whatever edition they had on tv recently omitted the narration by Harrison Ford...which explained the whys and wherefores...
as it had been 30 years since I watched it originally I had forgot a good deal of the story.
without the narration it was UNWATCHABLE....
I heard that Ford hated the idea of the voice-over and so deliberately read it in that mono-tone; hoping, I guess, that they would cut it out. Whether that's true, or not, I like the original version much better than the "director's cut" w/o the voice-over.
FWIW, I didn't much care for the original story by Phillip K. Dick. In my opinion, "Blade Runner" was one of those rare instances where the movie was superior to the written work.
I prefer the narration version too. Not for the back story but for the feel. At it’s core Blade Runner is a pulp detective story, he’s basically a PI, it’s always at night, everybody smokes, the weather sucks, and there’s a dangerous dame. Pulp detective is always narrated, the structure becomes incomplete and not as satisfying.
I hate the narration and am glad it was cut. Part of the fun of Blade Runner, and why it endures, is that you can interpret much of it in different ways, and just having a narrator hand you the official interpretation on a platter completely destroys it.
I don't know if I want this new movie. I'm perfectly happy with the old one. Scott was never happy with this film, but he should probably view it like the movie Jaws. Spielberg had so many problems, technical and human, on the set filming Jaws he ended the shoot not knowing if he had enough footage to make a movie, and thought his young career was over. What he assembled in editing was not the film he intended, but ended up better than what he would have made if he hadn't had those problems. He admits this openly now. Sometimes it is good for an artist to let go of the art and let the audience own it.
LOL. I'll never understand this. The story is totally understandable without the idiotic, monotone narration. The executives put it in because they figured (I guess correctly) that the average viewer was too STUPID to watch it otherwise.