'Blade Runner' — the re-shoot heard 'round the world

Last week sci-fi film fans were abuzz with the news that actor Joanna Cassidy was re-shooting some of her scenes for the 25th anniversary DVD re-release of "Blade Runner."

Now, before you can say "Greedo shot first," there's been quite a bit of outcry over the news. People don't want to see director Ridley Scott tinker with the movie any further.

But I do.

Cassidy, as fans may recall, plays a superhuman replicant who gets a night job as an exotic dancer. Harrison Ford, as the titular "blade runner," has to hunt her down along with several other superhuman fugitives.

In one of the most shocking scenes in cinema history, Ford pumps rounds into the scantily-clad Cassidy in slow motion, as she runs through several plate glass windows.

Well, sort of.

It doesn't take much observation to see it's a stunt double crashing through the glass. A stunt double whose shoes don't match Cassidy's and whose bouncy curly-haired wig looks nothing like Cassidy's straight, slick 'do. The continuity mismatch is all the more obvious because the scene is rendered in slow motion.

If Scott is reshooting anything with Cassidy, I'll bet a million dollars it's to fix that glaring goof.

Of course, Ford seems like such a nice guy in real life. It bothers me to see him shoot any unarmed person in the back. Couldn't they digitally add that skunk Greedo as the real assassin?

(Jorge Sosa is a staff writer for the Hutchinson Leader. He can be reached at sosa@hutchinsonleader.com)