Review of The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Editing (2004) by David D — 19 May 2008

This is a film about the "art of editing". Apparently - and this is according to the movie - the editor is second only to the director in importance to a film's success or failure (if they must say so themselves).

It's similar to Visions of Light, which cast a light on cinematography (another unheralded element of film making), but is no where near as good. Unlike Visions of Light, which concentrated on individual, pioneering cinematographers like Gregg Toland or Haskell Wexler and showed examples of their beautiful and ground-breaking work, The Cutting Edge takes a broader view, eschewing egg-headed technical discussions for a bit of a potted history of editing.

There were some examples of editing styles, but not enough for a film nerd like me. The problem for editing is its essential invisibility - if it's calling attention to itself, it's not successful editing.

I did learn, however, that long-time editor/sound designer Walter Murch has long, yucky fingernails.