Blade Runner: The Final Cut
It has taken 25 years, three cinema edits and possibly a round trip to Mars for Ridley Scott to arrive in Venice with the definitive version of his sci-fi masterpiece Blade Runner. Yet after all this time travel and fine tuning there is still no definitive answer to the burning question: Does Harrison Ford dream of electric sheep?
The glum supercop with an uncanny talent for hunting down rogue replicants - crazed androids to you and me - gives even less of himself away in The Final Cut, which received its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival at the weekend, than he did in the 1982 original.
The Fallout from the Iran Nukes Report
Bush's warning makes clear that the red line, for his Administration, is not an Iranian bomb program per se, but rather Iran attaining "the knowledge necessary to make" such a weapon — by which he means mastering the technology of uranium enrichment. Enriched uranium is a key component (although hardly sufficient, by itself) for a nuclear weapon. But enriching uranium, to a far lower degree, is also an integral part of any civilian nuclear energy program — and, it's entirely legal for any signatory of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in good standing to enrich uranium under IAEA monitoring. Iran is a signatory of the NPT, although it has been ordered to suspend uranium enrichment because of its non-compliance with some transparency requirements in its previous nuclear activities. The suspension, therefore, is envisaged as a temporary requirement, until such time as Iran can satisfy concerns raised by the IAEA.
Washington, however, hopes that Iran can be prevented from enriching uranium at all, out of concern that once the technology is mastered, Tehran could simply withdraw from the NPT — as North Korea did — and proceed to build a nuclear weapon within a matter of months. The NIE notes that the civilian nuclear infrastructure Iran is building would put bomb-making capability within easy reach, should Tehran take a political decision to do so.
The 100 best films of 2007
4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days "Greeted with universal approval from the critics, an exceptional, masterful piece of film-making that combines social realism, political comment and nail-biting tension" - Wendy Ide
Babel"A stunning piece of cinema that hinges on one reckless moment of childish stupidity. The most exhilarating Oscar contender by a long stretch" - James Christopher
Blade Runner: The Final Cut "It has taken 25 years, three cinema edits and possibly a round trip to Mars for Ridley Scott to arrive with the definitive version of his sci-fi masterpiece" - James Christopher
The Seventh Seal "Ingmar Bergman’s black and white masterpiece has matured like a great wine over 50 years [and had a welcome re-release a month before the director's death]" - James Christopher300"A high-speed ride into the white heat of the battle of Thermopylae in 480BC. The result is something fantastic, voluptuous, bloody, ferocious and sublime" - Cosmo Landesman
3:10 to Yuma "A thrill-filled ride across a flyblown dustbowl where the heroes are iconic, unwashed and deadly. They spit out killer lines like bullets" - Wendy Ide
12:08 East Of Bucharest "Droll delight that questions the nature of historical record and the realities of postcommunist Romania with a slyly comic and disarmingly self-mocking tone" - Wendy Ide
Alpha Dog "Cynics will doubtless fear the film for all the wrong reasons. They will fume about its credibility. They will wonder about the phenomenal number of tattoos on show" - James Christopher
American Gangster "A gangster epic from Ridley Scott is no Goodfellas, but it has all the right ingredients for a fine crime flick" - Wendy Ide
