vicemag:

(from The Punisher)

Off Hollywood: MARK GOLDBLATT
Editor

Terminator (1984), Commando (1985), Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991), Starship Troopers (1997), Showgirls (1995), Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)

It’s too bad editors don’t seem to catch enough of the spotlight. They certainly deserve it, as editing is an art form crucial the filmmaking process. The nuance of a cut can create a vital subconscious emotional connection to the viewer, and in an action film, a great cut can make a whole theater cheer in unison.

Mark Goldblatt got his start in the late 70s by walking into the offices of Roger Corman’s New World Pictures and asking the receptionist about getting a job in editing. It didn’t take him long to work up the latter to become the king of the action film.

VICE: Your IMDb is baffling. You are a rock star of editors!
Mark Goldblatt: Thanks! I’ve always been a frustrated rock and roller.

Do you ever feel like you missed out on seeing so many blockbusters because you cut them?
I’ve seen most of these films at premieres in large venues, filled with people seeing them for the first time. If the films are crowd-pleasers, think how thrilling those first screenings can be, especially if the audience bursts out in applause at the end of an action sequence that you have edited. That’s a pretty satisfying experience.

You have also directed a few films, including the 1989 version of The Punisher with Dolph Lundgren. What made you pursue editing over directing in the end?
Although I really enjoyed making these films, my directing efforts were not particularly successful at the box office, and the material I was being offered was not stuff I really wanted to do. I’ve always loved editing, and people were offering me jobs. I got back into it, doing a film with Clive Barker called Nightbreed.

Early in your career you cut The Terminator, which was a relatively low-budget film. Seven years later you returned to edit the sequel, which had a much bigger budget and featured breakthrough CGI effects. I remember the liquid metal effect really blew people’s minds!
We definitely knew that we had a terrific movie with T2. Our morphing shots were spectacular and just the tip of the iceberg on what was to come from that technology. Visual effects have always been important in cinema, from George Melies’s onstage and on-camera illusions, through the great innovations being made by ILM and WETA in the present day.

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