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Walter Murch | |
|---|---|
 Murch inBuenos Aires, Argentina, December 11, 2008 | |
| Born | Walter Scott Murch (1943-07-12)July 12, 1943 (age 82) New York City, U.S. |
| Education | Johns Hopkins University USC School of Cinematic Arts |
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 1969–present |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 4 |
| Father | Walter Tandy Murch |
Walter Scott Murch (born July 12, 1943) is an Americanfilm editor, director, writer andsound designer. His work includesTHX 1138,Apocalypse Now,The Godfather I,II, andIII,American Graffiti,The Conversation,Ghost andThe English Patient, with threeAcademy Award wins (from nine nominations: six for picture editing and three for sound mixing).[1]
For his work onApocalypse Now, Murch was the first person to receive a credit as "Sound Designer." Murch was also the editor and re-recording mixer ofApocalypse Now Redux. In 1998, producerRick Schmidlin chose Murch as his editor for the restoration ofOrson Welles'sTouch of Evil.[2] Murch is the author of a popular book on film editing,In the Blink of an Eye, and is the subject ofMichael Ondaatje's 2002 bookThe Conversations. Famed movie criticRoger Ebert called Murch "the most respected film editor and sound designer in the modern cinema."[3]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."[4]
| External videos | |
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 Walter Murch, Film-maker,Web of Stories, March 1, 2017[5] |
Murch was born in New York City, New York, the son of Katharine (née Scott) and Canadian-born painterWalter Tandy Murch (1907–1967).[6] He is the grandson of Louise Tandy Murch, a music teacher who was the subject of the 1975 documentary filmAt 99: A Portrait of Louise Tandy Murch and ofMary Elizabeth MacCallum Scott, a Canadian physician, educator and Christian medical missionary, who with her husband Thomas Beckett Scott MD, established the Green Memorial Hospital in Manipay, Sri Lanka (then Ceylon).
As a boy, he began to experiment with sound recording, taping unusual sounds and layering them into new combinations.[7] He attendedThe Collegiate School, a private preparatory school in Manhattan, from 1949 to 1961. In the summer of 1961 he worked as amusic librarian and production assistant at Riverside Church's newly founded radio station WRVR, nowWLTW. He assisted with the July 29th 1961 live broadcast of a 12-hour folk music Hootenanny produced byIzzy Young.[8] This featured, among many other acts, the first radio performance of the 20-year-oldBob Dylan.[9] Murch then attendedJohns Hopkins University from 1961 to 1965, graduatingPhi Beta Kappa[10] in the liberal arts. Murch spent the university school year 1963–1964 in Europe, studying Romance Languages and the History of Art in Italy at Perugia and in France at the Sorbonne.
While at Johns Hopkins, he met future director/screenwriterMatthew Robbins,cinematographerCaleb Deschanel, and philosopherAndrew Feenberg, with whom he staged a number ofhappenings.[11] In 1965, Murch and Robbins enrolled in the graduate program of theUniversity of Southern California'sDepartment of Cinema, encouraging Deschanel to follow them. There all three encountered, and became friends with, fellow students such asGeorge Lucas,Hal Barwood,Robert Dalva,Willard Huyck,Don Glut andJohn Milius; all of these men would go on to be successful filmmakers. Not long after film school, in 1969, Murch and others joinedFrancis Ford Coppola and Lucas atAmerican Zoetrope in San Francisco. Murch and his family settled inBolinas, California, in 1972.[7][12][13]
Murch started editing and mixing sound with Francis Ford Coppola'sThe Rain People (1969). Subsequently, he worked onGeorge Lucas'sTHX 1138 andAmerican Graffiti and Coppola'sThe Godfather before editing picture and mixing sound on Coppola'sThe Conversation, for which he received an Academy Award nomination in sound in 1974.[14] Murch also mixed the sound for Coppola'sThe Godfather Part II which was released in 1974, the same year asThe Conversation. He did picture editing and sound design work onApocalypse Now, for which he won his firstAcademy Award in 1979[15] and he was also significantly involved in the re-editing work that resulted in the extendedApocalypse Now Redux in 2001.
In 1985, he directed his only feature film,Return to Oz, which he co-wrote withGill Dennis. After the film failed at the box office and displeased many critics with its dark and surreal imagery, he never directed another film.
In 1988, Murch was one of the editors onThe Unbearable Lightness of Being, directed byPhilip Kaufman.[16][17]
Murch edits in a standing position, comparing the process of film editing to "conducting, brain surgery and short-order cooking" since all conductors, cooks, and surgeons stand when they work. In contrast, when writing, he does so lying down. His reason for this is that where editing film is an editorial process, the creative process of writing is opposite that, and so he lies down rather than sit or stand up, to separate his editing mind from his creating mind.[18]
Murch has written one book on film editing,In the Blink of an Eye (1995),[19] which has been translated into many languages including Chinese, Italian, Hebrew, Spanish, French, German, Hungarian and Persian. His book describes many of his notable techniques used in his film editing. One of his most praised techniques he refers to as "the rule of six" referring to the six criteria in a film that he examines when making a cut. In his book, Murch also describes editing as more of a psychological practice with a goal of anticipating and controlling the thoughts of the audience.
Before this, he wrote the foreword toMichel Chion'sAudio-Vision: Sound on Screen (1994).[20] He was also the subject ofMichael Ondaatje's bookThe Conversations (2002),[21] which consists of several conversations between Ondaatje and Murch; the book emerged from Murch's editing ofThe English Patient, which was based on Ondaatje'snovel of the same name.
In 2007, the documentaryMurch premiered at theSan Francisco International Film Festival, which centered on Murch and his thoughts on filmmaking.[22]
In 2012, Murch's translations of short stories by the Italian writerCurzio Malaparte were published asThe Bird That Swallowed Its Cage.[23]
While he was editing directly on film, Murch took notice of the crude splicing used for the daily rough-cuts. In response, he invented a modification which concealed the splice by using extremely narrow but strongly adhesive strips of special polyester-silicone tape. He called his invention "N-Vis-O".
In 1979, he won an Oscar for the sound mix ofApocalypse Now as well as a nomination for picture editing. The movie was among the first stereo films to be mixed using an automated console. Additionally, the film is the first to credit anyone asSound Designer, a professional designation that Murch is widely attributed to have coined as a means to help legitimize the field of post-production sound, much in the wayWilliam Cameron Menzies coined the term "Production Designer" in the 1930s.[24]
Apocalypse Now was also notable for being the second film released in a Dolby sound system that has come to be known as 5.1, with three screen speaker channels, low-frequency enhancement, and two surround channels (one more channel than standard surround sound arrangements at the time).[25] The movie was initially seen and heard in this 70mm six-track format in only 17 theaters, some of which also featured prototypes of the Model 650 subwoofer developed by John and Helen Meyer.[26] In recent years, Murch has asserted that the Meyer Sound subwoofers were more "emotionally significant" to the film's presentations than were the two surround channels.[27]
In 1996, Murch worked onAnthony Minghella'sThe English Patient, which was based onMichael Ondaatje's novel of the same name. Murch won Oscars both for hissound mixing and for hisediting.[28] Murch's editing Oscar was the first to be awarded for an electronically edited film (using theAvid system), and he is the only person ever to win Oscars for both sound mixing and film editing.[29]
In 2003, Murch edited anotherAnthony Minghella film,Cold Mountain onApple's sub-$1000Final Cut Pro software using off the shelfPower Mac G4 computers. This was a leap for such a big-budget film, where expensiveAvid systems were usually the standardnon-linear editing system. He received an Academy Award nomination for this work; his efforts on the film were documented in Charles Koppelman's 2004 bookBehind the Seen.[30]
In 2006, he was awarded an honorary doctorate of letters by theEmily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver, Canada.[31]
In 2009, Murch's work was the subject of a tribute, "The Art of Walter Murch," a program in "The Professionals," a series by the California Film Institute at the Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center.[12]
In 2012, Murch was invited to serve as a mentor for theRolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative, an international philanthropic program that pairs masters in their disciplines with emerging talents for a year of one-to-one creative exchange. Out of a gifted field of candidates, Murch chose Italian film editor Sara Fgaier as his protégée. Previous film mentors for the initiative includeMira Nair (2004),Stephen Frears (2006),Martin Scorsese (2008) andZhang Yimou (2010).[32]
Murch is the 2012 recipient of the Nikola Tesla Award given by theInternational Press AcademySatellite Awards for "Visionary Achievement in Filmmaking Technology".[33] Previous recipients have includedDouglas Trumbull,James Cameron,Roger Deakins,Dennis Muren and George Lucas.
In 2015, Murch was presented with the Vision Award Nescens, at the 68th Locarno Film Festival, for his contributions to cinema. The two previous recipients of the award, initiated in 2013, were Douglas Trumbull and Garrett Brown.[34]
In 2016, he was awarded an honorary doctorate of media by the Southampton Solent University in Southampton, England along withAnne Coates who received an honorary Doctorate of Arts.[35]
Murch has a long term association with theUniversity of Hertfordshire; initially contributing an oral history interview withThe Elstree Project in 2013. There is a dedicated post-production lab on the Hertfordshire campus named for Murch which opened in 2015.[36][37] In 2018, Murch was awarded an honorary doctorate of arts by the University, for his contribution to the film industry in the county of Hertfordshire,[38] his contribution towards The Elstree Project, and the Film and Television Production degrees. Murch and Hertfordshire's Head of Post-Production lecturer Howard Berry teamed up to create the documentaryHer Name Was Moviola, which received its premiere in 2024. Students from Berry's film degree worked on the film as crew.
In 2024 he was awarded the ACE Career Achievement Award at the74th American Cinema Editors Eddie Awards in March. In May of that same year, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Ravensbourne University London for his outstanding contribution to cinema and his seminal writings on the craft of film editing.
In August 2025, Murch was awarded an Honorary Degree by theAFI.[39]
Murch is also Honorary Associate ofLondon Film School.
He is the only film editor to have received Academy Award nominations for films edited on four different systems:[40]
Murch married Muriel Ann "Aggie" Slater at Riverside Church, New York City on August 6, 1965. Directly after marrying, the couple took a 6,000 mile motorcycle trip zig-zagging across the United States and Canada. They have four children and have lived inBolinas, California since 1972.[13][30]
| Year | Title | Editor | Sound | Writer | Director | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1969 | The Rain People | No | Yes | No | No | Sound Montage and Re-recording. |
| 1971 | THX-1138 | No | Yes | Yes | No | Co-wrote the screenplay with George Lucas. Also credited with Sound Montage and Re-recording. |
| 1972 | The Godfather | No | Yes | No | No | Post-production consultant.[41] Murch was the sound effects supervisor on "The Godfather", but he was not in the LA union at the time, so his credit on the film does not reflect his actual job. |
| 1973 | American Graffiti | No | Yes | No | No | Sound Montage and Re-recording. |
| 1974 | The Conversation | Yes | Yes | No | No | Nominated –Academy Award for Best Sound withArt Rochester. Sound Montage and Re-recording. |
| 1974 | The Godfather Part II | No | Yes | No | No | Sound Montage and Re-recording. |
| 1977 | Julia | Yes | No | No | No | Nominated —Academy Award for Best Film Editing. Co-edited with Marcel Durham |
| 1979 | Apocalypse Now | Yes | Yes | No | No | Academy Award for Best Sound withMark Berger,Richard Beggs, andNat Boxer. Nominated —Academy Award for Best Film Editing withGerald B. Greenberg,Lisa Fruchtman andRichard Marks |
| 1985 | Return to Oz | No | No | Yes | Yes | Co-wrote withGill Dennis |
| 1988 | The Unbearable Lightness of Being | Yes | No | No | No | |
| 1990 | Ghost | Yes | Yes | No | No | Nominated —Academy Award for Best Film Editing |
| The Godfather Part III | Yes | Yes | No | No | Nominated —Academy Award for Best Film Editing withBarry Malkin and Lisa Fruchtman | |
| 1993 | House of Cards | Yes | No | No | No | |
| Romeo Is Bleeding | Yes | Yes | No | No | ||
| 1994 | I Love Trouble | Yes | No | No | No | |
| 1995 | First Knight | Yes | Yes | No | No | |
| 1996 | The English Patient | Yes | Yes | No | No | Academy Award for Best Film Editing Academy Award for Best Sound Mixing withMark Berger,David Parker, andChristopher Newman |
| 1999 | The Talented Mr. Ripley | Yes | Yes | No | No | |
| 2002 | K-19: The Widowmaker | Yes | Yes | No | No | |
| 2003 | Cold Mountain | Yes | Yes | No | No | Nominated —Academy Award for Best Film Editing |
| 2005 | Jarhead | Yes | Yes | No | No | |
| 2007 | Youth Without Youth | Yes | Yes | No | No | |
| 2009 | Tetro | Yes | Yes | No | No | |
| 2010 | The Wolfman | Yes | No | No | No | Co-edited withDennis Virkler andMark Goldblatt |
| 2013 | Particle Fever | Yes | Yes | No | No | Feature documentary on the search for the Higgs Boson |
| 2015 | Tomorrowland | Yes | No | No | No | Co-edited withCraig Wood |
| 2019 | Coup 53 | Yes | No | Yes | No | Murch is credited as editor and co-author of this feature-length documentary on Iran. |
| 2024 | Her Name Was Moviola | No | No | Yes | No | Murch also stars in this documentary about Moviola film editing.[42] |
| Year | Title | Editor | Sound | Writer | Director | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | Touch of Evil | Yes | Yes | No | No | Originally released in 1958. Murch's restoration and re-edit was completed in 1998 for the film's forty-year anniversary re-release. |
| 2000 | The Dickson Experimental Sound Film | Yes | Yes | No | No | Originally released in 1894, Murch's restoration was completed in 2000. One of several attempts to marry the archival film's sound and picture. It was later shown to be incomplete and has since been re-synchronized by professional motion picture archivists.[43] |
| 2001 | Apocalypse Now Redux | Yes | Yes | No | No | A re-edited version of Coppola's 1979 film with 49 minutes of deleted sequences added back into the film. |
| Year | Title | Director | Editor | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Star Wars: The Clone Wars | Yes | No | Episode "The General" of Lucasfilm animated series |
| 2012 | Hemingway & Gellhorn | No | Yes | HBO Television movie, Phil Kaufman, director |
