Vivian on 27/9/2012 at 22:37
Quote Posted by dethtoll
Why is this so difficult to grasp?
Why are you two so authoritarian with your extremely fucking narrow comprehension of 'based on'? It's based on a bunch of stuff.
SubJeff on 28/9/2012 at 00:39
Without the book it wouldn't have happened, that's why.
Both the book and the film are about a guy chasing replicants. He is called Deckard in both. The replicants have the same names in both. The replicant model is Nexus 6 in both. The Voigt-Kampff test is in both. It works the same way in both. He kills all the replicants in both. There is a character called Rachel who has a somewhat ambiguous status as a human at some point in both.
Come on guys.
june gloom on 28/9/2012 at 00:46
What's next? Trying to argue that the Alien movies did poorly in the box office?
Vivian on 28/9/2012 at 10:59
It's still based largely on a comic AS WELL AS THE BOOK.
shit why is that so difficult to fucking grasp I ask you
SubJeff on 28/9/2012 at 13:23
Because you're wrong Vivian. The idea for the film, the plot and the characters, are taken from the book. Therefore it is based on the book. The plot differs a lot and the visuals seem quite different to PKDs description (I never got the sense of Blade Runner from the book) but this is true of so many book to film adaptations.
The visual style may have been inspired by a comic. Fine.
This is like saying The Fifth Element was based on Jean-Paul Gaultiers costume designs.
DDL on 28/9/2012 at 15:01
To be fair it mostly was. But what costume designs...
I think Vivian does have a point, though: I'm wouldn't claim to be informed enough to make a judgement on Blade Runner specifically (I read DADOES aaaages ago), but I think there's a definite case for "based on" being a very flexible term.
If you consider something like say.."Wanted", which (besides being a shit film) is allegedly 'based on' a comic of the same name yet shares basically none of the plot, characters, message, emphasis or..well, anything other than the name, and "dweeb discovers he's a super assassin", then you could argue that without the comic the movie wouldn't've happened, which is undoubtably true, but to say the movie in any way resembles the comic would be palpably untrue.
A similar case could be made for Total Recall (either one, really). It's got a single hook from a PKD short story, but taken it in a wildly different direction, with more space murder and less "secret hamster aliens and invisible destroying rods".
If you take a nugget of an idea from X, then mangle it almost beyond recognition with themes and visuals from other sources, can you still say it's "based on X, and only based on X"?
SubJeff on 28/9/2012 at 15:27
No. In that case I'd say it was inspired by, or the idea was developed from, X.
But this is blatantly not the case with Blade Runner.
Pyrian on 28/9/2012 at 16:02
Quote Posted by Subjective Effect
No. In that case I'd say it was inspired by, or the idea was developed from, X.
But this is blatantly not the case with Blade Runner.
Because they kept the names and a few plot elements? They sure didn't keep the plot. I think that can safely be filed as "inspired by".
SubJeff on 28/9/2012 at 16:57
They didn't keep the plot?
Have you been in the beer thread?
june gloom on 28/9/2012 at 19:42
Do people receive sexual gratification from being so patently wrong?
