OVP: Best Sound Mixing (2005)
The Nominees Were...
Terry Porter, Dean A. Zupancic, & Tony Johnson, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
Christopher Boyes, Michael Semanick, Michael Hedges, & Hammond Peek, King Kong
Kevin O'Connell, Greg P. Russell, Rick Kline, & John Pritchett, Memoirs of a Geisha
Paul Massey, DM Hemphill, & Peter F. Kurland, Walk the Line
Andy Nelson, Anna Behlmer, & Ronald Judkins, War of the Worlds
Christopher Boyes, Michael Semanick, Michael Hedges, & Hammond Peek, King Kong
Kevin O'Connell, Greg P. Russell, Rick Kline, & John Pritchett, Memoirs of a Geisha
Paul Massey, DM Hemphill, & Peter F. Kurland, Walk the Line
Andy Nelson, Anna Behlmer, & Ronald Judkins, War of the Worlds
My Thoughts: We conclude our week devoted to the Sound categories at the Oscars with another installment in our series about 2005's Oscar race, in this case we move into our Sound Mixing field. Unlike Sound Editing, today we're back to five contestants, with all three of our Sound Editing nominees coming back along with another action-adventure film, and as is the wont of this category, a musical, which is where we're going to start.
Walk the Line joins a long line of musicals nominated in this category (this isn't a recent trend-it's one pretty much as old as the Oscars), and in a way that makes sense. Musicals involve a lot of balancing of sounds, trying to control music, voice, and it's something memorable in the film. But this is an Oscar we're talking about, and you need to rise above your genre, and not just lean on it as a crutch, and with Walk the Line I feel like we're just above, but not much. The sound work is a little weird-it's sometimes hard to tell how intentional it is that the instruments onstage are drowning out some of the vocals in the concert numbers, which I get adds an authenticity, but takes away from the best aspect of the film's sound mixing (that both Phoenix & Witherspoon are doing their own singing, and doing remarkable impressions of their real-life vocalists). There are also a few lines during these scenes where you can't clearly hear the dialogue (my unforgivable sin in this category), but overall using the actors' own voices gives this at least a punch up from some other modern jukebox musicals.
The other new title in this field is The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Here, I leave less-impressed. The voiceover work for the mouth movements of the animals is kind of creepy. It somewhat works, but it also means that a lion speaks exactly like a human, which somehow feels distracting within the confines of the film...I'm aware this is also a fault of the visual effects artists, but we already got to them (see links at the bottom of the page for all 2005 races we've covered thus far), and the rest of the movie doesn't stand out in any real way-the main reason to nominate this is the animation, and we've got more impressive work on that front in the actual Oscar-nominated animated features.
Which gives us the three films that doubled up. Obviously the film with the most notable sound work is King Kong, simply because it's the biggest action film of the bunch (and has the biggest title character), and again, the sound work here is magnificent. The film balances wonderfully with the score, and the dialogue is crisp, even in the multiple chase sequences. It's occasionally hard to tell the sound editing from the mixing in this movie, as some of the car chase sequences and certainly the water scenes this is a struggle, but that's kind of the point, to be honest-if they meld so well you can't tell them apart, both teams are doing their job. All-in-all, this is a movie whose technical achievements are top-drawer, and as we move out of these categories I'm glad that Oscar paid attention.
Memoirs of a Geisha is a movie that I questioned being in the Best Sound Editing category, but not here. The movie itself sounds brilliant, and its mixing is in a league similar to King Kong. The dialogue feels fitting, and unlike Kong, it has to find ways to make quieter scenes impactful on the big-screen. The film has a distinctive score that occasionally overpowers what's happening on the screen (John Williams, y'all), but this might be only complaint. The rest of the film is sharp, crisp, and deals with a wide variety of outdoor and indoor shots that feel realistic yet melodic.
Our final nomination is War of the Worlds. I'm glad we're moving beyond this movie, because I kind of feel bad for it. I've ragged on it pretty hard (and I liked this movie when I first saw it-I distinctly remember going to it with my parents for my birthday & us both having a blast), but the sound work is good, but uneven. The dialogue doesn't feel natural during attack scenes, and so much of the sound work appears to be sound editing, that really the rest of the movie doesn't have that much to brag about. In a much more pronounced way than Memoirs, too, the film's score overpowers the rest of the movie & feels like too much (again, John Williams y'all), and while the score is great (Williams doesn't make bad music), it also feels a bit much & does too much narrative heavy-lifting.
Walk the Line joins a long line of musicals nominated in this category (this isn't a recent trend-it's one pretty much as old as the Oscars), and in a way that makes sense. Musicals involve a lot of balancing of sounds, trying to control music, voice, and it's something memorable in the film. But this is an Oscar we're talking about, and you need to rise above your genre, and not just lean on it as a crutch, and with Walk the Line I feel like we're just above, but not much. The sound work is a little weird-it's sometimes hard to tell how intentional it is that the instruments onstage are drowning out some of the vocals in the concert numbers, which I get adds an authenticity, but takes away from the best aspect of the film's sound mixing (that both Phoenix & Witherspoon are doing their own singing, and doing remarkable impressions of their real-life vocalists). There are also a few lines during these scenes where you can't clearly hear the dialogue (my unforgivable sin in this category), but overall using the actors' own voices gives this at least a punch up from some other modern jukebox musicals.
The other new title in this field is The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Here, I leave less-impressed. The voiceover work for the mouth movements of the animals is kind of creepy. It somewhat works, but it also means that a lion speaks exactly like a human, which somehow feels distracting within the confines of the film...I'm aware this is also a fault of the visual effects artists, but we already got to them (see links at the bottom of the page for all 2005 races we've covered thus far), and the rest of the movie doesn't stand out in any real way-the main reason to nominate this is the animation, and we've got more impressive work on that front in the actual Oscar-nominated animated features.
Which gives us the three films that doubled up. Obviously the film with the most notable sound work is King Kong, simply because it's the biggest action film of the bunch (and has the biggest title character), and again, the sound work here is magnificent. The film balances wonderfully with the score, and the dialogue is crisp, even in the multiple chase sequences. It's occasionally hard to tell the sound editing from the mixing in this movie, as some of the car chase sequences and certainly the water scenes this is a struggle, but that's kind of the point, to be honest-if they meld so well you can't tell them apart, both teams are doing their job. All-in-all, this is a movie whose technical achievements are top-drawer, and as we move out of these categories I'm glad that Oscar paid attention.
Memoirs of a Geisha is a movie that I questioned being in the Best Sound Editing category, but not here. The movie itself sounds brilliant, and its mixing is in a league similar to King Kong. The dialogue feels fitting, and unlike Kong, it has to find ways to make quieter scenes impactful on the big-screen. The film has a distinctive score that occasionally overpowers what's happening on the screen (John Williams, y'all), but this might be only complaint. The rest of the film is sharp, crisp, and deals with a wide variety of outdoor and indoor shots that feel realistic yet melodic.
Our final nomination is War of the Worlds. I'm glad we're moving beyond this movie, because I kind of feel bad for it. I've ragged on it pretty hard (and I liked this movie when I first saw it-I distinctly remember going to it with my parents for my birthday & us both having a blast), but the sound work is good, but uneven. The dialogue doesn't feel natural during attack scenes, and so much of the sound work appears to be sound editing, that really the rest of the movie doesn't have that much to brag about. In a much more pronounced way than Memoirs, too, the film's score overpowers the rest of the movie & feels like too much (again, John Williams y'all), and while the score is great (Williams doesn't make bad music), it also feels a bit much & does too much narrative heavy-lifting.
Other Precursor Contenders: The Cinema Audio Society splits their nominees between live-action and animated films today, but in 2005 that wasn't the case-it was just one field (and since Oscar didn't nominate any animated films, just like CAS, this doesn't really help with our "predict the sixth place" guess anyways). The nominees saw Walk the Line best Crash, Memoirs of a Geisha, King Kong, and War of the Worlds. At the BAFTA's, Walk the Line also won, here beating out Batman Begins, The Constant Gardener, Crash, and King Kong. The precursors indicate that Crash was the sixth place and while normally I'd quibble (Batman Begins makes more sense), considering it'd eventually win Best Picture this probably is correct (thankfully for all of you, you don't have to read my take on Crash getting such a throwaway nomination here).
Films I Would Have Nominated: I would almost completely upend this category. I know that this runs contrary to what I just said about Crash (which doesn't have any natural gimmicks to lean into), but if a traditional film sounds really wonderful, you know it, and Brokeback Mountain and Good Night, and Good Luck with their hints of music (a country score in the first, a jazzy melody running through it it in the latter), along with thoughtful, elegant sound work with the dialogue-it's beautiful, and I'd nominate both. A more conventional choice would be The New World (the sound work in this is so incredible I might honestly have given it the trophy, it's so good at capturing a 500-year-old realism), and an even more conventional choice would be Revenge of the Sith (say what you will about the prequels, but their production work is astounding and detailed).
Oscar’s Choice: I had to double-check since Walk the Line swept the precursors, but King Kong pulled this one off in an upset.
My Choice: I'd also give it to King Kong, with due respects to Memoirs of a Geisha who puts up a good fight. Behind them would be Walk the Line, War of the Worlds, and Narnia.
Those are my choices-how about you? Is everyone in the camp with Oscar/myself that King Kong deserved this trophy, or do we have a bunch of Walk the Line enthusiasts? Could Crash have really snuck into this category, and would that have tipped us off to what was to come? And which of the Star Wars prequels sounds the best? Share your thoughts in the comments!
Those are my choices-how about you? Is everyone in the camp with Oscar/myself that King Kong deserved this trophy, or do we have a bunch of Walk the Line enthusiasts? Could Crash have really snuck into this category, and would that have tipped us off to what was to come? And which of the Star Wars prequels sounds the best? Share your thoughts in the comments!
Also in 2005: Sound Editing, Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume, Film Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup, Previously in 2005
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