Stuntrev.com Stunt Classics are from an inside look at the motion picture industry and recognizes films that are landmark in nature. Only films that set a new worldwide standard for style and excellence will be considered as Stuntrev.com Stunt Classics. Therefore, films that are pop culture sensations will not be included on this classic list. Only films that truly stand the test of time and set a new standard for stuntwork and action.
Stuntrev.com Stunt Classics
Metropolis
The first Stunt Classics recognized by Stuntrev.com is the 1927 silent film classic Metropolis.
This film is a classic science fiction thriller that was the basis of the
Madonna music video "Express Yourself," and the pattern for many later science fiction films such as Bladerunner. Directed by Fritz Lang, this film is still studied as one of the greatest sci-fi films ever! It starred Alfred Abel, Gustav Froehlich, and Brigitte Helm as the robot and the heroine. |
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Why this film is so fantastic is the sequence where a group of stuntmen do de-accelerator falls. This was 1926, over 50 years before Dar Robinson or Kenny Bates!
Some of the acting is dated, but the theme is one that every studio executive of today needs to study. It's the story of the dehumanization of the workers within an industrial society. How the head "factory owners" have no heart for the hands "the Workers."
The film also features one of the finest robots ever done on film. Considering it was done in 1926, it's even more amazing. |
Pictured above is the scene which includes the de-accelerator sequence. |
Metropolis was directed by Fritz Lang in collaboration with his wife Thea von Harbou, who wrote the movie. Von Harbou, who was a strong Nazi supporter later divorced Lang and became a key spokeswoman for the Nazi party. Before World War II, Lang was given an offer from Joseph Goebbels to work in Nazi film production, which he nobly refused and soon after left Germany for Hollywood where he continued to make movies.
We salute Fritz Lang and his movie Metropolis for its pioneering work in the field of stunts and motion pictures with the first ever Stuntrev Stunt Award! |
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To read more about Metropolis visit http://www.germanhollywood.com/metrop_2.html.
   
Left: Brigitte Helm in her famous robot costume, goes to show that being a star isn't always glamorous.
  
Above: Cityscapes of Metropolis inspired by the early 20th century New York skyline. Year...2000!
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Wings
The second Stuntrev.com Stunt Classic is the 1927 film classic Wings.
Paramount Pictures won the very first Academy Award for "Best Picture" with this World War I action movie.
This film's stunt co-ordinator Dick Grace was a protege of Omar Locklear, the first man to walk on the wings of an airplane. Grace had watched Locklear die doing a movie stunt when Locklear flew his airplane into the ground at night because of a bad cue. Locklear left a 12 foot deep hole in the ground at his crashsite in Hollywood. Dick Grace was also a wing walker, but he became even more famous for being what he called a "crack-up engineer." He was not limited to airplane stunts, he did full burns, falls and general stuntwork as well. |
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Grace was also the inventor of the Stunt Group! His group was called the "Buzzards" or the "Squadron of Death!" Most of these men lost their lives doing films and stunt flying!
Grace was famous for sawing wing struts and aircraft parts into break-away sections to soften his crashes. The skilled former army pilot would fly the sawed up fighters into position and crash them on his mark right at camera! The movie Wings became the showcase for his art of sawing and crashing aircraft! He used surplus WWI fighter planes for his work, which added to the authenticity of the movie.
Captain Dick Grace's life story is detailed in his 1929 book, Squadron of Death! The book also gives some really fantastic insights to early Hollywood and the stunt business of that time. |
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Stuntrev.com salutes Captain Dick Grace and Paramount Pictures for the movie classic Wings. The very first best picture and the second Stuntrev stunt classic. |
  
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Smokey and the Bandit
| 1977 was the year for one of the greatest action comedies of all time. Starring the fabulous 1977 Pontiac Firebird and co-starring Burt Reynolds, Jackie Gleason, and Sally Fields.
The plot was simple but perfect for it's time, driving to get some Coors beer on a bet within a timelimit. Burt makes the run along with his truck-driving side-kick Jerry Reed across 55 MPH speedlimit America. No better or more timely hero could have come onto American movie screens. We all hated the 55 MPH limits and Burt showed Washington that a hero could arise and beat the system. God Save America!
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The bad guy (Jackie Gleason) Sheriff Buford T. Justice chased Burt and friends across the south with all his 55 MPH enforcing state police brothers. Only to be foiled by the 77 Pontiac Firebird and Burt, with a little help from his friends.
Burt's double and Second Unit Director for this film was the great Alan Gibbs. Alan founded the International Stunt Association in Hollywood and started a generation of new stuntmen in Hollywood.
Stuntrev salutes this modern day classic, and it's message of Hot Rodding for freedom. Smokey and the Bandit sent a clear message to Washington. "Repeal the 55 MPH!" and today we live in a free nation again. Long live the Bandit!
 
  
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The Road Warrior
| Mad Max is the character that made Mel Gibson a star. The Road Warrior set a new standard for stuntwork and opened the door for a flood of copycat films.
Road Warrior defined a new style for low budget films; set after the fall of society with barbaric men and piles of rubbish. Not to mention tons of action centering around cars and motorcycles which were cheap to buy and cheap to crash.
This film was produced for $150,000, which is by any standards low, low budget. Despite limited budget, Road Warrior really packs an action punch which even some one hundred million dollar blockbusters can't match. |
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The hidden star who also made his mark on the Road Warrior is Guy Norris, founder of the Stunt Agency in Sydney, Australia. Guy has turned out to be one of the greatest stuntmen of modern times. Guy's team of stuntmen have had a great impact on film.
The most memorable stunt in the film was when Guy hits the side of a wrecked dunebuggy. Guy flies end over end and lands in hidden boxes dug into a long trench. For years in Hollywood it was rumored that the stuntman had been killed doing this stunt. Another stuntman was said to be killed when a motorcycle and rider gets sucked under the wheels of an 18 wheeler. This stunt was in fact done with an articulated dummy and a very elaborate rig. No one was actually killed.
Stuntrev salutes the creativity of Guy's crew, who, working with such a small budget have impressed so many people in Hollywood for so long.
  
  
Vicious fighting in the streets all over a tank of gasoline? Could be the near future if the gas prices keep going up!
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| John Frankenhiemer is a veteran director of car chase films (including Grand Prix, the greatest car race movie of all time). In Ronin, unemployed spies look for new assignments from mysterious paying customers.
The story centers around a mysterious briefcase of unknown content which is to be intercepted in transport. What ensues is meyhem and several high speed car chases through the streets of Paris and Nice.
For the chase scenes, Frankenhiemer used right-side drive cars rigged with a fake steering wheel on the left. They used professional rally drivers on the right to maneuver the car through an actual scene with a closeup of the actor on the left pretending to drive a car that was actually speeding down the street. |
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Rober DeNiro convincingly plays Sam, an ex-cia operative who gets double crossed by his mysterious employer, Sam must then take matters into his own hands to stay alive.
 
Ronin showcases some of the best car work ever, and achieves a realistic look that most American audiences are not used to seeing.
  
We salute the creativity and realizm of Ronin which has been achieved in very few films, and director John Frankenhiemer for his visionary understanding of action from a director's standpoint.
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