Film Noir Homage Blade Runner 1982 Casa Grande Arizona 2004 #2 Acrylic Print

There have been volumes written about this cult science fiction classic and numerous versions released on DVD. I like the first one flatly narrated (in true film noir fashion) by Harrison Ford with the last sequence lifted with outtakes from Kubrick's "The Shining" (1980). The production design is extraordinary, even if the producers guessed wrong that LA would be Oriental and not Hispanic in the future. The story is still confusing at times and I don't care if Deckard is an android or not. It remains a classic, far superior to the juvenile "Star Wars" (1977).

"I don't care how long we had together. Who does?"...closing line by Deckard referring to Rachel

I first became obsessed with photography and motion pictures while growing up in post WW2 Manila in the Philippine Islands in the late 1940's/early 1950's. Film noirs were a particular influence. But my first love remains the theater. I acted in numerous amateur productions from 1958 to 1978. In 1979 I earned a MA in drama from the University of Arizona; earlier getting a BA in English from the University of Minnesota, where I co-founded the first film society on campus and ran it for four years. While at the U of A, I studied with the master black and white photo essayist W. Eugene Smith (1918-1978) the last year of his life. I am the last person cited in Jim Hughes' definitive biography of Gene, as I wrote about attending his final...