OVP: Best Sound Editing (2000)
The Nominees Were...
Alan Robert Murray & Bub Asman, Space Cowboys
Jon Johnson, U-571
My Thoughts: For most of the time we've been writing about Sound Editing, it's been either a category that had five nominations (starting in 2006) or none at all (starting in 2020). But pre-2005, there were 2-3 nominations each year, and in 2000 they only had two citations. Weirdly, this is one of those years where one of the films is getting its only nomination, somehow the Oscars figuring out that Mixing/Editing would always have the "musical in one, random tech film in the other" trend of the 2010's long before it became a reality in a few years.
That film is Space Cowboys, one of the few purely commercial efforts that Clint Eastwood made during this time, when he was largely hunting for more Oscars post-Unforgiven. The film was a success, but is not really discussed today despite a starry cast (Eastwood, Tommy Lee Jones, Donald Sutherland, & James Garner are recruited to go to space). The film's sound effects are almost completely related to the space shuttle and space flight, but they aren't really groundbreaking compared to what Ron Howard's Apollo 13 (or the dueling asteroid films Armageddon & Deep Impact) had done a few years earlier. It's more, I think, a dearth of contenders and Alan Robert Murray's popularity with the sound branch that got it there.
U-571 is a much more traditional choice, and not just because it's featured in Sound Mixing. The film features submarines, which is a weird niche of this category (you will see a shocking amount of movies ranging from Greyhound to Crimson Tide to Under Siege all getting sound nominations for having submarines). The movie's sound effects are impressive. You have the claustrophobic aspects of being below deck, so every noise feels like it has impending doom, and they work well to build tension throughout the picture. There's a lot of care done into this tale, and it pays off as a suspense-war picture.
Other Precursor Contenders: The Golden Reel Awards split their categories between live-action & animated. Live action had ten nominations with Gladiator beating Cast Away, Crouching Tiger, Gone in 60 Seconds, Mission Impossible II, Space Cowboys, The Patriot, The Perfect Storm, U-571, & X-Men, while Animated chose Titan AE against Chicken Run, Dinosaur, Rugrats in Paris, The Emperor's New Groove, & The Road to El Dorado. In 2000, we still had a shortlist for Sound Editing, so we know the third place was Cast Away, Gladiator, Mission Impossible II, The Perfect Storm, or Unbreakable...and I'm guessing it was Gladiator, though I wouldn't be shocked if it was The Perfect Storm. Both were nominated a lot with Oscar, and both have really big effects (honestly the two of them make more sense in terms of AMPAS-tastes than what they actually chose).
Films I Would Have Nominated: This was a really weird spot to stop nominating Crouching Tiger, which somehow didn't even make the shortlist despite a great deal of care put into the battle scenes syncing with the music & drumming effects.
Oscar’s Choice: Faced with a serious submarine picture and a silly astronaut film, Oscar chose U-571.
My Choice: I will do that too, as it's a surprisingly strong sound work even if it's during the "Matthew McConaughey is not quite being taken seriously as a dramatic actor" phase for the overall film.
Those are my thoughts-what are yours? Do you want to join Oscar & I in a sub with Matthew McConaughey, or does someone want to navigate the stars with Clint Eastwood? Are you as surprised as I am that Titan AE beat multiple Disney films for the Golden Reel Award? And was it The Perfect Storm or Gladiator that was in third? Share your thoughts below in the comments!
Also in 2000: Original Score, Original Song, Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume, Film Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup, Previously in 2000
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