Paying Attention To The Cutting In Editing

Back in college a film editor told the class to turn off the sound and pay close attention to the cutting and pacing of a feature.

His logic was the sound portion of a film with music score, dialog and sfx will distract you from the actual cutting and pacing of scenes.

He said a well-edited film would still make sense and flow without sound or subtitles.

[I remember when viewing 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY without audio in the class, the dead silent outer space scene's were stark and strikingly nerve wracking.]