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The film follows a river journey from South Vietnam into Cambodia undertaken by Captain Willard (Martin Sheen), who is on a secret mission to assassinate Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando), a renegade Special Forces officer who is accused of murder and presumed insane.

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Colonel Kurtz has disappeared within the jungle, with his troupe of fighting fiends ready to rumble, you've been tasked to take him out, but first you have to search and scout, along a river where the residents are disgruntled (to put it mildly). Lots of bloodshed, bullets, ballistics, then flow, there's napalm too that conjures up impressive glow, many lives are lost and taken, in this hell where you're forsaken, but don't ask why, because nobody really knows.

Still a spectacular piece of filmmaking that demonstrates on many levels the destruction, physical and mental that armed conflict causes, and yet we perpetually fail to learn from past events.

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Colonel Kurtz has disappeared within the jungle, with his troupe of fighting fiends ready to rumble, you've been tasked to take him out, but first you have to search and scout, along a river where the residents are disgruntled (to put it mildly).

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Follows Michael Corleone, now in his 60s, as he seeks to free his family from crime and find a suitable successor to his empire.

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The early life and career of Vito Corleone in 1920s New York City is portrayed, while his son, Michael, expands and tightens his grip on the family crime syndicate.

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Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:

Storyline

The continuing saga of the Corleone crime family tells the story of a young Vito Corleone growing up in Sicily and in 1910s New York; and follows Michael Corleone in the 1950s as he attempts to expand the family business into Las Vegas, Hollywood and Cuba. Written by Keith Loh <loh@sfu.ca>

Taglines:

All the power on earth can't change destiny.

Did You Know?

Trivia

This was the first film sequel to receive five Academy Award nominations for acting. Talia Shire (Best Actress in a Suporting Role), Lee Strasberg (Best Actor in a Supporting Role), Michael V. Gazzo (Best Actor in a Supporting Role) and Al Pacino (Best Actor) all received nominations, while Robert De Niro took home the Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. See more "

Goofs

When they are passing around the solid gold telephone, most of the people show how heavy it is. And yet, when Michael Corleone, and Hyman Roth handle and pass the telephone, it appears light as a feather and no indication is given as to how truly heavy a solid gold telephone is. Thus destroying the illusion that it is real. See more "

Quotes

[first lines]
Title Card: The godfather was born Vito Andolini, in the town of Corleone in Sicily. In 1901 his father was murdered for an insult to the local Mafia chieftain. His older brother Paolo swore revenge and disappeared into the hills, leaving Vito, the only male heir, to stand with his mother at the funeral. He was nine years old.
[gunshots and screams]
Woman: [subtitled from Italian] They've killed the boy! They've killed young Paolo! They've killed your son Paolo!
See more "

Crazy Credits

Closing credits state that this film is "Based on the Novel "The Godfather" by Mario Puzo." In fact, only the scenes showing the young Vito have any basis in the novel. Everything dealing with Michael Corleone and his family in Las Vegas was created for the film, with the exception of the character Deanna Dunn. See more "

Alternate Versions

In 1977, a special version for television titled The Godfather: A Novel for Television was prepared by director Francis Ford Coppola and editor Barry Malkin by re-editing The Godfather and The Godfather: Part II in chronological order and adding deleted scenes. Most of these deleted scenes are also included separately on the DVD release and in The Godfather Trilogy: 1901-1980. Among the deleted scenes:

The opening credit sequence features additional shots of the Corleone compound. These shots were later used in the beginning of The Godfather: Part III.

The opening credit sequence also features additional shots of Michael sitting alone contemplatively, an alternate take of young Vito waving little Michael's hand on the train in Sicily, and a longer take of Michael looking at Fredo at their mother's wake.

Don Ciccio's henchmen look for the boy Vito at his home. Vito's mother says she will bring him to Ciccio herself.

Don Fanucci tells the theater impresario that he should feature Sicilian songs or opera and then comically sings examples.

After Fanucci leaves, the impresario smacks his daughter for walking in at the wrong time.

Vito sees a group of hoods jump Don Fanucci and slice his neck. This explains the scar on his neck seen later.

Genco tells Vito about the attack on Fanucci and Vito pretends not to know about it.

In the café, Clemenza tells Vito that he will never work a regular job like his father did.

Vito meets Tessio for the first time outside a warehouse with Clemenza. They take the bag of guns inside to a man named Augustino Coppola. He tells his young son, Carmine Coppola, to play the flute as entertainment while he works on the guns. This is a tribute to Francis Ford Coppola's grandfather and father. The men also leave the warehouse with a bunch of dresses.

Clemenza tries to sell a dress to a married woman and ends up having sex with her while Tessio and Vito wait outside.

An additional shot of Vito driving down the street before Fanucci jumps in.

Additional dialogue after Fanucci gets out of Vito's truck.

Additional dialogue when Vito, Clemenza, and Tessio discuss how to handle Fanucci.

An extended version of the scene where Vito first talks to Signor Roberto.

Signor Roberto asks Genco if he can speak with "Don Vito".

Clemenza brings a young Jewish boy named Hyman Suchowsky to see Vito. Clemenza wants to rename him "Johnny Lips", but Vito decides he will be called "Hyman Rothstein" after Jewish gangster Arnold Rothstein.

When Vito returns to Sicily, he kills the two henchmen that looked for him as a boy. One he finds passed out in a hut and stabs, the other he rows up to on a lake and kills with an oar.

A wide shot of the train leaving the station in Sicily.

A quick shot of people waltzing at Anthony's communion party.

A quick shot of the bandleader looking at the dancers as he is conducting.

A man taking home movies of Tom and his family.

Fredo shows up late to Anthony's communion party because his wife, Deana, is drunk. She runs up the driveway demanding to see Michael, then falls down and knocks down Fredo when he tries to pick her up. Fredo warns her not to embarrass him.

A thirsty Pentangeli tries to get a beer or wine at the communion party, but all the waiters have are champagne cocktails. This explains why he is seen drinking from a garden hose.

At the party, Sonny's widow, Sandra, brings their daughter Francesca and her fiancé, Gardner, to see Michael. Fredo barges in to tell Michael that Pentangeli is outside. Michael gives Francesca and Gardner his blessing to get married. She sees Kay and tells her the good news.

Al Neri tells Michael that he's tracked down Fabrizio, the man who murdered Michael's first wife, Apollonia. He now runs a pizza parlor in New York and is living under the name "Fred Vincent". He was brought to New York by Barzini.

A shot of four opera singers performing at the party.

A quick shot of Rocco berating one of his men.

Anthony runs towards the area where the buttonmen are sitting and Kay chases after him, warning him to stay away. She then grabs and hugs Anthony.

Pentangeli sits with Anthony and drinks a full glass of wine in one gulp. Then, he gives Anthony a $100 bill.

Al Neri goes to a casino and fires Klingman on orders of Michael. When Klingman won't leave, Neri smacks him, chases him into a rehearsal of a stage show and threatens him with a chair. Klingman agrees to leave, then Neri tells the performers to continue the rehearsal which he stays and watches.

Fabrizio gets into his car outside his pizza parlor. He turns the ignition, and the car explodes. He falls out of the car and crawls around a bit before he dies.

The final scene is Kay in a Catholic church lighting candles and praying.

See more "
Soundtracks

Pop Goes the Weasel
(uncredited)
Traditional English nursery rhyme (first published 1855)
See more "

User Reviews

Details

Release Date:

18 December 1974 (USA)

Also Known As:

Son of Godfather

Box Office

Budget:

$13,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$171,417, 10 November 2019

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$48,035,783

Company Credits

Technical Specs

Runtime:

| (The Godfather Trilogy 1901-1980 VHS Special Edition)

See full technical specs "

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Directed by Francis Ford Coppola. With Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton. The early life and career of Vito Corleone in 1920s New York City is portrayed, while his son, Michael, expands and tightens his grip on the family crime syndicate.

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The Godfather trilogy, chronicling the Corleone family under patriarch Vito Corleone (Brando) from 1945 to 1955. It focuses on the transformation of his youngest son, Michael Corleone (Pacino), from reluctant family outsider to ruthless mafia boss.

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The aging patriarch of an organized crime dynasty in postwar New York City transfers control of his clandestine empire to his reluctant youngest son. The aging patriarch of an organized crime dynasty in postwar New York City transfers control of his clandestine empire to his reluctant youngest son. The aging patriarch of an organized crime dynasty in postwar New York City transfers control of his clandestine empire to his reluctant youngest son.

Review

The acting was simply amazing, what else could you say. What could be more appealing to people(even today) than watching actors like Al Pacino, Marlon Brando, James Caan, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire and Robert Duvall. This is like heaven for someone who is a fan of movies. With this movie Brando was able to bring himself back into the limelight. His performance as the godfather alone is iconic. His character has been recreated so much in films that it has almost if it has not already become a cliché. His performance though was not a cliché. His performance was subtle and breathtaking. It was so genuine and realistic that it was not just probably but definitely more genuine than Marlon Brando himself. Al Pacino was perfect for this film as well. What a way to start up your career. His character was all about depth and he displayed it perfectly. He was able to display his own inner-battles in his mind as well as the battles he had with his family, friends and enemies. His character was more of a psychological character study than anything else to me. Robert Duvall to me was the glue to the movie. He added a different perspective to everything in just that he was not Italian yet having the respect of the mafia. His character is a man of high authority within the Corleone family who was listened to and insightful;. This was simply perfect giving the film great balance throughout. The rest of the cast was just icing on the cake.

The writing was phenomenal and breathtaking. As mentioned before there has been no movie quoted more than this. It is not even the quotes though that makes the writing in here so perfect. It is the symbolism and meaning that went into every scene. There are countless symbols, messages and lines in here that are so memorable yet it is as realistic as a movie could get.

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Antiheroes We Love AND Hate

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The Godfather: Directed by Francis Ford Coppola. With Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Richard S. Castellano. The aging patriarch of an organized crime dynasty in postwar New York City transfers control of his clandestine empire to his reluctant youngest son.

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Walter Murch was the Sounds Effect Supervisor for this film however, Murch was not in the LA Union at that time so the credit on the film did not go to him. He was also named on IMDb as a Pre-Production consultant. This is a big job because it is the planning process and execution of every task that must take place before production begins.

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In the Godfather Part III, Walter Murch is one of three Editors and a re-recording mixer. Re-recording Mixers are post-production audio engineers that balance a lot of background noise so you do not hear it unless they put some pre-recorded ambient sound onto the timeline. They also do dialogue, music and sound effects to create the final audio track for a movie, TV show to advertisement.

Film editors assemble footage of feature films, television shows, documentaries, and industrials into a seamless end product. They manipulate plot, score, sound, and graphics to refine the overall story into a continuous and enjoyable whole

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One of the last steps before a film, television episode, or advertisement is released to the public is assembling its soundtrack, a word which, in the industry sense, refers not just to music but to every piece of synchronized audio, including dialogue and effects. This task falls to the re-recording mixer, who takes previously recorded and edited audio elements-the work of production sound teams, dialogue editors, foley artists, sound effects editors, composers, music editors, and music supervisors -and layers them together, balancing the levels so that the sound tells a clear and effective story.

The best re-recording mixers excel in balancing audio so that it enhances the work's storytelling without distracting from it.

In many ways, re-recording mixers are the final gatekeepers through which all audio must pass in the film, television, and advertising postproduction cycle. Working in two phases-an initial sound mix and a final mix after the material has been shown to test audiences-re-recording mixers attempt to fix any final audio problems that may have slipped under the radar. They cover up any environmental noise, cross-fade between different tracks, apply reverb and other filters, and adjust varying audio levels, all in the pursuit of a seamless audio experience.

While re-recording mixers do their fair share of technical damage control, their most important job is to ensure that the story is told effectively through the sound. This means that every piece of audio is in the right place, demanding the right amount of attention from the audience, and supporting the aesthetic direction of the project as a whole. Taking into account feedback from the director, producers, supervising sound editor, and test audiences, the re-recording mixer must decide when the dialogue should rule the mix, when a plot-relevant sound effect needs to rise above other competing sounds, and when the music should take the lead to drive home an emotionally resonant moment.

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One of the last steps before a film, television episode, or advertisement is released to the public is assembling its soundtrack, a word which, in the industry sense, refers not just to music but to every piece of synchronized audio, including dialogue and effects.

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Murch worked as a Sound Montage and Design, Re-Recordist and as a Sound Designer. Sound Montage is "a process of creating a new image, piece of film or musical piece by selecting a number of smaller images and putting them together to create a new composite", According to Homework.Study.com. And by adding sound onto into the equation, you are, in basic terms, piecing a certain type of music and a piece of film together.

A Re-Recordist is the process by which the audio track of a film or video production is created. An Audio re-recording is often called a re-recording of music. And a Sound Designer is how filmmakers use components like sound effects or SFX sound design, mixing, Foley sounds, dialogue and music. This helps filmmakers in editing to flesh out the aural world of a film to enhance the mood, atmosphere, and/or tone.

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Sound designer meaning

First, let's define sound design

Sound design is a large and complex topic with many facets to unravel and several different job titles involved. Before we get to how sound design is made and the people who make it, let's first make absolutely clear what sound design itself is on a base level.

SOUND DESIGNER DEFINITION

What is sound design?

Sound design is how filmmakers flesh out the aural world of a film to enhance the mood, atmosphere, and/or tone. Sound design components include sound effects or SFX sound design, mixing, Foley sound design, dialogue, and music. Sound design is the final and most important element needed to create an immersive experience for the audience.

It's important to note that the sound designer does NOT record audio on set. On-set audio is the responsibility of the Production Mixer.

Examples of sound design:

Lightsaber: combination of a film projector's motor hum, TV interference, and waving a mic in front of the speaker to create "swooshing" sabers

Velociraptor: mixing a dolpin's shriek with a walrus' roar to create the raptor's screech

Saving Private Ryan - recording period artillery to maximize the authenticity of battle scenes

Sound designer definition

Fundamentals of sound design

Sound design for film is just as important in creating the illusion as imagery. With today's technology and ubiquitous CGI, what you see on screen is almost never "real." The same can be said for sound - what you hear in a movie is always manipulated in some way.

Perhaps the first thing to learn about sound design is the difference between diegetic vs. non-diegetic sound. Watch this video for a complete breakdown.

When done thoughtfully, sound design for film is a way to enhance the visual storytelling. It can give life, authenticity, and dimension to an otherwise flat, moving picture. What better way to explain sound design for film than a demonstration. Here's Tasos Fratzolas on the beautiful lies of sound design.

How Sound Design for Film Works

We have a solid foundation for what sound design for film is but how is it done? What are the processes and considerations of a sound designer. In the next section, we'll watch a professional sound designer walk us through a typical day on the job.

sound designer job description

What does a sound designer do?

The person directly in charge of crafting a film's sound design is, you guessed it, the sound designer. On a particularly small production, the role of the sound designer may be all-encompassing. They might serve as the only person responsible for a film's entire audio component.

On larger productions, the sound designer typically leads an audio team consisting of a combination of some or all of the following sound design jobs: Foley artists, Audio Engineers, Re-recording Mixers, Dialogue Editors, Supervising Sound Editors, ADR teams, Music Editors and Supervisors, and even Composers.

The vast majority of a sound designer's work is done during Post-Production but that does not mean the best film sound designers cannot be involved in a film as early as the Pre-Production stage.

Sound Designer Richard King on his process

Some filmmakers have particular visions for the aural landscapes and know precisely what they want their films to sound like before filming has begun. Meetings and in-depth discussions can take place between a director and sound designer early on in the process to prepare for what is to come later on in Post-Production.

If a sound designer is made aware of certain sounds they will need in advance, they can work concurrently alongside the film's production to begin crafting key SFX.

Cinematic sound design has many uses and is extremely important to the overall effect of a film. The following video showcases the ways in which sound design can be used to improve storytelling using real-world examples.

A professional video editor asks 'what does a sound designer do in film?'

You can see that the role of a sound is crucial to "selling the illusion" of a film. The term movie magic certainly applies to the sound designer job description. Without good sound, the audience will have a much more difficult time engaging with the film.

Movies with the best sound design

The spectrum of sound design for film

Different films call for different styles of sound design. If you were to take something like 1917's sound design and swap it something likethe cartoon sound design of the Looney Tunes, the results would be bizarre and off-putting. Like most facets of filmmaking, the best film sound design adapts to suit the individual project at hand.

Certain films present creative sound design challenges for the sound designer and their team. A small-scale, talky drama isn't likely to present as much of a creative sound design challenge as a war film.

The Academy Award-winning sound editing and mixing for Christopher Nolan's WWII film made exceptional use of a unique audio phenomenon known as a Shepard tone. This is a great example of creative sound design being used heighten the tension of an entire film.

Vox explains how the Shepard tone works

Does a particular film strive for utmost realism? How about a horror film that aims to send chills through the audience? Or maybe an animated film with exaggerated physics? Each of these examples requires a completely different approach when designing their auditory side.

Good sound design lines up with the director's vision and always aims to match and enhance the overall vibe of a film. But what about when a film contains audible elements with no real-life frame of reference?

Sound designer definition

Designing unique sounds

Sound design is a specialized and highly technical craft but it can also be a highly creative field when presented with certain challenges. When sound designing a realistic film, the sound designer's goals may be to replicate the way our world truly sounds. But what about when the world of a film is different from our own? How do you create sound design for something that does NOT exist in real life, and thus, has no recognizable sound to use as a basis?

This is where the creativity comes in. Thousands of audio libraries full of SFX can be dragged and dropped into an editor's timeline but oftentimes it can better or necessary to design sounds from scratch.

Designing sound effects can be done electronically through audio software, synthesizers, and other digital tools. Fresh SFX can be captured the old fashioned way, by going out with a microphone and recorder. Crafting unique sounds is a process that rewards experimentation and creativity. Some of cinema's most iconic sounds came about through wholly unexpected means.

The iconic sound of the boulder rolling after Indiana Jones was created through much more mundane means than you would probably guess. The film's sound designer ran tests by actually tossing large rocks off of cliffs but the resulting sound was not satisfactory. What ended up being far more effective to simulate a massive rolling boulder was, oddly enough, the tires of a Honda Civic driving slowly over gravel.

Perhaps the most iconic creature sound design in all of cinema is Godzilla's screeching roar. But would you have guessed that this roar was created by dragging a leather glove across the strings of a double bass? A great deal of experimentation and creativity goes into crafting cinema's most noteworthy SFX. This video goes into the history of Godzilla including the creation of his trademark roar.

Origins of the classic creature's sound design

Sound design examples

Examples of sound design in practice

A sound designer working in the sci-fi, horror, or fantasy genres will likely be tasked with conceiving original sounds for unique sources. What does an alien ship sound like? How do you approach horror creature sound design? All of these are questions a sound designer will devise answers for.

Here's some excellent sound design and sound editing in Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive. Watch and listen to how sound is used to create suspense in the film's white-knuckle opening scene.

Let's take a look at 'ssound design as an example. In this scene, the sounds of the mech suit, alien weapons, computerized UI, the spaceship, and the creature vocalizations all required immense creativity in District 9's sound design.

This is sound design from Neill Blomkamp's District 9

The Coen Brothers have a keen ear for cinematic sound design. Their filmography is jam-packed with excellent examples of sound design, including some of the best sound design in films. Their work showcases the variety of different directions a sound designer can take the material.

This can range from stylized near-cartoon sound design in something like Raising Arizona to something more psychologically-driven like Barton Fink'ssound design. John Goodman's ferocious roars, hysterical dialogue, the rush of fire, and the long decay of his shotgun blast, are all sound design examples culminating in one cohesive moment.

Barton Fink sound design in action

In addition to individual sound effects, sound designers also create what are known as soundscapes. You can think of a soundscape as a bed of audio that music, SFX, and dialogue rest on top of. Creative soundscapes are a great way to enhance a film's sense of atmosphere or style.

Many of the most memorable soundscapes find themselves at home in the horror genre. An eerie soundscape can be a great way to double down on the creepiness of on-screen visuals. The films of David Lynch almost always feature incredibly inventive soundscapes that he often crafts himself.

In this example from Eraserhead, notice how much atmosphere and dread are generated through the powerful and oppressive soundscape. The droning, surreal tones are layered with industrial noises that magnify the bleak nature of the environment surrounding our protagonist and the end effect is staggeringly effective.

This is sound design from David Lynch's Eraserhead

SOUND WORK

How to become a sound designer

If you're wondering how to become a sound designer for film, the path is pretty straight forward. The most common career trajectory involves starting out in lower positions on the sound design team and working your way up. If you are interested in sound design jobs for yourself, make sure you get involved with audio post-production rather than getting involved with capturing production audio.

A good place to start is to familiarize yourself with the history of sound design and to read some sound design books such as Designing Sound by Andy Farnell or Sound Design: The Expressive Power of Music, Voice, and Sound Effects in Cinema by David Sonnenschein. Absorbing the fundamentals of sound design books is the perfect first step before you start looking at film sound designer job descriptions.

UP NEXT

Sound editing vs sound mixing

Were the terms 'sound editing' and 'sound mixing' foreign concepts to you when they popped up in this article? To continue familiarizing yourself with audio post-production and to get a good handle on the distinction between sound editing and sound mixing, be sure to read our article on the nuances that distinguish them.

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WATCH: How Tarantino Makes Violence So Much Fun - Sound Design Ultimate Guide

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Sound design is the art of building the aural in a film, enhancing its mood, atmosphere, and tone. Explore what is sound design in our ultimate guide.

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Within this second part of the Godfather, Walter Murch was in these two parts - Sound Montage and Sound Re-Recordist. A "Montage" in film is "a process of creating a new image, piece of film or musical piece by selecting a number of smaller images and putting them together to create a new composite", According to Homework.Study.com. And by adding sound onto into the equation, you are, in basic terms, piecing a certain type of music and a piece of film together as a Sound Montage.

A Re-Recordist is the process by which the audio track of a film or video production is created. An Audio re-recording is often called a re-recording of music.

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The Film & Sound Editor behind Apocalypse Now & The English Patient reveals the relationship between editing and dance, the importance of rhythm - "like telling a good joke" - and how digital film has transformed his work.

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The Film & Sound Editor behind Apocalypse Now & The English Patient reveals the relationship between editing and dance, the importance of rhythm - "like telling a good joke" - and how digital film has transformed his work. Many thanks to Sheffield Doc/Fest for giving us access to interview Walter Murch.

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Walter Murch 1st Movie - The Rain People (1969)

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Walter Murch 1st Movie - The Rain People (1969)

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Long Island housewife Natalie Ravenna leaves her husband sleeping at home and sets off on a road trip in a family station wagon. She visits her parents who are quite upset with her.

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Premium Beat - Walter Murch and the Criteria for How to Edit a Film

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Premium Beat - Walter Murch and the Criteria for How to Edit a Film

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In fact, Murch got his start in sound mixing and design. And, in many ways, he might even be more renowned for his sound design techniques and innovations than his editing ones.

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“I always try to be metaphoric as much as I can and not to be literal. When you’re presented with something that doesn’t quite resolve on a normal level, that’s what makes the audience go deeper.”

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"I always try to be metaphoric as much as I can and not to be literal. When you're presented with something that doesn't quite resolve on a normal level, that's what makes the audience go deeper. "

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Walter Murch's films include Apocalypse Now, The Godfather: Part II, The Conversation, Touch of Evil

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Walter Murch has been editing sound in Hollywood since starting on Francis Ford Coppola's film The Rain People (1969).

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Premium Beat - Walter Murch and the Criteria for How to Edit a Film

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Premium Beat - Walter Murch and the Criteria for How to Edit a Film

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You have to be pretty good at your job as an editor and sound designer for Roger Ebert to call you “the most respected film editor and sound designer in the modern cinema.” But the reputation of Walter Murch as one of the greatest editors of all time is absolutely earned and true. Not only has he received three Academy Awards for best editing (with nine nominations in total), but he’s also been hugely influential in film editing function and theory.

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Cover image via

Editing tips, tricks, and criteria from one of the most famous and respected film editors of all time-Walter Murch.

You have to be pretty good at your job as an editor and sound designer for Roger Ebert to call you "the most respected film editor and sound designer in the modern cinema." But the reputation of Walter Murch as one of the greatest editors of all time is absolutely earned and true. Not only has he received three Academy Awards for best editing (with nine nominations in total), but he's also been hugely influential in film editing function and theory.

Famous for working on classic films like Apocalypse Now, The Godfather I, , and , The Conversation, and The English Patient (as well as for editing all his films while standing for increased creativity), Murch helped to develop new systems and means for editing in the analog world, all while serving as an early pioneer for electronic editing. In fact, Murch was the first editor to receive an Academy Award for a film edited electronically on Avid.

In his time, Murch has been an open figure in the filmmaking and editing world, giving numerous speeches, seminars, and masterclasses over the years. But, what really makes the edits of Walter Murch so phenomenal and unique? Let's dive into some of these lessons outlined by this editing icon to help you hone your own post-production skills.

Walter Murch's Criteria for Editing

With a career spanning over fifty years, it's safe to say that Murch has developed one of the most fundamental systems for cinematic editing. As he explains in the video above and has often spoken on over the years, Murch has whittled down the majority of his expertise to his own six-point criteria for when and how to edit a scene. You can read more about these six criteria points in his book In the Blink of an Eye: A Perspective on Film Editing, but the tenets are basically this:

1. Emotion

2. Story

3. Rhythm

4. Direction of the audience's sight

5. Bi-dimensional space of the screen

6. Tri-dimensional space of the action

I really like Murch's explanations above as he further outlines the thoughts behind these criteria, as well as proposes questions you can ask yourself when cutting films or projects of your own. These criteria and questions should be addressed hierarchically as you work your way down the list.

1. Did the transition from one shot to the next make you feel a certain way?

2. Did that cut help you to understand the story?

3. Did it happen at the right place rhythmically?

4. Where is the eye of the audience likely to be looking?

5. Are we convinced that person A is looking at person B?

6. Does the cut follow the continuity of the three-dimensional reality of the space?

The Importance of Rhythm

A good editor must have some sense of how to tell a story, and that involves a sense of rhythm. It's a little bit like telling a good joke. The joke can be a great joke, but if you tell it with the wrong rhythm, it falls flat . . . And editing is certainly 70% about rhythm.
-Walter Murch

However, as any good editor will quickly tell you, editing is much more than following the advice of a list in a book. As he puts it in the interview above, editing is like telling a good joke or story. Or, in another example, it's like learning to dance.

You can explain the roots of dance, but to explain how to dance, you have to just dance.
-Walter Murch

At its heart, editing is about rhythm. It's about establishing a pace, then finding creative ways to dance in and out of what your audience might be expecting, at any given time. We don't have to go completely into the scene, but you can hear Murch speak much more about this process in regards to editing the famous restaurant scene from The Godfather.

Making the Right Choices

Another way in which Murch will often talk about editing is in regards to simply making choices. From the very fine choices about how many frames longer you want to hold on a suspenseful shot before cutting to the resolution, to even just deciding which NLE platform you're going to be working on.

In the hour-long discussion above, Murch talks about the choices and decisions that go into every single edit of his features. It's actually a fascinating seminar of sorts and I highly encourage everyone to watch it in its entirety.

Murch goes through a bit of his personal history, and is open about his experience editing his first feature film on Adobe Premiere Pro. As someone who's almost exclusively edited on Premiere Pro, it's fascinating to see such an editing titan talk about the workflow as he showcases what he likes and doesn't like about the platform.

Worldized Sound Editing

Finally, Murch's role isn't exclusive to video editing. In fact, Murch got his start in sound mixing and design. And, in many ways, he might even be more renowned for his sound design techniques and innovations than his editing ones. I personally find this video essay above, by Nerdwriter1, to be a fascinating exploration into Murch's "worldizing"-an experimental technique (at the time) that became a mainstay for how we edit and view movies and television.

Murch's sound editing innovations are also indicative of how he views editing overall. The goal of any film or project is to immerse a viewer into the story, so much so that, at times, you might even forget you're watching a movie at all.

This is true whether you're editing projects for the cinema or for your YouTube channel. It's important to learn from industry stalwarts, like Murch, with his criteria for cutting, as well as follow his advice on how to look forward in creating your own techniques and innovations as you piece your stories together.

For more editing profiles, insights, and articles, check out these resources below.

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Walter Murch and the Criteria for How to Edit a Film

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Journey through editing tips, tricks, and criteria from one of the most famous and respected film editors of all time-Walter Murch.

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Walter Murch talks about hearing "musique concrete" in an interview and it influenced the way he designed the sound for The Rain People and THX1138. According to Britannica (2024), Musique Concrete - Concrete Music - is an experimental technique of musical composition using recorded sounds as raw material. The technique was developed about 1948 by the French composer Pierre Schaeffer and his associates at the Studio d’Essai (“Experimental Studio”) of the French radio system.

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Musique concrète, (French: "concrete music"), experimental technique of musical composition using recorded sounds as raw material. The technique was developed about 1948 by the French composer Pierre Schaeffer and his associates at the Studio d'Essai ("Experimental Studio") of the French radio system. The fundamental principle of musique concrète lies in the assemblage of various natural sounds recorded on tape (or, originally, on disks) to produce a montage of sound. During the preparation of such a composition, the sounds selected and recorded may be modified in any way desired-played backward, cut short or extended, subjected to echo-chamber effects, varied in pitch and intensity, and so on. The finished composition thus represents the combination of varied auditory experiences into an artistic unity.

A precursor to the use of electronically generated sound, musique concrète was among the earliest uses of electronic means to extend the composer's sound resources. The experimental use of machinery in musique concrète, the random use of ingredients, and the absence of the traditional composer-performer roles characterize the technique as a pioneering effort that led to further developments in electronic and computer-produced research in music. Compositions in musique concrète include Symphonie pour un homme seul (1950; Symphony for One Man Only) by Schaeffer and Pierre Henry and Déserts (1954; for tape and instruments) and Poème électronique (performed by 400 loudspeakers at the 1958 Brussels World's Fair), both by the French-American composer Edgard Varèse.

Learn More in these related Britannica articles:

Western music: Advent of electronic composition

...group was referred to as musique concrète in acknowledgement of the principle that preexisting, or "concrete," recorded sounds serve as the basis of all sonorities in the finished work. The basic sounds, which may be derived from any source-musical, natural, or mechanical-are modified electronically and arranged in any combination and...

electronic music: Establishment of electronic studios

...visual arts), which they called musique concrète. All the materials they processed on tape were recorded sounds-sound effects, musical fragments, vocalizings, and other sounds and noises produced by man, his environment, and his artifacts. Such sounds were considered "concrete," hence the term musique concrète. To this Paris group certainly belongs...

electronic instrument: The tape recorder as a musical tool

...one of the landmarks of musique concrète, for it laid the technical and aesthetic foundations for much of the later tape music....

key people

related topics

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Musique concrète | musical composition technique

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Musique concrète, (French: "concrete music"), experimental technique of musical composition using recorded sounds as raw material. The technique was developed about 1948 by the French composer Pierre Schaeffer and his associates at the Studio d'Essai ("Experimental Studio") of the French radio

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In the Rain People, it is where Murch kick-started his career as a sound person. This is where he learned DIY foley sounds and how to use them to his advantage on this film and future films he will work on. By being in a good role in the Hollywood industry, this leads him to become an editor as well in the future.

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One of the last steps before a film, television episode, or advertisement is released to the public is assembling its soundtrack, a word which, in the industry sense, refers not just to music but to every piece of synchronized audio, including dialogue and effects. This task falls to the re-recording mixer, who takes previously recorded and edited audio elements-the work of production sound teams, dialogue editors, foley artists, sound effects editors, composers, music editors, and music supervisors -and layers them together, balancing the levels so that the sound tells a clear and effective story.

The best re-recording mixers excel in balancing audio so that it enhances the work's storytelling without distracting from it.

In many ways, re-recording mixers are the final gatekeepers through which all audio must pass in the film, television, and advertising postproduction cycle. Working in two phases-an initial sound mix and a final mix after the material has been shown to test audiences-re-recording mixers attempt to fix any final audio problems that may have slipped under the radar. They cover up any environmental noise, cross-fade between different tracks, apply reverb and other filters, and adjust varying audio levels, all in the pursuit of a seamless audio experience.

While re-recording mixers do their fair share of technical damage control, their most important job is to ensure that the story is told effectively through the sound. This means that every piece of audio is in the right place, demanding the right amount of attention from the audience, and supporting the aesthetic direction of the project as a whole. Taking into account feedback from the director, producers, supervising sound editor, and test audiences, the re-recording mixer must decide when the dialogue should rule the mix, when a plot-relevant sound effect needs to rise above other competing sounds, and when the music should take the lead to drive home an emotionally resonant moment.

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One of the last steps before a film, television episode, or advertisement is released to the public is assembling its soundtrack, a word which, in the industry sense, refers not just to music but to every piece of synchronized audio, including dialogue and effects.