OVP: Best Film Editing (2005)
The Nominees Were...
Mike Hill & Dan Hanley, Cinderella Man
Claire Simpson, The Constant Gardener
Hughes Winborne, Crash
Michael Kahn, Munich
Michael McCusker, Walk the Line
Claire Simpson, The Constant Gardener
Hughes Winborne, Crash
Michael Kahn, Munich
Michael McCusker, Walk the Line
My Thoughts: I have double-checked that this was the lineup for Oscar three times, and yes, that's the case. The Best Editing category usually has the most overlap with the Best Picture field of any category save Best Director, and yet, in 2005, this wasn't the case at all. While all of these movies were in the discussion (to a certain degree) to be nominated for Best Picture, only two of them actually made it into the top category (this, more than anything else, should have been an indication that Brokeback Mountain was vulnerable for the Best Picture Oscar). I personally feel that these two categories overlap too much (though I do tend to do this myself a bit with this category considering editing is the "invisible art" of filmmaking), so I'm excited to have a different slate of nominees here than we'd normally just see with a carbon copy for Best Picture.
The film that certainly screams "EDITING!" is Crash, and so we'll start there. We're going to have a lot of things to say about this movie (oh boy, are we), and not all of them are going to be complimentary, so I wish we were starting in one of the categories I was going to be kind to the film to try to find some semblance of balance. That...is not the case for Editing. The film's editing is showy (all of these intersecting stories), which can't be easy to do with a cast this wide, but it's also putting in really clumsy speeches & ugly cutaways throughout the movie. The editors are tasked with a big part of the movie's success-making the intersections feel organic-but they don't succeed in that. It's a case where Oscar knew what they were trying to do and gave them the honor for that, rather than judging whether they succeeded.
This is a weird juxtaposition to something like Walk the Line, a movie that doesn't really have much showy editing at all. Yes, there are the musical numbers (which are great-I liked this movie way more than Crash on-the-whole), but there's nothing impressive here. I know I call back to this nomination a lot, but it's kind of like citing Silver Linings Playbook-it feels like the sort of movie that people liked and so they nominated here, rather than recognizing the editing in a major way. The film also breaks apart in the way that it handles the the third act of the movie (and borrows way too liberally from Ray, which is another movie that really had no business being nominated in this category), giving in to too much sentiment and not finding the balance between song-and-story that the first two-thirds did.
Cinderella Man is more in the Crash camp here-there's something about boxing movies, with their quick jabs and closeup action sequences (unusual in movies where you'd normally be focusing on a chase or explosion) that the editing branch falls in love with, but this isn't special, and it's not adding anything new to the genre that Rocky and Raging Bull hadn't done already. It doesn't help that the cinematography is standard-bare here, so you can't get something creative (think of the first fight in Creed and how the editors sort of keep specific longer shots in to amp up the tension rather than a bang-bang-bang approach to the filmmaking as proof that there's still potential for ingenuity in boxing films). And outside the boxing scenes, there's nothing special going on here, and it all feels very routine.
Which brings us to the two films I felt did elevate their editing. The first of these is Munich. Munich has a gag as well (perhaps the most telling reason that Oscar got creative in this category in 2005 was that four of the five films has a clear "trick" to their plot that would require creative editing), with the constant flashbacks and the blending of real-life footage with the actual fictionally-filmed movie. The movie builds great suspense (always a challenge with a real-life story), and some of the action sequences (particularly the "grenade assassination" scene) are petrifying, and beautifully-constructed. There are tropes (like the reliance on cliches such as "waking up in a cold sweat") that take away from the picture, but it's riveting and taut at its best.
The other nominee is The Constant Gardener. Constant is deeply reliant on its editing working-if you don't care about the romance of the first half you won't be invested in why the second half is so important. It's hard to tell whether the editors owe a debt of gratitude to Rachel Weisz (or if it's the other way around), but the movie does a great job of giving us just enough of her to feel like we know her, but also enough intrigue so that we understand that we don't, and that we can't trust everything that is happening before our eyes. It's a well-placed trick, and the editing only enhances an already strong script.
The film that certainly screams "EDITING!" is Crash, and so we'll start there. We're going to have a lot of things to say about this movie (oh boy, are we), and not all of them are going to be complimentary, so I wish we were starting in one of the categories I was going to be kind to the film to try to find some semblance of balance. That...is not the case for Editing. The film's editing is showy (all of these intersecting stories), which can't be easy to do with a cast this wide, but it's also putting in really clumsy speeches & ugly cutaways throughout the movie. The editors are tasked with a big part of the movie's success-making the intersections feel organic-but they don't succeed in that. It's a case where Oscar knew what they were trying to do and gave them the honor for that, rather than judging whether they succeeded.
This is a weird juxtaposition to something like Walk the Line, a movie that doesn't really have much showy editing at all. Yes, there are the musical numbers (which are great-I liked this movie way more than Crash on-the-whole), but there's nothing impressive here. I know I call back to this nomination a lot, but it's kind of like citing Silver Linings Playbook-it feels like the sort of movie that people liked and so they nominated here, rather than recognizing the editing in a major way. The film also breaks apart in the way that it handles the the third act of the movie (and borrows way too liberally from Ray, which is another movie that really had no business being nominated in this category), giving in to too much sentiment and not finding the balance between song-and-story that the first two-thirds did.
Cinderella Man is more in the Crash camp here-there's something about boxing movies, with their quick jabs and closeup action sequences (unusual in movies where you'd normally be focusing on a chase or explosion) that the editing branch falls in love with, but this isn't special, and it's not adding anything new to the genre that Rocky and Raging Bull hadn't done already. It doesn't help that the cinematography is standard-bare here, so you can't get something creative (think of the first fight in Creed and how the editors sort of keep specific longer shots in to amp up the tension rather than a bang-bang-bang approach to the filmmaking as proof that there's still potential for ingenuity in boxing films). And outside the boxing scenes, there's nothing special going on here, and it all feels very routine.
Which brings us to the two films I felt did elevate their editing. The first of these is Munich. Munich has a gag as well (perhaps the most telling reason that Oscar got creative in this category in 2005 was that four of the five films has a clear "trick" to their plot that would require creative editing), with the constant flashbacks and the blending of real-life footage with the actual fictionally-filmed movie. The movie builds great suspense (always a challenge with a real-life story), and some of the action sequences (particularly the "grenade assassination" scene) are petrifying, and beautifully-constructed. There are tropes (like the reliance on cliches such as "waking up in a cold sweat") that take away from the picture, but it's riveting and taut at its best.
The other nominee is The Constant Gardener. Constant is deeply reliant on its editing working-if you don't care about the romance of the first half you won't be invested in why the second half is so important. It's hard to tell whether the editors owe a debt of gratitude to Rachel Weisz (or if it's the other way around), but the movie does a great job of giving us just enough of her to feel like we know her, but also enough intrigue so that we understand that we don't, and that we can't trust everything that is happening before our eyes. It's a well-placed trick, and the editing only enhances an already strong script.
Other Precursor Contenders: The Eddie Awards have nominees for both Drama and Comedy/Musical, and weirdly they were much kinder to Oscar's Best Picture lineup than Oscar was. For the Dramas, we have Crash besting Brokeback Mountain, Good Night, and Good Luck, Constant Gardener, and Munich, while in comedy it's Walk the Line over Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Pride & Prejudice, The Family Stone, and Wedding Crashers. BAFTA threw the category for a loop by giving the trophy to Constant Gardener (while they nominated it for a lot, they weren't as keen on Crash), besting Crash, Good Night, and Good Luck, March of the Penguins, and Brokeback Mountain. In terms of sixth place, I have to believe that it was Brokeback, right? It's such an obvious option it had to be close.
Films I Would Have Nominated: While I think the film I'm going to give the trophy to was sixth place for me, I...would have gotten an entirely different list than Oscar (which bums me out because I do appreciate that they at least tried to not have this be a carbon copy of Best Picture). I would have included Brokeback, for sure, as it's so tight & handles decades of story with care. I'd also include King Kong, as those action scenes are incredible, and The New World (which unfolds brilliantly, even if you probably have to have an appreciation for Malick to get super into it). The final two nominations would go to two incredibly-told thrillers: Paradise Now and A History of Violence, both of whom use a ticking clock to enhance their story.
Oscar's Choice: Oscar tipped its hand early in the evening that Crash should not be dismissed with a victory over...Munich?
My Choice: I'm giving this to The Constant Gardener with due respect to Munich. It's just a better-constructed story and I liked the melding of past-and-present better. In third is Walk the Line, then
Cinderella Man and Crash.
Cinderella Man and Crash.
Those are my thoughts-what are yours? Do you agree with me (and apparently BAFTA) that The Constant Gardener was the best of these nominations, or is this one of the nods you'd throw to Crash? Why do you think it's this category that so mimics Best Picture (and why do you think they stopped that trend in 2005)? And where the hell is Brokeback Mountain? Share your thoughts below!
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