Blade Runner: A Movie (Paperback)

~ William S. Burroughs (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"In this futuristic screenplay vision of a strife-and-disease-plagued America in 1999, Burroughs finds the cure for a decaying civilization in the medicine practiced by underground physicians and surgeons. These heroic healers, in turn, are aided by 'blade runners,' teenagers who smuggle banned surgical instruments past the watchful eyes of fascistic police. The novel-cum-screenplay follows follows one of these runners during the course of a race riot and the transfer of instruments between embattled doctors. Above the drama in the streets of New York is a world 'taken over by hang-glider and autogyro gangs, mountaineers and steeplejacks. A sky boy steps off his penthouse into a parachute on guide wires that drop him to a street-level landing...Meanwhile, released animals and reptiles from the zoo and freed fish fro the aquarium have control of the rovers and subways. The prose flashes with Burrough's own brand of outrageousness and fantasy." -- L.A. Herald Examiner July 29. 1979

Product Description

(the movie got its title from this earlier book)

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Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Blue Wind Press (May 1, 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0912652462
• ISBN-13: 978-0912652467
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.9 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,200,850 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Nothing New, and No Real Connections to the Film, January 21, 2002

By	Sir Charles Panther "Life is hard. It's hard... (Alexandria, Virginny, USandA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

If you're looking for a connection to Ridley Scott's brilliant 1981 film release, you won't have it here. The only real connection is the title itself. It strikes me that someone creative and well-read in the Blade Runner film development came upon a phrase which just wouldn't let go, and that's how we got the term for the film. But wait, this was the term in Philip K. Dick's original book--so who knows which came first... Burroughs' description here and that in the film are similar in their urban and societal context, but that's about where they end.

Reading this book, it strikes me that the producers of Escape from New York read this novel, and took an awful lot of creative vision away from it. This is especially true of the descriptions of a decrepit and decaying New York City, walled, populated by the dead, dying, and murdering, and where entire cultures flourish hundreds of feet above in the dead skyscrapers.

Written in late 70s, published first in 1979. Set in 1999, or maybe 2014, or maybe 1984, or maybe any number of time citations Burroughs coughs up.

Basically it's a futuristic nightmare, a technological hell in which the state has taken over all aspects of life, bureaucracy dictates every waking moment, and the medical institution is the vilest, most corrupt, most bloodthirsty, and most reckless of them all. Underground and legit drugs, as well as designer plagues all vie in the marketplace. Genetics are manipulated and diseases are voluntarily contracted for the material and physiological benefits the accrue.

Inside this hell the blade runner is central. "Essential to underground medicine are the blade runners, who transfer the actual drugs, instruments and equipment from the suppliers to the clients and doctors and underground clinics." The second half of the book, all two-dozen-odd pages of it follows Billy and his mates, blade runners all, as they fight their way through life on the street.

If you're a Burroughs fan, you've seen it all before in Cities of the Red Night and The Place of Dead Roads. Nothing exotic or new or surprising here. This is a good addition to complete your Burroughs library, but not much more.

1.0 out of 5 stars A Literary Travesty..., October 20, 2009

By	Daniel A. Longoria (Olney, IL) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Not having read the novel upon which this screenplay was based, I can't make any comparisons so my comments deal only with this book. The beginning third of the book is well written with some amazing foresight. It deals with the background of the "screenplay"; medical care for the halves and the halve nots; the lack of adequate medical coverage, national health policies, rampant drug abuse and socialized medicine. Pretty good stuff all in all. Then...the "screenplay" starts. This part of the book was without question the worst bit of contrived garbage I have ever read! I can only assume Burroughs wrote this last bit using his cut-up technique as it ridiculously put together, doesn't flow and he could not help but inject himself in the story. (It opens with the reader finding out the protaganist,Billy, is homosexual which has NOTHING to do with the rest of the story); hence completely irrelevent.

This book was a waste of time and money. Buy this book only if you feel you might run out of toilet paper.

3.0 out of 5 stars Confused? I can help!, March 3, 2009

By	Robert Bruce Scott ""Scotty"" (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

After reading the other reviews, I thought I would answer some of the questions that occur from reading the amazon blurb and the reviews. This is not a review of the book; it is an attempt to help you understand what happened between 3 different books - all of which are titled Blade Runner.

Alan E. Nourse wrote the original book titled "The Bladerunner". (IMPORTANT - note the difference in the titles. One has a "space" between "Blade Runner", the other title "The Bladerunner" does not have a "space".) It is totally a different book and plot from the Philip K Dick novel originally titled "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?". The plot is as described above or on the amazon page regarding the original Alan E Nourse book. When the movie (Blade Runner) was made, the directors/producers changed the name from "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" to Blade Runner. This is because the movie "Blade Runner" left out or edited out the aspects of the story that gave the original title it's meaning and pertinence. (If you have read the original Philip K Dick story you know what I mean.) I think if you watch the credits closely you will see that Alan E Nourse is given credit for the title. I don't know if they bought the title from him or not.

The book, "Blade Runner: A Movie" by William S Burroughs is essentially Burroughs attempt to rewrite Nourse's book into a form from which a movie could be made.

Here is what Wikipedia says regarding this issue: "His novel (meaning Nourse) The Bladerunner lent its name to the Blade Runner movie, but no other aspects of its plot or characters, which were taken from Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? In the late 1970s an attempt to adapt The Bladerunner for the screen was made, with Beat Generation author William S. Burroughs commissioned to write a story treatment; no film was ever developed but the story treatment was later published as the novella, Blade Runner (a movie)." The first sentence of this quote is a poorly written sentence. The author of the wikipedia article was trying to say that ONLY the title "Blade Runner" was borrowed from Nourse. Everything else in the movie is stricly from the Philip K Dick novel.

I have not read the Burroughs version yet. I will be buying it just to round out my "collection" of items regarding an interesting story of scifi history. I greatly enjoy other William Burroughs books but suspect I won't be happy with this "interpretation" for movie making purposes. I gave it 3 stars just to give it the benefit of the doubt.