Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? Poem by Shaun Cronick

1982.
September 9.
Blade Runner finally hits UK cinemas.
At last!
So long awaited.
It seems forever.
Like a kid counting down for Christmas Day.
Myself and good friend Paul Davis brave the pouring rain,
Enter the Cardiff, Queen Street cinema ABC123.
And being the sci-fi geeks we are,
Excitedly purchase our tickets.
We enter the cinema for the early evening viewing,
There's no-one inside but us.
Great!
No popcorn rustlers or screaming kids.
We can watch the movie in peace.
Must be the rain that scared them off.
I foolishly thought at the time.
We're in there for about 20 minutes,
And only one other person comes in.
And sits to our left in another isle.
Making the grand total three souls.
In this cinema that can hold 800+.
Anyway, cut to the chase,
The movie starts with it's exposition,
About what a Blade Runner is and does,
The hunting of replicants and their retirement,
Then Wham!
We see a breath-taking vista of,
Los Angeles in November 2019.
Wow!
I'm sold.
We're sold.
The movie unfolds before us.
With director Ridley Scott's,
Stunning visuals on display
Captured by cinematographer,
Jordan Cronenweth's magnificent eye.
The cast is excellent,
Harrison Ford and all.
But it's Rutger Hauer as replicant Roy Batty,
Who for me, simply steals the acting show and honours.
Half-way through the movie a cigarette is lit,
By the guy sitting to our left.
These were the days when you could,
Smoke in cinemas.
Within 30 seconds the smoky aroma hits us.
The smell of dope.
Mary Jane.
Marijuana.
Cannabis.
Whatever.
We ignore him and it and continue to be enthralled.
It's just gets better and better.
And for me just when I think it can't get any better.
It does.
Rutger Hauer's Tears In The Rain speech.
Wow!
Double Wow!
Such great writing by the screenwriters,
Hampton Fancher and David Peoples.
Based on Philip K Dick's 1968 novel,
Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep?
I think at the time.
But it wasn't written by them,
I find out years later.
David Peoples original first draft was altered,
And improved for the better.
By Rutger Hauer himself.
The movie finishes to Vangelis's,
Thundering Blade Runner main theme.
And we're left in a state of rapture.
We both decide to stay and watch it again.
In those days you could.
And our dope smoking friend leaves.
On our second viewing I count how many,
Good pilgrims are in the audience,
To view this masterpiece.
Well its picked up from 3.
To the dizzying heights of,
17.
Sad.
This is one hell of movie about,
What makes us human.
Or however you perceive and interpret it.
It finishes and we leave.
It was only on release for only two weeks.
And it wasn't the rain stopping people,
From seeing the movie.
They just didn't want to.
Blade Runner under performed at the box office.
Especially in North America.
But drew a larger audience through,
Video, cable and tv repeats.
It has since become one of the most,
Respected films of its genre.
And I think to myself why did that guy,
Who smoked the dope, need to get high?
Because after all its Blade Runner.

Years later the actor Anthony Hopkins said of,
The Tears In The Rain speech by Rutger Hauer.
If Shakespeare was alive today and wrote science fiction,
He would write like that...

I've seen things you people wouldn't believe.
Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion.
I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser Gate.
All those moments will be lost in time,
Like tears in the rain.
Time to die.

Written by the late Rutger Hauer (23 January 1944 - 19 July 2019)

Anthony Hopkins summed it up brilliantly.
And I agree.