Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1359892
48 C I N E M O N T A G E I N M E M O R I A M ALAN ROBERT MURRAY JULY 30, 1954 — FEBRUARY 24, 2021 "It is hard to put my sadness into words," Clint Eastwood said after the passing of supervising sound editor Alan Robert Murray, MPSE. Murray, who died Feb. 24 at age 66, received a record 10 Oscar nominations and won twice for his work on two East- wood films, "Letters from Iwo Jima" and "American Sniper." "I worked with him for 40+ years," Eastwood told CineMontage. "Much of our success throughout the years was due to his magic, and the creativity of him and his team. "On 'Letters from Iwo Jima,' Alan went out and recorded actual P-51 Mus- tangs and Corsairs to make it authentic. His father had been a Marine on Iwo Jima. He worked tirelessly to create the sounds in the caves and tunnels while the island was being pounded by artillery. He made it all real and he did that on every picture, recording original sound whenever he could to make it authentic. He was uncompromising. I had incredible trust in him and was lucky to be able to work with him." All told, Murray made 32 films with Eastwood, including "Space Cowboys" (2000), "Flags of Our Fathers" (2006) and "Sully" (2016). Murray did acclaimed work with other top directors as well, including Todd Phillips on "Joker" (2019), Bradley Cooper on "A Star is Born" (2018), and Noam Murro on "300: Rise of an Empire" (2014). On the latter film, Murray's son, the sound editor Kevin R.W. Murray, felt his father did some of his best work, bringing to sonic life the horses, swords, shields, arrows, and massive naval bat- tles in an ancient epic. "There was really no dividing line between my father's life and his work," remembers another son, Blu Murray, an editor who also worked with his father on Eastwood's movies. "Every animal we ever had was recorded. All of our dogs will be forever barking in his films. He took no shortcuts at any step of the process, and his Nagra recorder was with him always. Every rainstorm, cricket chirp, background, wind, or cool sound he came across, he recorded. It wasn't work to him, it was just what he did. He had an unflinching sense of himself, of what he loved, and of how he chose to work. He poured his soul into everything he did." Bradley Cooper remembered laugh- ing every time a Murray bird sound showed up in a scene. "The scene in 'A Star is Born' between Jackson and Noodles was an Alan Murray bird mono- logue," he said. "What Alan was able to do with the crowd noises in response to how specific I wanted them to be—rhythmi- cally and musically—responding to what was happening on stage, stands out for me. He was tireless, finding new crowds to play with. I would mention something and two seconds later he was back with four options to try. So many laughs we all had. There is no one better to be in the trenches with." — Rob Feld P H O T O S : M U R R A Y F A M I L Y