OVP: Best Sound (1999)
The Nominees Were...
Robert J. Litt, Elliot Tyson, Michael Herbick, & Willie D. Burton, The Green Mile
Andy Nelson, Doug Hemphill, & Lee Orloff, The Insider
John Reitz, Gregg Rudloff, David Campbell, & David Lee, The Matrix
Leslie Shatz, Chris Carpenter, Rick Kline, & Chris Munro, The Mummy
Gary Rydstrom, Tom Johnson, Shawn Murphy, & John Midgley, Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace
My Thoughts: In the 1990's and early 2000's, the Sound Editing category was a sporadic number (either 2 or 3 nominations) while the Sound Mixing category stayed steady at five, so we are now back to 5-wide races, and here we will stay for the remainder of the 1999 Oscar Viewing Project. The Sound Mixing category has gone through a lot of shifts through the years, from the 1940's where it felt like more a way to reward each sound department at each studio to the 1960's when it would shift into a conversation about musicals. By the 1990's, though, there weren't really any musicals, and the ones that were were animated (and Oscar wasn't yet nominating them here). Instead, they focused more on loud, on big epic sounds, particularly things like action-adventures and SciFi/Fantasy movies.
Case-in-point, we have The Matrix which blends both of those worlds. We talked in our previous article (all links to past 1999 contests as well as past Sound Mixing races are at the bottom of this page) about how The Matrix uses machinations in their underground world to create this sort of sewer-like universe alongside the pretend one. This is also reflected in the sound mixing, which uses the film's heavy soundtrack to full impact, incorporating it as almost another character. You get drops in noise for key dialogue (think of Neo's conversation with the Oracle), and the way that the noise is always building to something (again, Neo's conversations with Agent Smith). A really special & succinct vision, one the Wachowskis know how to do in creating their SciFi opuses.
Speaking of SciFi opuses, we of course have as The Matrix's chief competition for the Oscar Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, which probably would've swept the same Oscars that The Matrix took (save for the shock Film Editing trophy) without that movie taking hold of pop culture. Again, this would be a really good choice. Much of the sound mixing is important here because large swaths of the film are either animated or (in the case of the original Yoda) puppetry, so you have to match this up against live-action dialogue that's happening in real-time. This has been a thing for decades (just look at Mary Poppins or Bedknobs and Broomsticks), but few have done it so well, making you feel like the characters that are next to these figures are real and having actual conversations.
I'll be honest-these two are the frontrunners for the reason: they're also the best. That isn't to say there's not some decent work lying around in the remainder. The Insider is a movie that uses a lot of conversations to get through, and like all Michael Mann movies, that's used for heightened tension. Think of the phone conversation scenes, the rapid-fire editing allowing for clips, clicks, and noise between the two actors onscreen basically trying to stave off death. But for me, a lot of this feels too invisible, with the filmmakers just doing their job. I don't feel like we're getting something that calls out the sound mixing, just that it's good for what it is.
That said, it's better than The Green Mile. The Green Mile is not a good movie (it had no business in the Best Picture field), and while the biggest problem with it is that it's too long, it's also a case where it is a bit too heightened, and that reflects in the sound mixing. While The Insider uses its noise to give off a sense of when it's important, signaling to the viewer subtly what's about to happen, The Green Mile telegraphs with a blow horn. Giant swells in the music, and dialogue that feels like it's dripping with saccharine comes across in the sound mix, trying to play on your emotions, but really it's just doing something to your digestive system.
The final nomination is The Mummy, a cheesy B-Movie that I have always had a fondness for. The movie's sound editing is more impressive than the mixing, though the score is incorporated in an old-school 1960's vibe that I quite liked, and the dialogue is really well heard (even if it's cheesy). I think it helps, as well, that the action scenes all work properly-there's no case where the many exploding sand dunes and crashed planes are causing you not to hear what's onscreen. If I had some tweaks, I might have made a little less derivative approach to the resurrection scenes, which are all ones we've seen countless times before (it's practically the same speeches), but this is fun, and I'm glad Oscar nominated it in at least one category.
Other Precursor Contenders: The Cinema Audio Society did not yet split its categories between Live-Action and Animated in 1999, so we have a direct comparison here, though they definitely did their own thing. The Matrix won, beating American Beauty, Any Given Sunday, Star Wars-The Phantom Menace, & The Sixth Sense. At the BAFTA's, The Matrix also won, here besting American Beauty, Buena Vista Social Club (one of the few 1999 movies I still have left that I really want to finish before we get to My Ballot), and The Phantom Menace. In sixth place...it's gotta be American Beauty, right? The Sixth Sense is a good guess, but horror is anathema to tech categories (even though it shouldn't be), and American Beauty won Best Picture...I'm going with the suburban drama.
Films I Would Have Nominated: This isn't a bad list (save for one), so it's hard to be too mad, but if I was going to put my spin on it, I'd definitely throw in The Sixth Sense. The film's the best example of using jump scares and a spooky score to your advantage, and I think horror deserves its spot in the sound field.
Oscar’s Choice: The Matrix dominated all season, and this wasn't an exception-another trophy where it took out The Phantom Menace.
My Choice: And I'm going to join the Academy-the sound work in The Matrix is too good to ignore in my humbled opinion. Behind it I'll select (in order) Star Wars, The Insider, The Mummy, and The Green Mile.
Those are my choices-how about you? Do we all feel like the whole season got it right by selecting The Matrix, or do you want to sign up for a different picture? Am I missing something with The Green Mile, or is this just a case of Oscar having bad taste? And was it American Beauty or The Sixth Sense just out of reach? Share your thoughts in the comments!
Also in 1999: Sound Editing, Original Score, Original Song, Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume, Film Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup, Previously, in 1999
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