OVP: Best Sound Editing (2005)
The Nominees Were...
Mike Hopkins & Etahn van der Ryn, King Kong
Wylie Stateman, Memoirs of a Geisha
Richard King, War of the Worlds
My Thoughts: We are celebrating Sound all week at the blog with film reviews, and to stay on theme we're going to go out-of-our-traditional order with the OVP this week (normally we'd do the music categories right now, but we'll do this next week instead), and kick off the aural categories with Sound Editing. As I mentioned when we kicked off 2005, a lot of categories we normally associate now with five-wide had only three nominations fifteen years ago, and so we only have three nominees to discuss today.
We're going to commence with Memoirs of a Geisha, because it's one of those nominations in this category that I don't get at all. I understand that sound work is not my forte (I watch a lot of movies, and do a bit of research before these articles, but I am not an industry professional), but where exactly is the sound editing in Memoirs of a Geisha? The only sequence where we feel like there's something there that's non-manufactured sound (rather than just sound mixing or John Williams' score) is the fight scene that causes the burning of the okiya, which isn't impressive at all-movies have fire/fight scenes all the time, and while Gong Li's bombastic dialogue might make this more memorable than most, it's not impressively-mounted, and the rest of the film doesn't have anything to really recommend its sound mixing. I feel like this happened because the Academy loves Wylie Stateman (though with nine losses to date, clearly not enough to give him a trophy), and wanted him to come to the ceremony.
On the opposite end of this conversation is King Kong, not only a film with obvious sound editing, but one with pretty formative sound work. The film has several predecessors it needs to differentiate itself from (not just the 1933 & 1976 versions of the movie, but also the Jurassic Park franchise), but it does so well. The bug scenes are instantly creepy, and the Kong work is precise. The sound editing needs to work well here because Andy Serkis' performance needs some realism in how the ape is portrayed onscreen; this emotional, dimensional creature isn't going to work if he simply feels like Andy Serkis in motion-capture, and that's where the sound work is going to help. King Kong is a consistent home run in terms of its sound work, meticulously designed.
War of the Worlds falls somewhere in-between these two films. Unlike Geisha, there are clear sequences in War that would require Sound Editing, so we aren't competing with nothing, but it never rises to the "next level" work of Kong. The film's best sequences are when the aliens are unknown (think of the barge cry of the aliens' ship before they literally start frying human beings on the ground)-this is great sound work, though it's oftentimes overshadowed by the score, which is pretty loud during crucial sequences. That said, the aliens themselves are a bit of a disappointment. The sound work is just a series of uninspired whirls, and there's not enough newness or freshness for such a major film-this isn't an alien that we're going to remember in the movie pantheon, and there's no sound that feels specific to these creatures, showing a lack of creativity.
We're going to commence with Memoirs of a Geisha, because it's one of those nominations in this category that I don't get at all. I understand that sound work is not my forte (I watch a lot of movies, and do a bit of research before these articles, but I am not an industry professional), but where exactly is the sound editing in Memoirs of a Geisha? The only sequence where we feel like there's something there that's non-manufactured sound (rather than just sound mixing or John Williams' score) is the fight scene that causes the burning of the okiya, which isn't impressive at all-movies have fire/fight scenes all the time, and while Gong Li's bombastic dialogue might make this more memorable than most, it's not impressively-mounted, and the rest of the film doesn't have anything to really recommend its sound mixing. I feel like this happened because the Academy loves Wylie Stateman (though with nine losses to date, clearly not enough to give him a trophy), and wanted him to come to the ceremony.
On the opposite end of this conversation is King Kong, not only a film with obvious sound editing, but one with pretty formative sound work. The film has several predecessors it needs to differentiate itself from (not just the 1933 & 1976 versions of the movie, but also the Jurassic Park franchise), but it does so well. The bug scenes are instantly creepy, and the Kong work is precise. The sound editing needs to work well here because Andy Serkis' performance needs some realism in how the ape is portrayed onscreen; this emotional, dimensional creature isn't going to work if he simply feels like Andy Serkis in motion-capture, and that's where the sound work is going to help. King Kong is a consistent home run in terms of its sound work, meticulously designed.
War of the Worlds falls somewhere in-between these two films. Unlike Geisha, there are clear sequences in War that would require Sound Editing, so we aren't competing with nothing, but it never rises to the "next level" work of Kong. The film's best sequences are when the aliens are unknown (think of the barge cry of the aliens' ship before they literally start frying human beings on the ground)-this is great sound work, though it's oftentimes overshadowed by the score, which is pretty loud during crucial sequences. That said, the aliens themselves are a bit of a disappointment. The sound work is just a series of uninspired whirls, and there's not enough newness or freshness for such a major film-this isn't an alien that we're going to remember in the movie pantheon, and there's no sound that feels specific to these creatures, showing a lack of creativity.
Other Precursor Contenders: The 2005 Golden Reel Awards separated their nominations into animated and feature films (foreign film appears to be a category that was added later). The animated films (none of which scored with Oscar), had Wallace & Gromit besting Chicken Little, Corpse Bride, Howl's Moving Castle, Madagascar, and Robots, while the feature winner was Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, over Batman Begins, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Downfall, King Kong, Kingdom of Heaven, Kung Fu Hustle, and The Constant Gardener. 2005 was the last year this category had a shortlist, so we know the runner-up was Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, Walk the Line, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, or Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith...I'm going to assume Narnia since it made Sound Mixing (along with Walk the Line), and unlike the country musical, it had significant sound effects.
Films I Would Have Nominated: Well, I wouldn't have included Memoirs of a Geisha, I can say that right out. To start, I would have thrown in Batman Begins. People forget because the followup was better, but Batman Begins is a proper technical achievement, and has some really distinct gadgetry (and sounds to match) that were influential beyond this picture. I'd also toss in The New World which does a remarkable job of making its sound editing seem seamless with the movie-the film only works the way Malick intended if it feels truly immersive, so the sound editing needs to not only be exact, it also has to feel organic. It hits both of those achievements.
Oscar’s Choice: This was a pretty easy call for King Kong, especially with Star Wars and Harry Potter out of the mix.
My Choice: And I'm in the same boat-King Kong towers over the competitors here and Oscar made it easy with its choice of other nominees.
Those are my thoughts-what are yours? Can we all just agree this one was Kong's or does someone want to fight for a different nominee? What exactly am I not seeing in how Memoirs got in here? And which film franchise was the fourth place finisher-Narnia, Harry Potter, or Star Wars? Share your thoughts below in the comments!
Also in 2005: Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume, Film Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup, Previously in 2005
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