Your favorite Film editor?

Joe Hutshing & Pietro Scalia for the editing of JFK.
In my humble opinion the best editing EVAR!

Frank
 
Good question. I feel like most people can name 10 of their favorite directors and DP's, but very few editors get recognition.

I like Walter Murch, editor of the Apocolypse Now and Sam Mendes films. His book, 'In the Blink of an Eye' is a great perspective on editing.
 
But aren't high profile editors (Spielberg's, Scorsese's, Tarantino, Night, etc) merely doing what the thier director is telling them to do ?

Something tels me Scorsese isn't off in Hawaii while Verna cuts together all of the footy.

Aren't these editors more or less running the machine ?
 
Speilberg credits Verna with the success of JAWS...and part of his own personal success (she also cut Sugarland Express for him before Jaws). Rumor has it that she would actually send him back for specific pick ups to make a scene work.
 
J.R. Hudson said:
But aren't high profile editors (Spielberg's, Scorsese's, Tarantino, Night, etc) merely doing what the thier director is telling them to do ?

Something tels me Scorsese isn't off in Hawaii while Verna cuts together all of the footy.

Aren't these editors more or less running the machine ?
Click to expand...

Absolutely not. At least in the case of Scorcese. I've heard them speak in interview and in lectures together. It's a very give and take relationship. They go a long way toward justifying choices to one another. I'm sure at the end of the day, Marty can get what he wants if he really wants it, but he clearly has a massive respect for her and does not just tell her what to do.

And any director who had a good editor and just told them what to do would be an idiot.
 
i like Walter Murch as well, read a book i think it was called "conversations" about him and someone else whose name i can't recall. Interesting read and made me consider professional editors in a new light.
 
dede allen (dog day afternoon, the hustler, bonnie and clyde...)
anne coates (out of sight, lawrence of arabia, the elephant man...)
sam o'steen (chinatown, cool hand luke, the graduate...)
thelma schoonmaker (scorsese)
ralph rosenblum (annie hall, the pawnbroker, the producers...)
susan morse (woody allen 1982-1998: manhattan, hannah, stardust, crimes...)
alan heim (network, lenny, all that jazz, american history x...)
robert wise (citizen kane, ambersons, devil & daniel webster, my favorite wife...)
hal ashby (in the heat of the night, the russians are coming, cincinatti kid...)
walter murch (english patient, conversation, unbearable lightness...)

crazy how many masterpieces you can cover with just 10 editors.

if roderick jaynes was a real person, he'd be on my list too.
 
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