When James Harrison received an Oscar nomination for Best Sound for his work on 2021's No Time to Die, he suddenly found himself in rooms surrounded by his heroes. "I remember at the Oscars Luncheon, I was sat at a table next to Steven Spielberg, and I felt like an absolute fraud," Harrison laughs in recollection. "I looked around and saw all these icons of the movie industry and was like, 'What am I doing here?'"
The British sound designer and editor has more than 20 years of experience under his belt, having worked on films including Casino Royale (2006), Captain Phillips (2013), The Martian (2017), and 1917 (2019). In 2005, Harrison worked as a sound effects editor on director Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven and has since become one of the filmmaker's go-to sound guys.
Still, that history didn't make the prospect of Scott's latest film, Napoleon, any less daunting. "An epic of Napoleon's scale is quite nerve-racking," Harrison admits. "It's like a mountain that's been plunked down in front of you and you're told, 'You need to climb this and you have to start from the very bottom.' Slowly but surely, you just make your way up it."
Ultimately, he believes that initial trepidation is an important part of his process. "I think that's a very healthy thing," he explains. "The fear of failure or not delivering something that's up to people's expectations is what keeps you striving to be better."
Below, Harrison shares with A.frame his five favorite films, including the beloved space opera that inspired him to pursue a career in sound.
Directed by: Ridley Scott
Alien is the first horror film I ever watched, and I was too young to watch it. It really scared me but in a really amazing way. It's a film that has totally stood the test of time. It's incredible in terms of its production design, set design, costuming, as well as the design and makeup of the alien itself. The atmosphere is so palpable, and the use of sound is incredible. It's a mesmerizing film.
The contrast in sounds, especially when they're first exiting the ship to go and inspect the wreckage, is amazing. You've got these huge winds in the exterior moments and then you cut to the inside of their spaceship and it's all quiet and calm, and that stayed with me for a long, long time. Even when the ship wakes up right at the start of the movie, there are all those weird little communication and tech sounds going on. It was incredible to experience for the first time at a young age, and it's stuck with me my whole life.
Directed by: George Lucas
Star Wars is the movie that made me want to do what I do. It's iconic, and in terms of its sound design, everything about it is incredible. If you look at any other sci-fi movies from the early and mid-1970s, and then you compare them to Star Wars, there's just no competition. It blew everything out of the water, in terms of its visual effects, production design, and sound design. The stuff that Ben Burtt was doing with the sound in that film was so incredibly creative.
I didn't realize that when I watched it at first, because you're hearing all these things, like the lightsabers igniting, Darth Vader breathing, the TIE fighters flying, and the Millennium Falcon whirring, and you're just thinking, "This sounds amazing!" When you start working in the industry, though, you realize, "I'd never think of putting an elephant scream over a spaceship flying!" His creativity was off the charts, and that film is really the one that made me think, "Maybe I want to go and try to do this and see if I'm any good at it. It sounds really exciting, at least."
Directed by: Robert Wise
When I was putting together this Top 5, I just knew I had to put Monty Python and the Holy Grail somewhere on it. It has been a part of my life for a long time. In direct contrast to bigger films like Star Wars and Alien, The Holy Grail really proves what you can do with a shoestring budget. They couldn't even afford horses! But the writing of it was exceptional. It was so funny, and yet really rough around the edges. That doesn't matter, though, because it's just so hilarious from start to finish that you forgive the roughness of some of it. You just go with it, and it's utterly fantastic.
Directed by: Robert Wise
I come from a musical background. I was classically trained, and there was a time when I was thinking that I might be the next John Williams and be a composer. When I went to university, I quickly discovered that I was really bad at paper composition, and that's when I discovered sound design and editing. I thought, "Maybe I can compose with sound instead," and that's how I got into this side of the business. Music has truly been a big part of my life, though, and The Sound of Music is a very informative movie for me.
I've got two daughters, and if we sit down and see that it's on TV on a Sunday, we won't change the channel. We'll sit down and watch it together. It's a beautifully made film that has stood the test of time, and I think it'll still be around long after I'm gone. It's incredible, and it's a joy to watch.
Directed by: John Landis
Trading Places is my favorite Christmas movie. I know some people wouldn't think of it as a Christmas movie, but Dan Aykroyd in a Father Christmas suit trying to eat a smoked salmon that he smuggled under his costume onto the bus sums Christmas up for me! It's an amazing film. I watch it at least once a year, sometimes twice around Christmastime. It offers such a clever look at social and class divides as well. Eddie Murphy is really at the peak of his powers in it, in my opinion, and everything in it just gels together really well.
I love the opening sequence that's set to the overture of The Marriage of Figaro and offers all these little snapshots of Philadelphia — from the markets to the streets, stations, and the shops — and then eventually it takes you into Dan Akyroyd's character's house. Everything about it is just really, really great, and it's set at Christmas, which I love.
