5 Best Philip K Dick Film Adaptations
2. Blade Runner (1982)
I nearly left this one out of my list for a few reasons. The first reason being that its on everyone's list its so obvious. The other reasons have to do with things left out of the book (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep). But since PKD glowingly approved of this film (the only adaptation he lived long enough to see) then I can hardly leave it out.
Both stories follow a detective charged with finding and killing perfectly human-like androids who escaped from off-world colonies and returned to Earth. It's never really explained why they come back to Earth but they do. It's also never really explained why they have to be killed (since they have a limited lifespan) but hey its Scifi so we suspend some disbelief.
The movie and the book are very dystopian and the real strength of the moview is that the dystopia is front and center. The story is there but the real story is just how crappy this world is. Most everyone has left Earth because...well its just so crappy. Animals are mostly all extinct thus all the electric sheep dreaming and all.
The Good: Truly a gorgeous film. It's breathtaking and hard to look away. The acting is stellar. Rutger Hauer turns in the performance of his life as the Replicant leader Roy Batty. "I've seen things you people wouldn't believe..." is one of the great lines of cinema. The ending is also ambiguous enough to leave you guessing - exactly on par with PKD.
The Bad: Some of the things left out of the story from the book to movie were detrimental. In the book the motivating factor, the thing that drives Deckard is his pain in the ass wife and his desire to make money to buy her nice electric animals. When your highs are marked by finding a real toad in the wilderness and your lows are marked by discovering its fake then you have serious problems.
The title is also horrible. Nowhere in the book does the phrase "Blade Runner" appear. Deckard doesn't even carry a knife.
The sequel potential. Remember how Matrix: Reloaded made The Matrix less of a movie? Blade Runner doesn't need a sequel but the word is we are getting one.
Written word to film differences: Mostly what I've mentioned above. Thematically they are very similar. The Rachel character is changed pretty dramatically from the book to movie - not necessarily for the worse. Also Deckard has a wife in the book.