CINEMONTAGE: The 75 Best Edited Films
I’ve seen 58 of these films. Still got some work to do. However, I don’t think Hugo deserves to be in the top 75 of all-time. Even though it won the Oscar for Best Editing last year (Edit: I stand corrected, it was nominated but lost to Girl with the Dragon Tattoo), I’d argue that there’s plenty of films more worthy of its place (Edit: including Girl with the Dragon Tattoo).
Why not Adaptation or Punch Drunk Love? What about The Fountain, or Seven? How high do they rank Trainspotting and American History X? Not to mention several dozen comedies that deserve respect. I could go on, but for the most part I agree with this list. It captures a huge portion of my personal favorites when it comes to editing.
Something else that caught my eye is the lack of documentaries on this list. As far as I can tell, the only documentary is Living Russia (The Man with a Camera). Not a lot of documentaries, but plenty of bio-pics.
The lack of docs may have to do with a Best Editing category bias. Or perhaps the guild sees less quality in editing documentary films. I mean honestly, Living Russia is historically significant and all, but some serious headway has been made into documentary filmmaking since 1929. Documentaries like The Fog of War and Koyaanisqaatsi are just two examples that heavily rely on editing to tell their stories.
I’ll admit that dramas often outshine documentaries, but it’s mainly for the reasons that make a documentary a documentary — you can’t play with the audience as much because you’re dealing with things that actually happened. This suggests that documentaries depend on editing more than dramas, which have more flexibility and control in how the story unfolds.
Anyways, I’ve barely scratched the surface of the differences between dramas and docs. It’s probably best to end my rant before it gets too far out of hand.
