Indiana Jones and the Lost Cinema of Old School Stunts

I've been watching the Indian Jones Making Ofs and mourning what seems to be the dying art of stunt work and spectacle in movies. Watching George Lucas and Steven Spielberg talk about the films, it's obvious what turns their cranks, and their recent work is exactly a predictable trajectory of their 1980s selves - Spielberg still seems to be that wide-eyed kid who marvels in the magic of movie-making with all its problem-solving and craft*, while Lucas is this guy who's basically, well, lazy, for want of a better word (boring? misguided? bat-shit loco?), and is more interested in churning the spectacle out through a series of new-fangled, soul-less, joyless cheats.

I know, I know all of it's cheating, but somehow the magic is gone. When it comes to stunts, visual effects or spectacle, I never ask "how did they do that?" any more because I know they did it with fast cutting, some software and a huge number of bored, underpaid, probably Indian people sitting at computers ruining their backs and eyesight rotoscoping and painting out wires. It doesn't feel special any more, and it's not just because I'm a filmmaker and knowledge of the inner workings have made me jaded. When I see the work in the old Indiana Jones movies, I'm amazed. Real explosions. Real fire. Real stuntmen actually being dragged under cars. These days, I just take it for granted, and to feel like that is just such a shame.

The worst of it is that visual effects are so 'easy' now that filmmakers use it to mask the most banal of things, just to save time. Truck in the background? Paint it out. Light stand in shot? Paint it out. There's no doubt that in the future I'll be the first one to say "fuck it, fix it in post", but by golly I'd better feel ashamed when I do.

I can't remember where I heard it (maybe in a film?) - anyway I think it was a Japanese warrior mourning the dying art of the blade. In the past, only a person of proper training and worth could challenge a warrior. With the invention of the gun, any old commoner could kill anybody. I know it's weird/melodramatic to compare the two, but my feelings around the state of stunts and VFX at the moment is the same. I mean, it's not that I don't appreciate the new age of visual effects, or think it doesn't have any skill or craft - it does, and I know that do be done well takes a great deal of time and talent - but somewhere along the way, something's lost its soul. That's the feeling I get when the compare the old Indianas with the new one, and I suspect it's why I don't want to even think about Episodes 1-3.

I don't think I'm alone. If the biggest selling point of Tony Jaa's movies is the fact that his stunts have not been tinkered with (pity about the crap script, acting and story), then I reckon there's both hope, and an audience that could do with a bit of that ol' school soul.

We'll see.

*it's amazing how old footage of Spielberg makes me appreciate him anew. It's not cool for film students to like his work, and I used to agree that he was a boring old dinosaur, but his enthusiasm circa 1980s really is infectious. I also don't deny he is a master storyteller. Plus I got insanely jealous watching that footage on the mining-car rig on the Temple of Doom. It looks so fricking cool! I want a go!

breakfast:
a HUGE plate of mushrooms, spinach and hash browns at Crucial Traders in Kingsland

verdict:
mushrooms were very nice (maybe a little too much rosemary, but the hint of honey was a nice touch). The hash browns were a bit blech, but I still ate them. The spinach made my teeth squeak, but that's what good spinach does. There was also too much food.