The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Editing (2004)

Featured Audience Ratings

• Fernando Rafael Q

  
  Fascinating documentary about a field that, at first glance, doesn't seem very interesting (it is). The Cutting Edge demonstrates the importance of an editor, the unsung hero of the film industry, without overly glorifying the profession. Kathy Bates narrates and movie icons such… More
  Fascinating documentary about a field that, at first glance, doesn't seem very interesting (it is). The Cutting Edge demonstrates the importance of an editor, the unsung hero of the film industry, without overly glorifying the profession. Kathy Bates narrates and movie icons such as Spielberg, Scorsese, Tarantino, Jodie Foster and Sean Penn share their point of view. Goes to show that a documentary that's, in a very big way, educational, can also be very entertaining.

• Tim S

  
  Excellent documentary on the medium.

• Ken S

  
  Great documentary on editing

• Walter M

  
  [font=Century Gothic]"The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Editing" is a mildly interesting documentary about the art and history of film editing, starting with its invention which made narrative films possible. It is fascinating that women were many of the pioneers in this… More
  [font=Century Gothic]"The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Editing" is a mildly interesting documentary about the art and history of film editing, starting with its invention which made narrative films possible. It is fascinating that women were many of the pioneers in this field. Film clips are shown, of course, along with directors and editors discussing their special relationships.(I would have liked to have seen a director like John Sayles who edits his own films, so I could compare approaches.) And there is also footage of veteran editor Walter Murch working on "Cold Mountain." What the documentary describes is how an editor shapes a film through pacing and how the editing can manipulate an audience which can be both bad and good. "Schindler's List" is an example of a movie where the audience is told what to feel while Michael Haneke excels by constantly challenging the audience's expectations.[/font] [font=Century Gothic][/font] [font=Century Gothic]However, the documentary is sadly only told from the viewpoint of Hollywood films with nothing about foreign or independent films(Nothing on "Memento."), except as innovators like Vertov, Godard and Eisenstein.(And as long as we're talking innovators, where's "Citizen Kane?") For example, there is a huge difference in the pacing between "What Time Is It There?" and "Moulin Rouge"(2001) which was apparently edited in a wood chipper. Yes, digital effects are neat toys but they are no substitute of the humanity of real actors. And it does not touch on the thorny subject of where a film is taken out of a director's hands and re-edited without his permission.[/font]

• Bill C

  
  Editing was always something I was aware of in the conveyance of timing continuity and emotion, but until I watched this I had no idea of the evolution of the form. Some of my favorite scenes and how the timing made it happen. For example Spielberg talking about the shots of the shark… More
  Editing was always something I was aware of in the conveyance of timing continuity and emotion, but until I watched this I had no idea of the evolution of the form. Some of my favorite scenes and how the timing made it happen. For example Spielberg talking about the shots of the shark in Jaws looking fake and how he and his editor counted the number of frames they could keep it believable. 33 frames horrifying, 37 frames fake looking rubber fish. Speilberg comments on the weeks it took to get this malfunctioning contraption to work and in the finished work 33/24th of a second In addition, the movie covers the originators of film thought it was an amusement until the addition of editing. Through the 20-40?s were editing was strictly controlled in form. It moves on to Bonnie and Clyde and Trousseau and on into modern digital editing. George Lucas talks about how he was an editor before a director, that explains allot. If like me you like to absorb and understand all about the movie process to know how thing go right and more specifically why things go wrong this is a must see. Why may I say it?s not five star, surprisingly the editing of the interviews is not very good and they run a little long winded.

• Wu C

  
  Everything you need to know on the history of film editing.

Read all 6 featured audience ratings