"I've seen things..."

What has Shadows and Pagodas got in common with Blade Runner, Ridley Scott’s sci-fi masterpiece?   

Well, as Shadows reaches its dramatic and bloody conclusion at the Pagoda of Earthly Delights, the Baron makes a final, heartfelt speech to Peter. This was inspired by – and very much my tribute – to the ‘I’ve seen things’ scene in Blade Runner. It’s a wonderfully poetic moment in cinema when Batty the replicant played by Rutger Hauer dies in the rain. According to Hauer, he improvised much of the replicant's speech – making it even more impressive.

 

The ‘I’ve seen things’ scene continues to haunt me to this day. Not only because of the sheer poetic beauty of it but also because it touches something very close to me – the Japanese concept of ‘mono no aware’ (roughly, a sense of sadness at the passing of things). So I simply had to find a way of making a creative connection. The answer was the Baron’s speech.

Of course, we are talking about the Baron here so I’m afraid his take on Hauer’s speech is dripping with bathos rather pathos.

But I think it works, I hope my readers do too.   

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTzA_xesrL8