Ridley Scott's message to the critics of 'Blade Runner' (1982) - "Go F**k yourself":
""[The shoot] was a very bad experience for me. I had horrendous partners. Financial guys, who were ki!!ing me every day. I'd been very successful in the running of a company, and I knew I was making something very, very special. So I would never take no for an answer. But they didn't understand what they had. You shoot it, and you edit it, and you mix it. And by the time you're halfway through, everyone's saying it's too slow. You've got to learn, as a director, you can't listen to anybody. I knew I was making something very, very special. And now it's one of the most important science-fiction films ever made which everybody feeds off. Every bloody film.
I hadn't seen 'Blade Runner' for 20 years. Really. But I just watched it. And it's not slow. The information coming at you is so original and interesting, talking about biological creations, and mining off-world, which, in those days, they said was silly. I say, 'Go f**k yourself.'
You know, 42 years ago, Pauline Kael saw 'Blade Runner,' and the article begins with: 'Oh, baby, let it rain.' which is a serious case of sarcasm. She destroyed the film in four pages. I was so crushed. I had a hard time making it, and yet I thought I delivered something special. And then to have it ki!!ed. It actually affected the release of the movie. I took the four pages and I framed them on the wall of my office. They're still there today because there's a lesson in that, which is: 'When you think you've got it, you don't know s**t.'"
("Ridley Scott Has A Message For Blade Runner Critics: 'Go F*** Yourself'", Sandy Schaefer, Slash Film, 2023)