Wolfgang went hard

Wolfgang Petersen passed away recently, and we lost another fine craftsman of film, a director who gave the world the type of action that didn't draw too much attention to itself, and the type of thrills we don't always get anymore

Despite the incredible intensity of Das Boot, he was not a huge artistic voice, but just a rock-solid craftsman who, over a period of 20 years, made films that were always smart, often thrilling. Just solid fucking movies, full of solid fucking action. 

In the Line of Fire was razor sharp, Outbreak almost convinced us that middle-aged Dustin Hoffman was the future of action and Air Force One was tight.

Troy is his last great film - a little bloated with some terrible miscasting - but there's some terrific action, including the fight between Hector and Achilles, which almost convinces us that this really is a fight for the ages, so epic it passes into myth. Petersen does this by taking two of the most objectively handsome men in the world, getting them to train the fuck up in fighting and physique, and then unleashing them on each other.

(It's a shame there's still a quarter of the film to go after this, because nothing could top it, and the flabby Trojan Horse stuff never really gels. We'll also not speak of his thuddingly unnecessary Poseidon Adventure remake that closed out his blockbuster career.)

He was part of a generation of movie craftspeople who got to make big-budget thrills, at the height of practical effects, before the digital deluge, and they made them smart and thrilling. We could always use more of that.