A Look at Best Sound Editing

How lucky was I that the day I thought of the plan to dissect one category (except shorts) every day until Oscar night on February 25th was also the day I'd have to begin it in order for it to work out right? Well, the first category is Best Sound Editing. Let's take a look at the nominees...

Apocalypto
Blood Diamond
Flags of Our Fathers
Letters From Iwo Jima
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

Yuck. The only nominee I've seen is POTC, which had decent sound but nothing better than what I expected from a $200 Million budget action movie. Let's go one by one...

APOCALYPTO-It has a lot going for it. It was a surprisingly well-liked action movie that is known for its technical achievements. But the mostly Jewish members of the Academy could still be repulsed (and deservedly so) at Mel Gibson for his anti-Semitic remarks. But, keeping in mind that it wasn't Gibson that did the sound editing, we'll put this one in the "maybe" pile.

BLOOD DIAMOND-Not as impossible as it may seem. From what I understand, this is a very, well, noisy picture. I don't know what to think of it. On one hand, it only got three nominations and it didn't get much critical acclaim, and this category is often used to reward movies that AMPAS wouldn't want to reward otherwise, but on the other hand, Leo was able to snag a nomination for this instead of The Departed, so you never know. But for now, I doubt it.

FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS-As of now, this is the frontrunner. It faces some challenges, mostly from the two films already discussed, but, since the Academy would reward a movie about paint drying if Clint Eastwood directed it, they won't have him go home empty-handed (okay, well not HIM, but his film), and there really isn't another category he can win (I REFUSE to bring up the possibility of him upsetting Scorsese for Director and Picture). This seems like a good place to do it.

LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA-Though it seems more likely for Eastwood's Best Picture nominated film to be rewarded, it's missing one crucial thing: a Best Sound Mixing nomination. The Sound Editing and Sound Mixing awards are like the Picture and Director awards. It's extremely difficult for a film to win either one if it's not nominated for the other. It's not a big threat.

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST-While this category does not uncommonly award summer/popcorn movies, this one already has the Visual Effects category to win. To be frank, no one really cares about the Sound Editing category. That's probably why you've stopped reading by now. They just use it so that films can say "________ is now an Academy Award Winner" in their promos. Pirates will have that opportunity with another category. No worries.

WILL WIN: Flags of Our Fathers
SHOULD WIN: N/A
IN ORDER OF LIKELINESS:
1. Flags of Our Fathers
2. Apocalypto
3. Letters From Iwo Jima
4. Blood Diamond
5. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

Tomorrow: Best Sound Mixing