The art of the Stunt

               

                After watching Keaton perform all of his stunts without a stunt double, I had a whole new respect for the actors that risk their lives for entertainment.  Back in the day, graphical effects couldn’t cover up some of the more dangerous stunts.  So when people saw something dangerous happening back then, they were terrified because someone actually had to do that.  Now, when someone does something dangerous in a film it is just done graphically so no harm can come to the actor.  But I believe this eliminates some of the thrill.  I think what’s so thrilling about Keaton’s work is that we know he is doing this himself and because of that the scenes have a greater effect.   

                I looked online for the top actors who performed their own stunts and the three that came up first was Tom Cruise, Buster Keaton, and Jackie Chan.  Tom Cruise surprised me when his name popped up but it said he did all of his stunts in all the Mission Impossible’s as well as his other movies.  But, of course, I wasn’t surprised at all to see Jackie Chan on the list as number one. Jackie Chan is probably the best stunt person I have ever seen and knowing most of the stunts I see him doing on screen are things he actually did just make it even cooler. 

I hope that as time goes on and graphics get better and better and stunts become more CGI filed, there will still be people willing to risk themselves for a stunt.  Cause let’s face it, we would all be much more entertained to see raw unaltered fight scenes and stuff than see a CGI fight scene.