037 - RIP Rutger Hauer (1944 – 2019)

"'Good guy' or 'bad guy', hero or anti hero; doesn't matter to me, what role I play, only the character have something magical." - Rutger Hauer.

Song of the blog:
"Jukebox in the corner, Long hot summer
They've got a film up on the wall and it's dark enough to dance
What do you mean you've never seen Blade Runner?"
- Star Treatment, Arctic Monkeys



These days you find out things by a tweet...
Checking Twitter, after lunch, I read that one of my favourite Dutch actors has passed away. Rutger Hauer (75)...
 

 

I grew up watching him. In the 70s he was in a Dutch TV series called "Floris", I even had some books of the show. One of them made it all the way to New Zealand. There were many of his movies in the 70s as well, I saw them once they came to TV. Some, like "Soldier of Orange", made a huge impression on me (I even recorded some of the movie on audio cassette, that must exist in a box somewhere). I guess the fact that his character in this movie was named Erik played a part. When I went back to Holland in 1999 I bought the movie on VHS tape.




In the 80s I started going to the movies to see him in his American movies. He got his big break playing opposite Stallone in "Nighthawks", shared the screen with Michelle Pfeiffer and Matthew Broderick in "LadyHawke", went back to his sword fighting days in "Flesh and Blood". terrorized us in "HITCHER" and had his fun ways as a blind man in "Blind Fury". BUT - my all-time favourite movie starring Rutger has to be BLADE RUNNER.

"Blade Runner" is right up there in my favourite movie top 10. I own the special collectors DVD collection case, that came with a small police vehicle from the film and a small origami unicorn.  I have the poster on my wall and a file of clippings from the 80s plus the movie comic book that came out in 1982 (Junior Press). In the book, comic book artist Al Williamson captures the infamous speech by Rutger Hauer's character really well and it is a fitting way to end this blog. Rest in Peace.