39. Blade Runner
The Academy has a long and well-documented distaste for “genre” films like horror, science fiction, and fantasy. Blade Runner most definitely fell victim to this prejudice. The film was up against typical biography fare in Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi, which also beat out E.T. for the Best Film prize. Unlike the commonplace biography, Blade Runner was the film adaptation of Phillip K. Dick’s haunting science fiction novella Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. The film, which features stellar performances from Harrison Ford and Sean Young and excellent direction from legendary filmmaker Ridley Scott was truly ahead of its time.
