Harrison Ford as Rick Deckard a blade runner in Blade Runner 1982 Metal Print

"The gun that Deckard uses is an Austrian Steyr-Mannlicher .222 Model SL bolt-action rifle, with the stock and barrel removed, leaving just the receiver. A Charter Arms .44 Special Police Bulldog was attached underneath, and a translucent pistol grip was added to the Bulldog for effect. Two LED lights were also added, as was a cockable hammer, and the entire weapon was painted flat matte black. The twin trigger seen on the gun is actually a feature of the real Steyr rifle, which has a distinctive bolt-handle and trigger-guard."

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...