Film Editor Paul Hirsch achieved success long before he started working on Planes, Trains & Automobiles in 1987. Besides winning the Academy Award for his work on Star Wars nearly a decade earlier, the native New Yorker had earned a place among the greats for a batch of early 1970s collaborations with Brian DePalma.
But that didn’t stop him from learning a thing or two on Planes, Trains & Automobiles.
“John (Hughes) shot a lot of film on this picture,” he recalls. “The first cut was three hours and 45 minutes. It was the longest first cut of any picture I had ever done.”
There were more surprises to come, including the fact that “it didn’t win the weekend” — the top film over that stretch in 1987 was Three Men & A Baby.
Hirsch shared these and several other details about his career and his new book, A Long Time Ago in a Cutting Room Far, Far Away, with Reel Chicago last week at the Music Box Theatre.
The place was full of fans who had arrived to watch an anniversary screening of Planes, Trains & Automobiles followed by a Q&A with Hirsch and John Hughes’ son, James.
REEL CHICAGO
INTERVIEW WITH ACADEMY AWARD WINNER PAUL HIRSCH
REEL CHICAGO
PAUL HIRSCH AND JAMES HUGHES AT THE MUSIC BOX THEATRE
ALSO READ: Oscar winner Paul Hirsch at Music Box
Send your film news to Reel Chicago Editor Dan Patton, dan@reelchicago.com.
