One of the vital parts of cinema is the art of the physical stunt. Great stuntwork can make the most mediocre film great and the sense of physical peril has been baked into the medium since the glory days of Keaton and Lloyd .
Like all decent people, I have my favourite stuntpeople - Yakima Canutt for the imagination and sheer grit; Vic Armstrong and all the other mad British bastards of the 70s and 80s; even Tom bloody Cruise, who will one day give his life for cinema.
And the very best ones are those who don't make it look slick. The dance-style that comes with grasps at absolute perfection has its place, but I prefer the ones who make it look clumsy.
In the bluntest of metaphors, it's one of the big differences between Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan. Lee was always so precise and never made a mistake, while Chan's characters are chaotic, making use of the environment in ways that looks improvised, despite putting in a tonne of work to make it look so good. Jackie is falling all over himself to get away from the bad guys, and somehow getting away with it.
Indiana Jones blunders through his fights and prevails through lateral thinking and outstanding endurance, Bruce Willis in the early Die Hards is always getting banged up. Even John Wick stumbles between the headshots. And the stuntpeople behind this beautifully fumbling action
Because you're never quite sure if they meant to almost fall off that moving car, or if that look of fear on their face as their arm goes up in flame is real. Action can be as messy as life, and the messier the better.
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