Stunts

There are some classic film stunts, like Buster Keaton's house fall in Steamboat Bill, Jr, that never get old. The idea that someone is really doing something, something that seems extremely dangerous, is what makes the great action scenes work. Come to think of it, a lot of it really is extremely dangerous, and it is not unknown for stunt people to get injured, and more than a few have even gotten killed when something went wrong, especially in the early days. Nowadays there are still plenty of stunts, but as often as not there's also CGI. Not that I want anybody to get killed or anything, but it just isn't the same.

The granddaddy of the stuntmen is probably Yakima Canutt. His greatest gag was the the old "fall off the lead horse and go under the stagecoach," but he was not averse to jumping off the top of the coach and working his way up to riding the lead horse in the first place. He's also the guy who directed the Ben-Hur chariot race.



In honor of summer, when there seems to be the most stunts in the movies, here's A Stuntman's Guide to the Most Exciting Stunts in Film History.
I'm especially taken by Jackie Chan in the department store. I got bruised just watching it.
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