S1E32 - Walter Murch - Nibbling into a Delicious Movie
In this episode we journey with one of the pre-eminent film editors of the last half century, Walter Murch, through tales of his career as an editor and sound designer. His film credits are impressive, including an Oscar for Apocalypse Now, and numerous other iconic films including the Godfather franchise and American Graffiti. Murch’s reflections shed light on how an editor makes sense of the footage a director shoots and renders a “delicious” product, much like a chef whipping up a scrumptious meal from whatever comes home from the hunt, be it mastodon or mouse. Get the Cliff Notes on his Rule of Six, and hear about the recently released sleeper documentary, Coup 53, that illuminates the CIA-organized coup to install the Shah of Iran and set the stage for today’s geopolitics. Film aficionados will relish Murch’s recollections and inside baseball on his many movie credits. Film students will glean valuable guidance on the craft of movie making, collaboration with the director, and creativity in general. Everyone will find inspiration from Murch’s curious mind and “polymathic” abilities. Lucky for us that he had a knack for sounds, a passion for tape recorders, and a love of story. Had he not, we might have lost him to the ocean floor or quantum mechanics. Join us for a delightful hour of movie history and history in-the-making.
Biography
Walter Scott Murch (born July 12, 1943) is an American film editor, director, writer and sound designer. With a career stretching back to 1969, including work on THX 1138, Apocalypse Now, The Godfather I, II, and III, American Graffiti, The Conversation, Ghost and The English Patient, with three Academy Award wins (from nine nominations: six for picture editing and three for sound mixing).
For his work on Apocalypse Now, Murch was the first person to receive a credit as "Sound Designer." Murch was also involved with the editing of Apocalypse Now Redux. In 1998, producer Rick Schmidlin chose Murch as his editor for the restoration of Orson Welles's Touch of Evil. Murch is the author of a popular book on film editing, In the Blink of an Eye, and is the subject of Michael Ondaatje's book The Conversations. Roger Ebert called Murch "the most respected film editor and sound designer in the modern cinema." David Thomson calls Murch "the scholar, gentleman and superb craftsman of modern film", adding that in sound and editing, "he is now without a peer." (Wikipedia)
Photo Credit: Beatrice Murch, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Conversation recorded on March 31, 2023.