OVP: Best Sound Mixing (2006)
The Nominees Were...
Kevin O'Connell, Greg P. Russell, & Fernando Camara, Apocalypto
Andy Nelson, Anna Behlmer, & Ivan Sharrock, Blood Diamond
Michael Minkler, Bob Beemer, & Willie Burton, Dreamgirls
John Reitz, Dave Campbell, Gregg Rudloff, & Walt Martin, Flags of Our Fathers
Paul Massey, Christopher Boyes, & Lee Orloff, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
My Thoughts: We're hitting the halfway point in our retrospective on 2006, and like I said on Friday (links to all past contests are at the bottom of this article), we saw a weird amount of overlap between Sound Editing & Mixing in 2006 in the first year where they went five-wide. The weird thing, of course, about these two lineups is that when it came to the actual winners, the Oscars were very particular in which films they ended up picking between for the trophy. Letters from Iwo Jima won best Sound Editing, and as you can see wasn't even in contention here, and the Sound Mixing award went to the one film that wasn't nominated for Best Sound Editing, the movie we'll start our article with today.
Dreamgirls is hard to parcel through in terms of Oscar prosperity. It is somehow both a huge success story (it was cited for eight Oscars, nothing to slouch about), but wasn't up for either Picture or Director despite that being in the cards according to the precursors. Its sound mixing nomination might explain why. The sound work in Dreamgirls is decent-there's nothing wrong with it, and certainly the singers all sound very good (it helped that Condon made sure to hire singers who, you know, can actually sing). But it also isn't outstanding. The recording sessions sound the same as the stage performances (it doesn't feel like there's a different tenor between the two in terms of vocal change despite these being different scenarios), and really only Jennifer Hudson's bravura vocals find a way to differentiate as the movie progresses. As a result, this is an Oscar win that makes sense (they love a musical here), but it only stands out in this field, not in terms of other recent musical successes like Moulin Rouge! and Chicago.
That said, it's leagues ahead of Blood Diamond, which was cited for both sound categories. Blood Diamond commits perhaps the fatal error when it comes to this category, one which I find unforgivable: having dialogue that is difficult to hear. Realism in movies is important, but we're meant to hear the actors speaking onscreen, and there are ways of conveying the dialogue during an action sequence that ensures you hear what everyone is saying. If the audience can't hear it, the people onscreen can't (this is a problem that runs rampant throughout Christopher Nolan's later work), and it's definitely the case with Blood Diamond. If you can't hear the dialogue, you shouldn't be in this category no matter what other virtues you claim to possess.
Apocalypto is another movie that the editing is superior to the mixing, though not because of the dialogue (it helps that the film is played with subtitles, so even if the dialogue occasionally gets muddied, most audiences are going to instantly be able to tell what's going on onscreen). The problem with Apocalypto is more that the James Horner score is blasting across the film, trying to cover up repetitive plot points & the gory violence onscreen. Scores shouldn't be extra characters in your movie-that shows you've got problems with your plot. And particularly in the best scene in the movie (that ending sequence that literally comes out-of-nowhere), it takes away from some of the impact to have this thunderous score bellowing in the background.
Flags of Our Fathers is actually better in terms of its mixing than its editing. The editing fails a bit when it comes to the crowd sequences, but it does feel like the editing is at fault more there. The music carries you properly in-and-out of the picture, never overwhelming it, and the dialogue feels authentic & well-intentioned. It's not great stuff, mind you, but compared to the misses that Apocalypto and Blood Diamond are, this is a step up...it's just not something Oscar should have paid attention to as it's a pretty average film in a below-average field.
We finish with Pirates of the Caribbean 2, the only film for my money that approaches what Dreamgirls is striving toward. Here, the score feels like its omnipresent, but that it is aiding the action sequences (and it never overpowers the dialogue, which is still funny & audible), while the clashing swords match some of the more authentic noises aboard, like the chaotic rustle of the scene's extras. Unlike some of the other elements of the Pirates movies, this one doesn't expand a lot on the original movie, but it doesn't really need to to keep the adventure going-it definitely knows how to highlight (without ever taking away from) the new-and-improved budget.
Other Precursor Contenders: The Cinema Audio Society was not splitting between animated & live action in 2006, but they didn't nominate any animated films anyway so we have no idea how a split race might have turned out. Instead they went with Dreamgirls, besting Babel, Blood Diamond, Flags of Our Fathers, and Pirates of the Caribbean. BAFTA scrapped most of the lot, picking Casino Royale for the win, here over Babel, Pan's Labyrinth, Pirates of the Caribbean, and United 93 (Dreamgirls only got two nominations total at BAFTA that year, a harbinger of what was to come with Oscar). I'd argue that Letters from Iwo Jima probably was sixth place just due to that Editing win, but if you think it's Babel, I'm not going to argue too hard given the precursors.
Films I Would Have Nominated: I'm not going to give away everything (we have to save something for the My Ballot at the end of this), but I'd have scrapped the lot. This was Oscar's worst lineup in 2006 (by a country mile), and none of them are particularly great. I'll just say that it still is bizarre to me that Pan's Labyrinth somehow stopped its gravy train in two categories it was made for, and we'll get to the rest of my nominations in five weeks when we finish up the year.
Oscar’s Choice: This was the era where basically any musical was winning this prize, and so it was Dreamgirls by a lot.
My Choice: I'm going to be a contrarian here and pick Pirates, which I think does more with its overall soundscape than Dreamgirls, even though I'd put the musical in a close second (as I said above, though, neither of these are that impressive). Follow that with Flags, Apocalypto, and Blood Diamond.
Those are my choices-how about you? Are you with AMPAS that this was Dreamgirls to beat or do you dare come over to my side of the boat for Pirates? Why does Oscar not care about action films where you can't hear the dialogue (shouldn't the writing branch speak out about this)? And Babel or Letters-who was our sixth place finisher? Share your thoughts in the comments!
Also in 2006: Sound Editing, Original Score, Original Song, Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume, Film Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup, Previously in 2006
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