‘Blade Runner’: Would the David Lynch version trump Ridley Scott’s effort?
Over the course of his career, David Lynch has significantly impacted cinema with his surreal and gorgeous pieces of work, from his hit television series Twin Peaks to the mysterious and shocking stories found in movies like Blue Velvet and Mulholland Drive. Experimental and wholly dedicated to his visions, Lynch has crafted cinematic worlds that could only belong to him.
In 1984, however, he created a feature that threatened his image as an accomplished filmmaker. At this point in his career, he had directed two highly acclaimed movies—Eraserhead and The Elephant Man. Then came Dune, with Lynch proving too ambitious for his own good. The hefty sci-fi novel proved too dense to be adapted into one movie, and as a result, clunky special effects, questionable performances, and messy direction left Dune a giant failure.
Two years before Dune was released, Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner debuted. The film had been in the pre-production stages for several years, and Scott, who had previously directed Alien, initially turned it down because he was going to helm Dune. After seven months of working on Dune, it proved to be too much of a challenge, and the recent death of his brother had left Scott wanting to direct something that wouldn’t take so long to plan out. He was ready to be thrown into shooting, so he revisited the script he’d been sent for Blade Runner and decided to take it on instead.
As a result, Lynch ended up directing Dune, which flopped and received poor critical and commercial reception. Scott would instead make a cult classic with Blade Runner, which is still considered one of the best sci-fi movies ever made. Yet Lynch actually wanted to direct Blade Runner, and he was disappointed with Scott’s finished film.
Talking to Starlog, he revealed his thoughts on the matter. “Well, when I heard about Blade Runner, I thought that I should be doing the film,” he said. “I identified with it 100%. I know that people who worked on it had seen Eraserhead. But I was really disappointed in the overall movie.”
“I was expecting so much, and I don’t really know exactly what went wrong,” he continued. “You see, for some things, too much ruins it, and for other things, not enough ruins it. In Blade Runner, it was a matter of not being enough of a storyline. Most of the images, though, were totally beautiful”.
Would it be bold to suggest that Lynch’s Blade Runner could’ve been even better than Scott’s? While we can never know for certain, and Scott produced an excellent film, it is fun to imagine Lynch’s surreal interpretation; after all, many of the themes found in Blade Runner can be found within Lynch’s work.
You might argue that with Dune, Lynch proved he wasn’t the best director for a sci-fi film, yet look at some of his other attempts at blurring the lines between reality and fantasy in Eraserhead, Twin Peaks, and Mulholland Drive; the list goes on… Lynch is clearly capable of making movies that deal with alternate realities – Dune was a failure for other reasons, not Lynch’s lack of familiarity with sci-fi.
In Blade Runner, the question of Deckard’s identity—is he a human or a replicant? Lynch is well-equipped to deal with such debates. In his films, identity and the murky lines between the truth and fiction are often explored, as evidenced by the plot of Mulholland Drive, where Naomi Watts’ character Betty morphs into the depressed Diane, and the confused Rita ends up being the glamourous Camilla. Lynch leaves audiences to figure out the truth of their identities with precision.
Additionally, the film’s preoccupation with memories would suit Lynch well. He has explored the effects of dreams throughout his films – in fact, it is one of his most common motifs, seen in Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive, Twin Peaks, and Wild At Heart, to name a few.
Then, of course, there’s the setting of a city that creates feelings of loneliness and alienation. Look at Eraserhead, with its industrial wasteland which leaves the main character, Henry, feeling depressed and alone. Lynch would be perfect for communicating these feelings of alienation that run through Blade Runner.
One of the main themes of his work is the futility of the American Dream, which he could have certainly deconstructed with skill in Blade Runner. Lynch and Blade Runner would no doubt be a match made in heaven. We can only dream of what his take on the dystopian story might have looked like.
