Ridley Scott’s perfectionism - or obsessiveness - caused problems with the crew, and the American unions, who wouldn’t let him operate his own camera. The director brought out the best in people, but he was difficult, production designer Lawrence Paull said: The production company decided that the film was too confusing, and insisted on a voiceover and a tacked-on happy ending that Scott hated. But the film’s vision of a broken-down future filled with linguistic chaos (plus smoke and neon) was enormously influential.
