|
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. |
 |
|
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!
|
|
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!
Back
to Stunt Classics Index
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. |
|
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.
|
|
   |
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. |
  
Back
to Stunt Classics Index
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!
|
|
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!
 
  
Back
to Stunt Classics Index
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.
|
|
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!
Back
to Stunt Classics Index
| 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.
|
|
  
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.
Back
to Stunt Classics Index
|
