"He say you Blade Runner, Mr. Deckard."

Five discs. Five different versions of the film. Certainly the most lavish DVD presentation a single film has ever received, surpassing even the Criterion Collection Brazil mega-set. Finally, we can lay out all the evidence. All of the cuts of the film. All of the deleted scenes. Voice-over or no voice-over. Unicorn or no unicorn. Replicant or not-a-Replicant.

It's finally time to close the book on Blade Runner and I for one, say, thank god. It's about damn time.

In his worthy and exhaustive book "Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner, " author Paul M. Sammon traces the tortured production of Ridley Scott's film and the genesis of the multitude of versions out there. From the disastrous early screenings in Dallas to the battles over the recording of the much-maligned voice-over, to the creation of the 90's "Director's Cut," Sammon covers it all. We know what the two released version are like. Now we're getting the other half of the story, the raw materials, the DNA of the movie itself. I could care less for the Lucasized new edition. I'm waiting with baited breath for the discarded bits, the deleted scenes, the pops and scratches of the workprint.

The centerpiece of the DVD set is a new "Final Cut" of the film, complete with the usual digital tinkering and newly re-shot footage. On the subject of the endless parade of "Director's Cuts," "Special Editions," and "Unrated Cuts" I am ambivalent, so long as the original, theatrical version- you know, the very film we all fell in love with in the first place- is still readily accessible. Even Darth Stubborn himself, George Lucas, finally listened to the call after years of countless tweaks both great and small to the Star Wars films. The tinkering wasn't the problem, it was the unavailability of the original films. Admittedly, I am a hypocrite when it comes to Blade Runner in this regard: I prefer the widely available 90's Director's Cut, and scarcely miss the relegated-to-VHS Theatrical Version; the Director's Cut is a far superior piece of work, a much better presentation of the film's themes and ideas that the Theatrical Cut.

Now, if we could only get a branching theatrical/director's cut of Conan the Barbarian on the market. Quick, get John Milius on the phone.

Ingmar Bergman Dead at 89

Today the world film community mourns the passing of one of the true masters of the artform. Legendary Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman is dead at age 89.

Any film fan has at least a passing acquaintance with the incomparable images that Bergman captured. Who can forget Max Von Sydow as the knight playing chess with Death for his very life in The Seventh Seal? Or Von Sydow as the vengeful father praying for forgiveness for bloody revenge in The Virgin Spring, his weeping back facing away from the camera? Or the penultimate emotional confrontation that Persona has been delicately building towards that self-destructs in a torrent of melting celluloid? My only regret in the cinema of Bergman is that I haven't yet experienced enough of it. The titles mentioned above are the three forays into the man's 30 years in the business, a career marked by a consistent stamp of quality and good taste not found in any other director's fimography. It's no wonder Woody Allen respected him above all other directors and with good reason.

In today's marketplace overcrowded with trumped-up toy commercials parading as cinema, we need a figure like Bergman monitoring the proceedings with his cold, exacting eye to keep us all honest.

Batman Begins Again

Two years have passed since Christopher Nolan showed all of the pretenders how it's done. Batman Begins was a smashing success, clipping the toe tag off of the Batman franchise and forever raising the bar for the genre. Amongst the glut of comic book adaptations we've suffered through over the past decade (I'm looking at you, Daredevil.) it, along with Ang Lee's much maligned but excellent Hulk, set the standard.

Critically and commercially a smash, a sequel was inevitable. Enter The Dark Knight, due summer 2008. As the excitement builds, the sequel rumor mill goes into overdrive, particularly concerning the look of the Clown Prince of Crime himself, Heath Ledger IS The Joker.

Every week promises a new development; the Joker's look revealed! Hold on, it's a blurry long shot. Okay, here's a better look! Oh wait, it was a fake. Sorry, I guess we'll just have to wait until the trailer hits...

But wait. In a rare instance of working with the fans instead of against them, Warner Brothers created a site in which users were prompted to enter their email address to reveal the appearance of Batman's greatest foe... one agonizing pixel at a time. After a few days, we got a look:

Brilliant. Scary. Lon Chaney meets The Crow. Considering how masterfully handled the psychological aspects of Batman Begins were, my excitement for Nolan's take on the Joker is at its peak. Nolan let the Scarecrow, and the general atmosphere, for that matter, be SCARY. We saw Batman not just as a figure of mystery and intrigue, (He plays with wonderful toys, after all.) but of horror. Criminals are scarred of him, hence his effectiveness as a superhero. As the old saw goes, a great hero needs a great villain and sequel promises a conflict that fans are clamoring for.

The final scene in Begins primed the pump for a sequel like few I've ever seen; when Gary Oldman flipped over that playing card, ("...got a taste for the theatrical...") an electric charge shot through the audience. We were ready to take that leap immediately because we were in the hands of the real thing. I felt that if the projectionist had the sequel ready to go right then, not a single person would've moved a muscle.

Count me in.