Harrison Ford used his presenting slot at the Academy Awards to share a series of highly critical notes from his 1982 film Blade Runner.
The 78-year-old, who played bounty hunter Rick Deckard in the cult hit, took to the stage during Sunday’s ceremony to announce the winner of the film editing award.
To show how fraught the editing process can become, Ford told the audience he would be reading “some editorial suggestions that were prepared after the screening of a movie I was in”.
He added: “‘Opening too choppy. Why is this voiceover track so terrible? He sounds drugged. Were they all on drugs?”
After a pause, he added: “Deckard at the piano is interminable. Flashback dialogue confusing. Is he listening to a tape? The synagogue music is awful on the street. We’ve got to use Vangelis. Up to Zora’s death, the movie is deadly dull. This movie gets worse every screening.”
Only afterwards did Ford reveal the film was Sir Ridley Scott’s science fiction thriller Blade Runner.
Ford added that the notes showed why editing remained integral to the film-making process.
“These notes can help us understand why the editing process can often get a little complicated,” he joked.
The award for film editing went to Mikkel EG Nielsen for Sound Of Metal, in which Riz Ahmed stars as a punk drummer who suddenly loses his hearing.