It’s easy to explain our tendency to adore actors. They are right in front of us on the screen. We associate ourselves with their characters and experience their emotions alongside them. Sometimes, we allow directors into the spotlight and into our hearts. But to do that, they have to either film a collection of phenomenal pictures or introduce something entirely new to cinema. But is the film only made up of those in front of the camera and those who yell “action”? No, it is more like a machine, which only moves thanks to hundreds of little mechanisms.
How much blood, sweat, and tears actually go into editing a film? How does the editing affect the final result and history of the movie? This documentary talks about the challenges faced when editing Star Wars, Apocalypse Now, The Godfather, Scarface, and literally every influential film in movie history. This is “Hidden Heroes”, a series in which I will discuss the people who create these masterpieces.
Enjoy listening!
It’s easy to explain our tendency to adore actors. They are right in front of us on the screen. We associate ourselves with their characters and experience their emotions alongside them. Sometimes, we allow directors into the spotlight and into our hearts. But to do that, they have to either film a collection of phenomenal pictures or introduce something entirely new to cinema. But is the film only made up of those in front of the camera and those who yell “action”? No, it is more like a machine, which only moves thanks to hundreds of little mechanisms.
How much blood, sweat, and tears actually go into editing a film? How does the editing affect the final result and history of the movie? This documentary talks about the challenges faced when editing Star Wars, Apocalypse Now, The Godfather, Scarface, and literally every influential film in movie history. This is “Hidden Heroes”, a series in which I will discuss the people who create these masterpieces.
Enjoy listening!
HIDDEN HEROES. EPISODE 2 – THE DIRECTORS OF EDITING
It’s easy to explain our tendency to adore actors. They are right in front of us on the screen, we associate ourselves with their characters, and we experience their emotions alongside them. Sometimes, we allow directors into the spotlight and into our hearts. But to do that they have to either film a collection of phenomenal pictures, or else introduce something completely new to cinema. But is film really only made up of those in front of the camera and those who yell “action”? No, it is much more like a machine, which only moves thanks to hundreds of little mechanisms. This is “Hidden Heroes”, a series in which I will talk about the people who create these masterpieces.
The better they do their work, the less we notice them. They are the closest colleagues of the directors, who impact our emotions, control our attention, and connect seemingly unconnectable things. Their contribution to the picture doesn’t require more dithyrambs but it’s worth mentioning that in 33 years not a single winner of an Oscar for Best Picture went without a nomination for Best Film Editing. In this episode, we will discuss the film editors and the magic of cutting film.
15. David Wark Griffith, Dziga Vertov, Lev Kuleshov and Sergei Eisentein.
A logical starting point for this story is the innovators, who were the first to appreciate the effect editing had on the viewer. The editing pioneer David Wark Griffith introduced crosscutting to the world, allowing the viewer to follow several events simultaneously and laid the rules for scene transitions. His pictures shocked the viewer and what seems normal or even old fashioned to us, was once a real revolution at the dawn of the film industry. However, with all due respect to Hollywood, the main principles of scene juxtaposition originated in Soviet Russia. Sergei Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin is considered to be one of the greatest editing achievements of our time, and the scene from the staircase has been referenced countless times. Eisenstein’s influence on cinematography inserted Russian pioneers and innovators into the collective history of film, however, his developments are based on the work of two very important scholars of the art of editing. Kuleshov’s “Geographic Experiment” and the “Kuleshov Effect” are textbook explanations of the mechanics and functions of cutting film. In the first, Lev Kuleshov proved the necessity of purposefully organizing the montage of the actors’ movements in each frame, which convinces the viewer that the events on the screen are occurring seamlessly. The “Kuleshov Effect” states that the contents of a following frame can completely change the purpose of the frame before it. These discoveries molded the understanding of the power of montage and methods used to achieve the desired viewer reaction.
LEV KULESHOV
“…the fact that it is Kuleshov’s is a coincidence, but the Effect is a necessity.”
The second, though no less important representative of Soviet cinema pioneers, is Dziga Vertov. At the beginning of the 20th century, Dziga and his wife Elizabeth created a series of remarkable documentaries basically out of their living room. Special honor is reserved for Man with a Movie Camera. This work demonstrates the essence of the science of editing film. All the tricks used by Dziga are used to this day. Even now this picture looks fresh and is breathtaking. Vertov’s films inspired the creators of the French New Wave, while Man with a Movie Camera is considered to be the best documentary of all time.
14. Margaret Booth
Margaret Booth is the Grey Cardinal of Hollywood’s Golden Era. Her filmography doesn’t include works that challenged the imagination or changed the film industry, but her influence and impact on cinematography are hard to fully fathom. At 17 she became David Wark Griffith’s assistant, who gave her a basic understanding of the juxtaposition of frames and principles of seamless editing. As a result, she infected the whole dream factory with it. After Griffith’s training Booth joined forces with indie producer Louis B. Mayer who later invited her to work at the newly created Metro Goldwyn Mayer studio. 15 years after she finished editing the musical The Wizard of Oz which is still considered to be one of MGM’s greatest achievements, Mayer made Booth the head of the studio’s editing department. Historians described the influence of her post like this: Margaret had the last word in the editing of every picture over the course of 30 years. Anyone who worked at Metro Goldwyn Mayer trembled as they approached her cabinet door. She trained dozens of future masters in the profession. And not only editors, but directors, actors, and producers. By the way, it was Booth whom Frances McDormand parodied in the historical film about Hollywood, Hail, Caesar!. The picture was filmed by true insiders from behind the curtains of the movie industry, the Cohen Brothers. These are frames from a made-up film alluding to one of the greatest MGM pictures, Ben Hur. Margaret actually participated in the creation of that masterpiece, but like in hundreds of other instances, you won’t find her name in the credits. However, recognition did come eventually. When Booth turned 80, she received an honorary Oscar, the film community’s attempt at thanking one of the greatest women in the history of Hollywood.
13. George Tomasini and Sam O’Steen
Following Margaret Booth and her dedicated work on behalf of MGM, let’s remember her competition. At the beginning of the 40s, the editing department at Paramount studios was joined by an ambitious young fellow named George Tomasini, who became a presence in the local editing rooms within three years and was even introduced to Alfred Hitchcock there. Soon after they met, the director offered George the opportunity to work on the picture Rear Window. Tomasini accepted and using his cutting tricks completely revolutionized the rules of the game. Over the next 10 years, Tomasini edited almost all of Hitchcock’s films. His work on the movies Vertigo, North by Northwest, The Birds, and of course Psycho, mesmerized the world. The sequence in the bathroom became the greatest horror scene of the 20th century. And though George was only nominated for an Oscar once, his work was ahead of its time, which allowed Hitchcock to depict his ideas on a whole new level. Without getting into the nitty-gritty, it’s worth mentioning that Tomasini reinvented the jump cut. I’m certain he would have continued to push the boundaries of his profession even more, but unfortunately at 55 years old George died of a heart attack, and remained the unsung hero of the editing table. However, capable students continued his work, especially Sam O’Steen. Sam began his career at Warner Brothers Studios, where he spent 10 years forging his way to the editing room. In 1957 he won the lottery and got to be Tomasini’s assistant while working on Alfred Hitchcock’s The Wrong Man. Working with the master took Sam’s skills to the next level. But the real breakthrough occurred 9 years later when fate connected him to another longtime Warner employee. Mike Nichols offered Sam the editing director job for his debut feature Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? One year later, Nichols and O’Steen were both competing for an Oscar in the Best Director and Best Film Editing categories. This was the beginning of a 13-year collaboration and the creation of dozens of phenomenal films. The melodrama The Graduate is worth special mention. Film historians agree on one simple truth. O’Steen’s editing allowed the complete potential of Dustin Hoffman’s debut performance to shine through. A series of match cuts gives the film a sense of originality even half a century later and turned it into a practical guide to cut types and their effect on the scene as a whole. O’Steen’s work on Roman Polanski’s films is also worthy of our attention. He edited the films Rosemary’s Baby, Chinatown, and Frantic. Sam is a unique embodiment of the Editing Director. His work is largely unnoticed even among his colleagues, and few remember him. Nonetheless, O’Steen’s work helped films to reach their maximum potential and join the ranks of the classics.
12. Agnès Guillemot and Cécile Decugis
The innovations of Tomasini and O’steen were mild and gradual, they sometimes used unusual tricks but still followed the Hollywood guidelines. But at the end of the 50s, on another continent, a group of young ambitious cinephiles appeared, who broke every single rule. Of course, we’re referring to the French New Wave and its brightest stars, Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut. This might be a revelation, but they did not sit at the editing tables all by themselves. Agnès Guillemot and Cécile Decugis were the faithful companions of “La Nouvelle Vague”. Cécile edited the first short films made by both Godard and Truffaut. Decugis’ approach to combining frames and fresh look at the filmed material enamored all who witnessed her magic, including Godard who invited her to be the Editing Director of his first full-length film. But Breathless was no easy task for Decugis. The creation of the picture was a complete nightmare. Jean-Luc wrote the script along the way and would film every day whatever he had just written. He stopped filming only when he ran out of ideas. This approach turned the film crew and actors against him. It was all headed towards catastrophe but Decugis helped Godard to redeem the film. In that chaos of thousands of takes, she found a common thread, and literally rewrote the script on the editing table. That same year Cécile edited Truffaut’s second film Shoot the Piano Player. This amazing woman stood on the brink of glory just like her famous colleagues but at this crucial moment in her career, she was torn away from cinematography. Besides film, Cécile had a passion for social activism and was fighting for the liberation of Algiers. She joined a radical organization, and because of a protest was put in jail two years later. Decugis resumed her editing career only 10 years later when she became the irreplaceable helper of another director of La Nouvelle Vague, Éric Rohmer. Agnès Guillemot likewise was introduced to a member of the new wave at the beginning of her artistic journey. Having befriended Godard she got the opportunity to edit his second full-length film Le Petit Soldat. The result was a 10-year long partnership. Guillemot worked with the director on his greatest pictures. But at the end of the 60s, the duet broke up. Godard maintained that he could easily edit his own films by himself. To which Agnès replied “Of course, after working with me for so long.” In the 70s Agnès worked on three of Truffaut’s films and then continued to make art with film innovators and experimenters practically till the day she died, which was in 2005. Agnès Guillemot and Cécile Decugis are hidden figures who, without expecting any thanks, contributed to the way we see film today.
11. Dede Allen and Anne V. Coates
Let’s return to Hollywood where we will talk some more about the women who changed the movie industry. Dede Allen came to the Columbia Pictures studio to work as a messenger. By the time she turned 30, she had worked in the sound booth, as a music librarian, and an editing assistant. In the late 50s, she met the director Robert Wise who asked her to edit the film Odds Against Tomorrow. After that day Allen’s world changed. Under Wise’s tutelage -- who began as an editor himself and worked with Orson Welles on Citizen Kane – Dede became a confident expert in her field. She was the first to incorporate the style of the French New Wave into Hollywood, and her editing of Bonny and Clyde, especially the finale, is considered to be a tipping point in the history of American cinematography. A lion’s share of the success of this (now) classic is due to the bold and unusual editing methods used by Allen. Her next projects with Sidney Lumet, Serpico, and Dog Day Afternoon placed her in the ranks of the best film editors ever. After that she edited Reds and The Breakfast Club. These movies got Allen two Oscar nominations. Even in the 21st century, she worked on John Q and The Final Cut. The genius of the latter is hidden in the plot. When a world-famous editing legend works on a film that explores the fantastical future of that very profession, it makes you rethink the whole movie. Allen’s main competitor, someone who represented the classical school of editing so to speak was Anne V. Coates. Anne also worked with Sidney Lumet editing the picture Murder on the Orient Express, while her work on Laurence of Arabia gave the world the most remarkable montage in the history of cinematography. This is not hyperbole, it is literally the result of a survey conducted among the greatest masters of the profession. In the 80s Coates worked with David Lynch on The Elephant Man after which she edited Chaplin and Erin Brockovich. In 2004 her cameo in the historical drama Aviator became eye candy for the Hollywood insiders. And though the last project of her career became one of the most highly criticized films in history, this didn’t get in the way of Coates receiving an honorary Oscar in 2017. Anne and Dede were the forerunners of a new era in Hollywood, a bolder and more creative era, where they didn’t cast aside the work of their predecessors, but rather adapted it to the times.
10. Ray Lovejoy and Gerald B. Greenberg
However, the impact of these women was not limited to their careers only. They also raised up a new generation of editors. Ray Lovejoy was Anne B. Coates’ student, and Gerald B. Greenberg was Dede Allen’s assistant. Let’s take a closer look at their biographies. Ray helped Coates during the creation of The Horse’s Mouth and Laurence of Arabia. After that training, he became Anthony Harvey’s main assistant, who was an associate and editor of Stanley Kubrick. Anthony and Ray worked on Doctor Strangelove after which Harvey decided to try directing his own films, and Kubrick invited Lovejoy to take his place. The first picture where Ray was the Editing Director was 2001: A Space Odyssey. Thanks to the attentive guidance of the director, who had edited his own first films, Ray’s potential began to blossom. Their next collaboration was released 12 years later. During that time Lovejoy was not able to create something worthy of a debut, but The Shining was worth waiting for. It seemed like his career only blossomed in the presence of Stanley Kubrick. However, Ray put these speculations to rest when he worked with Peter Yates and edited one of the most expensive films of the time, the fantasy action Krull. In 1985, Ray and James Cameron worked on one of the most successful sequels in history. Aliens received 7 Oscar nominations including one for film editing. It’s worth mentioning that another fantasy film Tim Burton’s Batman, clearly bore Lovejoy’s signature. As for the relationship between Gerald B. Greenberg and Dede Allen, that’s a separate landmark in the history of Hollywood. Allen had an astounding number of assistants who later became incredible Editing Directors, but Greenberg was the first, and the best. Gerald began his journey as Dede’s helper in the drama America America. Then he worked on Bonny and Clyde, and in 1968 he decided to fly solo. After just three years he received an Oscar for his work on the movie The French Connection. Besides its many awards, the film is 10th in a list of the 75 films with the best editing, as chosen by the greatest professionals in the field. After that success, Gerald joined the work on the war drama Apocalypse Now, the opening scene of which is an amazing example of the visual storytelling that occurs as a result of editing. Francis Ford Coppola shot the takes and left them as technical frames because they captured the explosion from another perspective. The material was intended for a scene where the helicopters attack a village, but in the editing room, the director was astounded by a new interpretation. Speaking of which, in that list we mentioned earlier, the picture takes third place and is considered to be a practical guide to perfect cuts in film. That very year Greenberg edited the drama Kramer vs. Kramer. At the 52nd Oscar Ceremony, Gerald was nominated for Best Editing for both Apocalypse Now and for Kramer vs. Kramer, but the prize went to Alan Heim for All That Jazz. Then Greenberg befriended Brian de Palma and edited five films for him, including the cult classic Scarface and the equally deserving but less popular The Untouchables. Gerald’s later work shouldn’t be ignored either, especially Awakenings and American History X. Ray Lovejoy and Gerald B. Greenberg are the defining film editors of the 70s, who believed in their teachers’ ideals and gave the world many masterpieces, which are now our modern-day cult classics.
9. Paul Hirsch
The artistic journey of Paul Hirsch is similar to that of Agnès Guillemot and Cécile Decugis because in the early 70s the USA had its own New Wave, where Godard and Truffaut were replaced by De Palma, Lucas, Spielberg, and Coppola. Hirsh lived in New York and made a living editing trailers. At the end of the 60s, he met the young and ambitious Brian De Palma who gave Hirsh the idea of making a feature film. In 1970 the drama Hi! Mom came into being which showcased the young and then unknown Robert De Niro. The picture was unlike anything the American viewer had previously seen, not only because of the style and the screenplay but because of a new approach to editing bereft of clichés and the influence of its predecessors. Over the next six years, Brian and Paul created four more projects but became famous thanks to the screen adaptation of Stephen King’s Carrie. It had a budget of 1 million dollars but made 33 million at the box office. Yes, Hirsh believed that he had taken part in an amazing project, and the offer of work from De Palma’s friend, George Lucas, just seemed like the cherry on top. But it was the editing for A New Hope which put Paul’s name in the film school textbooks and won him an Oscar. And a quarter of a century later the world found out the truth. Paul almost single handedly saved Star Wars from an unimaginable fiasco. The first version of the picture was a total catastrophe. He threw out dozens of scenes, switched the placement of some, and mercilessly cut others out completely. Thanks to this work, he saved the greatest franchise in history. Hirsch also edited The Empire Strikes Back. After his success in commercial film, where each cut heightens the viewer’s adrenaline, he returned to working with Brian De Palma. They would work together for the next 20 years. This duet produced a lot of hits, from Puncture to Mission: Impossible. In order to describe the versatility and adaptivity of Hirsch, you’d need a whole book, so let's just go through his filmography. Paul edited George Romero’s Creepshow, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Enough, Ray and Source Code. And though in recent years Hirsch has rarely taken on large projects, he has done final editing, helping the editing of others reach its maximum potential. Some examples of this are The Life of Pi, The Great Gatsby, and World War Z. His last jobs as Editing Director were in 2012, in the screen adaptation of the game Warcraft and The Mummy remake. Paul Hirsch is an influential member of the profession, who’s skill in squeezing the last drop out of every blockbuster is legendary even today.
8. Walter Murch
Another representative of the American New Wave or as it’s sometimes known, the Film School Generation, is Walter Murch. The best phrase that describes Murch’s talents is “a one-man band”. His creative journey started with a sound editing position at the WRVR radio station in the early 60s, where among other things, he helped record the first live performance of 20-year-old Bob Dylan. 5 years later at the USC Film School, Walter met George Lucas, a young and ambitious film lover. Together with Lucas they hung around the studios and tried to befriend anyone connected to the film industry. Two years later the young and promising director Francis Ford Coppola gave the two a chance. They worked on The Rain People, George as a production aide, and Walter as the sound editor. Lucas’s biography from that point is well known, but Murch also reached amazing heights. He worked on the sound for Lucas’ first two films, after which he reunited with Coppola. He was nominated for an Oscar for Best Sound Editing for the movie The Conversation. Afterward he worked on part two of The Godfather. 1977 was a critical year for Walter because he added to his arsenal of talents film editing. His first job in that profession working on the picture Julia got him the second Academy Award nomination of his career. He got another excuse to join forces with Coppola in the form of the film Apocalypse Now, where Murch was in charge of sound and film editing. The post-production stage took over three years, and there were over 200 hours of film material. This colossal undertaking yielded the greatest picture of the 20th century according to hundreds of film critics, as well as two more Oscar nominations for Murch. Luck smiled on him this time and he received his first statuette, for Best Sound. The next 5 years of his career he devoted to directing and made the film Return to Oz. The picture didn’t flop, but also didn’t do justice to Murch’s genius. When Murch returned to editing, recognition was not long in coming. And though it’s not comprehensive to judge only by Academy Award nominations, we’ll make an exception in Walter’s case. In 1991, his name was mentioned twice in the nominations for Best Editing for The Godfather 3 and Ghost. 5 years later, Murch published a book called “In the Blink of an Eye”, which immediately became a must-have for any editor and was a starting point for the careers of thousands of film editors. But that’s not all. In 1997 for his work on The English Patient he became the first winner of an Oscar for digital editing, and also the only one who received an Oscar for Best Sound and Best Film Editing. He also worked on a film underappreciated by the Academy, The Talented Mr. Ripley, and received yet another nomination for his work on Cold Mountain which is another story altogether. It was like the editing of that picture, was a dig at big-budget films. In a time of exorbitantly expensive post-production and software to support it, Murch edited the huge Hollywood film using only Final Cut, valued at 1000 dollars. And yes, he has only taken on one big project in the last 5 years, Tomorrowland: A World Beyond, but his impact on the film industry is immeasurable. Anyone planning on creating a montage of two frames or more should definitely read his book.
7. Verna Fields
When speaking of the Film School Generation, we will inevitably come across Verna Fields, a woman who is partially responsible for its existence. Verna ended up at the 20th Century Fox studio when she was 22 years old. She worked as the sound editor’s assistant for Fritz Lang’s Woman in the Window, after which she helped to create television content but in 1946 she got married to editing director Sam Fields, gave birth to two children, and became a stay-at-home mom. 6 years later, her husband died of a heart attack, and she returned to her career so she could take care of her family. Verna installed the necessary equipment at home, and at night while the children were falling asleep, she would work on TV shows and films. Her longtime friend Fritz Lang came to her aid by starting to involve her in his projects. In the mid-60s Verna became a teacher at the aforementioned USC Film School. Fields taught people like Matthew Robbins, Gloria Katz, and George Lucas. And yes, Verna was one of the faculty who denied Stephen Spielberg’s application twice, but unlike her colleagues, she quickly admitted her mistake. Her understanding of film allowed her to recognize the talent of Hollywood’s future elite. It was the beginning of the editing process of a promising but little-known film by Peter Bogdanovich. Thanks to Verna’s participation the comedies What’s Up Doc? and Paper Moon brought Peter’s work to another level. This also goes for George Lucas who convinced her to edit American Graffiti, a picture which became his ticket to the big leagues. Verna herself got an Oscar nomination out of it. Later she decided to fix her previously mentioned mistake. She became the film editor for Spielberg’s debut film The Sugarland Express, which paved the way for him to sign a contract with Universal and film the horror movie Jaws. Speaking of that picture, besides the ridiculous box office success and it being the start of Spielberg’s incredible career, this movie was largely responsible for founding the “summer blockbuster” genre. Fields, in turn, became the most famous female Director of Editing. She received every possible award for that film from the American Cinema Editors Eddie award to an Academy Award and went down in history. The impact of the editing done in Jaws on the film industry has been a subject of discussion for 45 years. Critics believe that her work changed the approach to similar scenes in editing the way that it hadn’t been changed since the times of George Tomasini and Psycho. In the list of the top 75 best-edited films made by the greatest editing directors in history, Jaws is number 8, and Verna Fields is considered to be the mother of the Film School Generation.
6. Sally Menke and Fred Raskin
This may be my personal opinion, but without these people, a discussion on the art of editing would be incomplete. I’m talking about Sally Menke and her protégé Fred Raskin. Sally was the irreplaceable partner in crime for all of the films made by Quentin Tarantino. She began her artistic career with television, where she would work on editing documentaries for CBS. Her first well-known job in the industry was the screen adaptation of the Ninja Turtles. Menke had a long and thorny path up the career ladder ahead of her before she would get a chance to work in the big leagues, but everything changed in 1991 when she applied for a job in an indie film, which was a young director’s debut. Tarantino needed only one interview to know who he’d be sharing the editing room with for the next three months. That was the beginning of one of the boldest duets of Hollywood. In Tarantino’s biography, I mentioned that Quentin considered Sally to be the only real co-author. And truly, Menke could find ways to influence and contain Tarantino’s gut instincts which at the beginning of his career often led him to overestimate the importance of this or that scene and want to show the audience all the filmed material. She was nominated twice for an Oscar thanks to Pulp Fiction and Inglourious Basterds, although even the editing for the short episode of Four Rooms is award-worthy. Besides working with Quentin, she also took part in films directed by Ole Bornedal and Oliver Stone. After her unexpected death, Tarantino’s partner became Sally’s student, Fred Raskin who helped her edit the Kill Bill dilogy. After that masterclass, Fred immediately got an offer to work on Fast and Furious 3. He also worked on parts 4 and 5. Django Unchained was the beginning of his collaborations with Quentin after which the director asked Fred to edit Hateful Eight as well. Raskin also has under his belt two Guardians of the Galaxy, Bone Tomahawk, and Quentin’s newest film Once Upon A Time in Hollywood. Although Fred’s greatest accomplishments are still ahead of him, his resourcefulness, emotional connection to the frame, and ability to create action through editing have already been showcased, in a manner worthy of Menke’s memory.
5. Dody Dorn and Chris Dickens
Objectively speaking Dody Dorn and Chris Dickens may not be as accomplished as the people before them or after them in this list, but they are here thanks to their innovations and boldness. Dody Dorn climbed up the typical career ladder in Hollywood. She began as the production manager’s assistant, then became a script supervisor, assistant location manager, and finally ended up in the editing room. However, her talents were not needed there so she went into sound editing where after ten years she received an Oscar nomination for James Cameron’s The Abyss. Then Dorn decided to open a sound recording and editing studio. For the next 10 years she invested in her business but eventually, her art beckoned her back. It wasn’t hard to find work as the Editing Director for a few indie films which introduced her to Christopher Nolan, who was looking for just the person to help untangle the ball that was the thriller Memento. Memento was a confusing puzzle with revolutionary editing techniques that gave the viewer an unforgettable experience. The picture received a well-deserved nomination from the Academy and it continues to influence filmmaking to this day. In the list of the top 75 best-edited films, Memento is number 14. This is the highest-ranking 21st-century film on the list. Having continued to work with Nolan on Insomnia Dody affirmed her professionalism, which led to contracts with Ridley Scott, Baz Luhrmann, and David Ayer. Yes, besides Kingdom of Heaven and Matchstick Men, it’s worth mentioning her editing of the films Fury and End of Watch. The biographies of Dody Dorn and Chris Dickens do not intersect, especially considering that Chris began his career on the other side of the globe. In 1999 Dickens met Edgar Right who was filming his first big project, the series Spaced. Right invited Chris, who already had TV experience to his team. After two years editing this forgotten masterpiece of British television, the director asked Dickens to edit his first full-length film Shaun of the Dead. The comedy won acclaim and made Right’s signature style famous thanks to his original visual humor. This style and the editing tricks are just as much thanks to Dickens, who pushed his talents to the edge of genius in their next project Hot Fuzz. Two years later Dickens achieved worldwide fame when he stitched together Danny Boyle’s complicated picture Slumdog Millionaire. The editing for this film got Dickens an Oscar and opened the way to Hollywood film. The movies Paul, Les Misérables, and The Double showcase Chris’s versatile talent and ability to adapt to each director’s style. Chris also made time for his own projects. He added unforgettable charm to the low budget melodrama Submarine. In 2019 Chris continued his work in England where he edited a biopic about Elton John, the musical Rocketman. Obviously one could easily find more qualified candidates for the title “greatest editors of all time” but Dody Dorn and Chris Dickens’ bold experiments revolutionized the film industry just as strongly, if not as noticeably as their predecessors.
4. Pietro Scalia, Lee Smith, and Stephen Mirrione
Before we get to the finalists, let’s remember the three masters whose names have to be on this list. We’ll begin with Peter Scalia, who’s career began thanks to Andrei Konchalovsky. The director invited him to work on the drama Shy People as the editing director’s assistant. Afterward, Pietro worked under the amazing Claire Simpson’s tutelage who edited Oliver Stone’s first films. Pietro and Claire worked on Wall Street and the Doors. During that time Scalia so impressed Stone that the latter asked him to join Joe Hutshing to edit the movie JFK, as a full-fledged team member. A year later, Pietro and Joe won an Oscar. Basically, his first movie working as an editor brought Pietro the highest honor in the film industry. Also, JFK is in 9th place in the aforementioned list. As time went on his talent became coveted by the most sophisticated of cinephiles. A 20-year collaboration with Ridley Scott which continues to this day brought him an Oscar nomination for Gladiator and the second statuette of his career for Black Hawk Down. Scalia even worked on a few of Bernardo Bertolucci’s films such as Little Buddha and Stealing Beauty. Together with Gus Van Sant he created the drama Good Will Hunting thanks to which he was also in the running for an Academy Award. His work with Rob Marshall on Memoirs of a Geisha is also worthy of mention, as well as the Star Wars spinoff with Ron Howard, whose failure was Scalia’s fault least of all. Much like the Pietro Scalia-Ridley Scott tandem, in 2005 Lee Smith and Christopher Nolan joined forces. By then Lee was already a prominent figure in the film industry. First of all, like many on this list, he had already made a name in sound editing having worked on the pictures Lorenzo’s Oil and The Piano. While working with audio, he simultaneously began learning film editing. In the thriller Fearless and the drama The Truman Show Lee was a sound designer and assistant to the editing director. After a few years of a solo career, he had a breakthrough. The historical action Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World brought Smith an Oscar nomination. Then followed the next seven films by Nolan, among which the Academy preferred the war drama Dunkirk the best, and for which Smith won an Oscar. His colleagues however consider his greatest achievement to be the editing done for Inception. Besides working with Christopher, Lee also worked on a myriad of engrossing projects, from X-men to movies about agent 007. The last of this trio is probably the most versatile editor in the profession in the 21st century. Stephen Mirrione got on Hollywood’s radar when he began to edit the pictures of the young USC alumni, Doug Liman. The screenplay and the editing of the comedy Go got the attention of the Los Angeles beau monde. At the premiere of that film, Stephen met director Steven Soderbergh. After watching the film Soderbergh immediately asked him to edit Traffic. A year later Mirrione received his first Oscar, while his colleagues and critics literally worshipped the work he did with the picture. This success united the Stevens and they continued to work together for 5 more films. The most popular among them was the trilogy about the friends of Frank Ocean. Stephen’s skills impressed Alejandro González Iñárritu as well who hired him to edit 21 Grams. Having worked with Mirrione once, Alejandro never again entrusted the editing of his films to anyone else. The tandem with Iñárritu brought Stephen two more Oscar nominations for Babel and The Revenant. And yes, Mirrione was behind the technical aspect of the incredible cutting in Birdman. You’d think that would be enough, but there is another person who after working with Stephen refuses to let anyone else touch their film. George Clooney after his debut feature film as a director, the thriller Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, invites only Mirrione to edit his films. Pietro Scalia, Lee Smith, and Stephen Mirrione represent the current generation of film editors who will determine the future of the industry and are writing its history as we speak.
3. Arthur Schmidt and Arthur P. Schmidt
In third place, we have the most successful film editing dynasty. Arthur Schmidt and Arthur P. Schmidt have probably edited more than half of Hollywood’s classics between them. Arthur P. Schmidt began his career by editing B movies for RKO Pictures, the last established studio from the classic era of Hollywood’s film industry. By the way, at the end of the 40s, RKO was bought and ruined by the eccentric millionaire Howard Hughes. However Arthur senior was gone way before then and joined the ranks of Paramount. There Schmidt met director Billy Wilder who invited him to work on the picture Sunset Boulevard. To say that the film was a success would be a grave understatement, it received 11 Oscar nominations including the first in Arthur’s career. He did four more movies with Wilder, including the melodrama Sabrina and of course the comedy Some Like it Hot. In 1957 the film Sayonara got Schmidt his second Academy nomination, but unfortunately, he never won, though he was able to raise up an heir. Back during the creation of Sunset Boulevard Schmidt would consistently bring his 15-year-old son to the editing room, where Arthur Jr. fell head over heels in love with film. Following his father’s footsteps, 20 years later, the son began his film career, editing B movies. In his first decade in the industry, his greatest achievement was his work on the Jaws sequel. But Arthur Jr.’s life changed when he was introduced to the talented director Michael Mann and edited his first feature film. Following the made-for TV movie Jericho Mile was the drama Coal Miner’s Daughter which got 7 Oscar nominations, including Best Editing. But his golden ticket, which put his name in the history books arrived in 1985. The collaboration with Robert Zemeckis to edit the cult trilogy Back to the Future earned him the appreciation of his colleagues around the world. For the next 15 years, Schmidt and Zemeckis worked side by side. In that time Arthur won two Oscars, for Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Forrest Gump. In the breaks between making blockbusters, he joined up with Michael Mann once again when the director had become world-famous. He was able to edit The Last of the Mohicans with the help of Dov Hoenig, another master editor. The exclamation point on the sentence of his career was the first installment of Pirates of the Caribbean, which earned him an Eddie Award. By the way, 6 years after that, when he had already retired Arthur Schmidt received the American Cinema Editors Career Achievement Award, which would have definitely made his father proud.
2. Michael Kahn
There is no need to go on and on about Michael Kahn. His film career began more than 50 years ago and shows no sign of slowing down. Michael honed his editing skills working on pictures which probably wouldn’t interest even the keenest viewers. But in 1977 he met Steven Spielberg. After the success of Jaws and the excellence of Verna Fields, Steven was looking for a special editing director for his next picture. And though it would have been hard to detect Michael’s amazing potential from his work, somehow, magically Spielberg saw it. Michael edited Close Encounters of the Third Kind and was immediately nominated for an Oscar. Three years later he celebrated a victory when he received a statuette for the editing on Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark. In order to continue the list of Michael’s successes, all you have to do is name all of Spielberg’s next films because the two have been inseparable since 1977. In that period Kahn received two more Oscars, one for Schindler’s List and one for Saving Private Ryan, also becoming the record holder for the amount of nominations. Stephen often remembers that it was thanks to this comrade that he was able to continue to make such hits over the course of the years, because in the editing process Kahn would show the picture in dozens of different ways, changing its rhythm, style, and sometimes the very plot. Another interesting detail is that until the animated film The Adventures of Tintin Kahn edited every film on the outdated “moviola” which most filmmakers stopped using in the early 90s. George Lucas, when describing Kahn’s skill, commented, “Michael Kahn can cut faster on a Moviola than anybody can cut on an Avid.” The 3D animation forced them to transfer to modern digital technology and now one can only imagine the speeds at which Kahn works. Soon we will see the quality of his work once more since Spielberg has made a remake of the musical Westside Story, edited by his irreplaceable helper, who from the shadow of his genius continues to mold modern-day Hollywood.
1. Thelma Schoonmaker
And finally, first place. Yes, this name is no secret for any cinema fan, because it should be in any list even remotely connected to film editing. Thelma Schoonmaker. We won’t go straight to her awards but will travel to the year she was born, because her life is like a screenplay for a charming biopic. Thelma was born in Algiers. Her American parents worked for an oil drilling company and moved all over the planet. Because of this, Thelma spent her childhood traveling to the most exotic places from the Middle East to Aruba. The family returned to the USA when she turned 15. A year later Schoonmaker got into Cornell where she studied Politics and Russian Language. In 1961 she graduated and wanted to work for the government, but her radical views and fight against apartheid closed the door on her political future. Thelma didn’t know what to pursue but saw an ad looking for editing assistants which promised basic training in the profession, and she decided to take a risk and drastically change her life. Her first job after a two-week course on the basics of film editing was the cutting of European films for American TV. At the dawn of her career, Schoonmaker mercilessly cut down the time of pictures by Godard, Truffaut, and Fellini, so that they would reflect the norms required for television. She liked the work, and to expand her knowledge she enrolled in a film arts course at NYU. Because of her experience, the film editing professor would often ask the girl to help students having trouble cutting their film. This fate drew Thelma to Martin Scorsese, who had practically given up on the drafts of his first short What’s a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This? Schoonmaker saved the film and in doing so struck up a lifelong friendship with Martin. Three years later, Thelma responded to another request from Martin and finished editing his first full feature film. Who knows, if she had refused, maybe Scorsese would have ruined that film too. Meeting Michael Wadleigh was another critical moment during her studies at NYU. Michael had been filming the documentary Woodstock and invited Scorsese and Schoonmaker to join in editing the project. The friends had to edit over 1000 hours of material. This titanic job became one of two non-fiction pictures in history to ever be nominated for an Oscar. After this success, you’d think the gates of the film industry should have opened, and her mailbox should have been bursting with offers. But the tough world of cinematography saw Schoonmaker’s potential in a different light. Instead of the Hollywood beau monde, she met “her majesty Hollywood bureaucracy”. In order to be allowed to work on serious projects, Thelma had to join the American Cinema Editors Guild. But the requirements for joining included 5 years of study and 3 years of practice as an assistant. Of course, having the work experience and an Oscar nomination under her belt Thelma didn’t want to abide by these rules, but the Guild refused to compromise. Scorcese was not limited by these constrictions so he got to work and received worldwide acclaim. Schoonmaker, as in the radical years of her youth approached her problem decisively. If the Guild refused to compromise, she wouldn’t work until they changed the rules. Later it turned out that Martin and Thelma fudged the lines a little since she helped to edit Taxi but technically didn’t break any rules since she accepted no payment and her name didn’t appear in the credits. She had to wait ten years for a time when Martin could get a team of lawyers to literally win her membership in the closed club. Scorsese immediately offered her the official title of Editing Director for the sports drama Raging Bull and Schoonmaker of course, accepted. This work became the essence of Thelma’s love for cinematography. Not surprising then that she received an Oscar because even 30 years later, the greatest minds of the profession assigned her editing of Raging Bull as the best in the history of cinematography. The rest is written on the hearts of audiences across the globe. Thelma and Martin are an inseparable duet. Their work was nominated 5 more times for an Oscar and won twice. Schoonmaker is the most influential woman in the profession, and in 2017 she received the Cinema Editors Career Achievement Award from the same guild that gave her so much trouble.
Well, that discussion turned out longer than planned, and yet still it did not nearly cover all the amazing members of this profession. And I didn’t even mention the directors who edited their films themselves. From Akira Kurosawa to the Cohen Brothers to James Cameron. Or the incredible experience of Margaret Sixel. George Miller’s wife worked on the one and only action movie of her career and created possibly the best example of film editing in the 21st century. No matter how you try, you can’t fit everyone, but I hope this list has helped awaken in you an interest in the people who create the real magic of the cinema.