essays

I bought this some time ago and dived straight into it but quickly discovered that it was not the casual read I had anticipated. I paused for a couple of years and then re-approached the book with a stronger commitment. The commitment paid off! The book is challenging but for a fan of Bladerunner, the reward is a much richer understanding of the film. The pay-off for me was the resolution of that key question, "Is Deckard a replicant?" Without being trite, the resolution was that the question is meaningless: the overall insight that the book offers is that the end-product film was the result of the many different interpretations that it accumulated during its tortuous gestation. In some of those interpretations he was, in some he wasn't.That major question aside, there are many other revelations to enjoy, for example the origin of the turtle/desert question in the opening voidcomp scene.As noted though, the rewards are not easily won. The essays in the first half of the book are quite lit-crit heavy so it can be quite challenging to actually parse the meaning of any given sentence if you're not used to reading that sort of analysis (I'm not). The essays in the second half are more forgiving since they focus on aspects of the film per se - e.g. the music - but still require focussed reading.If you're prepared to read this book in a disciplined manner e.g. if you would be happy to repeatedly re-read sections of the book until you had absorbed the content, then this a very worthwhile book. If you're not, then don't bother buying it.

Some essays are quite good, some aren't, but it's something that anyone who plans to write an article or a PhD dissertation or a book on Blade Runner should read. Beware: this is a collection of academic essays, which can be quite hard to follow for the unsophisticated movie buff. Though there are movie buffs that are way more sophisticated than the authors of these essays.

Just purchased the 2nd edition of this book and am very happy to report that it is an excellent reference and resource for fans of the film like myself. It was published in 1997 so only has the history of the film up to then but is a very welcome addition to any Bladerunner fans library, the Bibliography is worth the money on its own.

Every big Blade Runner fan should read this one;The essais in the book are extremely well instructive and critique and of a very high level, not the usual SF-magazine kind of stuff.And there's a complete biography; Books, Articles and Visual (Video etc) included,It's the 2nd one, this is a major companion to "The Making of Blade Runner"; PAUL M. [email protected]

Great read if you want to dive into the philosophy and meaning behind the movie

A stimulating book, full of interesting points of view on the several philosophical, artistic, moral issues treated in the movie.

I thought my 10 year career as Blade Runner appreciator would have overturned all the 'stones' of interest - and yet this book yields countless articles many of which containing subtleties and revelations totally new to me. Of course, if you're not a major blade runner fan you'll want to become one first.

Great Back Stories on the creation of the film! I must read!

I'm teaching a film and literature class and needed a resource for good critical articles connecting Dick's work to the film. This text was near perfect. Some articles are a bit esoteric and unsuitable for non-majors--that is, English majors.