The Best Edited Films. Ever.

In the June 2012 issue of CineMontage, members of the Motion Picture Editors Guild ranked the 75 best-edited films of all time.  The top 25 appear below, but a statistical summary the entire list may prove instructive for students and teachers of film:

• Most of the films cited are from the 1970s.  None are from the 1930s (which makes sense, given the difficulties of editing which accompanied the changeover to sound).  
• Five Hitchcock films appear as well as four each directed by Spielberg and Coppola.  
• George Tomasini, Dede Allen, Michael Kahn, and Thelma Schoonmaker, are the list's most frequently-named editors.
• Guild choices also commend work of audio editors, with Walter Murch (6) and Howard Beals (5) cited most often.

1999 - Zach Staenberg

You're Doing It All Wrong

Stanford's Andrea Lunsford (L), one of five writers proving Everyone's An Author.

You know the place.  The vacant lot.  The backyard.  The driveway with a basketball hoop.  That neighborhood venue where kids congregate to play. Then along comes an adult who figures out the game isn't being played by FIFA or NCAA rules.  With the best of intentions, this mom or dad steps in to "improve" things.  They want leagues and brackets and sponsored jerseys.  Over time, 4th graders are playing for "sportsmanship" and "most improved" trophies.  And the fun of the neighborhood pick-up game is gone, stolen by people who invited themselves.