There is a haunting precedent, hanging over the running time of every action film. In the greater majority of them, the hero is going to survive until the end. I'm sure this is a shock, to those of you reading this, but let's talk about that fact. The most important questions to ask are, how much can they get away with while adhering to this precedent and how can they keep it entertaining?
Classic Movie Trailers: Desperado (1995)
So here's a familiar scenario: a lone man faces off, against multiple gunmen. Hammers are cocked back, shotguns are racked and bullets start flying, in every direction. At the end of the scene, our hero walks away unscathed, leaving a pile of bodies in his wake. It's a familiar conceit, used thousands if not millions of times.
How do you keep it interesting? I've rolled my eyes at the end of plenty of those sequences, but sometimes I don't think of it as much. That may be because of tolerance, for the common nonsense that perpetuates the genre. Though when I do find, that I'm painfully aware of the strings behind the curtain, it's often due to the fact, that the action is pushed to ludicrous levels.
I've seen a man ride a motorcycle off of a roof, and onto the ground, with barely a change in stride. I've seen another motorcycle rode off a cliff, and into a plane's cargo hold, so that the hero could grab the controls and fly the thing over a mountain. I maintain, that if you're laughing at the end of such a stunt, the filmmaker's made a mistake. There's amusement to be had at those things, for certain, but suspense is the target being missed here.
One solution, is to avoid those scenes completely. With imagination, and problem solving, it's possible for a hero to take out a large group, or escape in a plausible way. When this happens in film, take note of it. No scenes of this nature come to mind.
There's also another way around the problem. If you make the action as outlandish as possible, you may be able to dazzle the audience with footwork. That is to say, that we'll be so focused on the spectacle, and so eager to watch the craziness unfold, we'll forget that the whole thing is preposterous. "Desperado" does a good job, at this.
The film does make a mistake however, by cutting a key action scene off short. If you're going to do the genre, you simply have to deliver all of it. If you're lucky, you'll be able to convince everyone, of the hero's superiority. If you're not, hopefully the action's so intense they don't mind. Should all else fail though, there's one more thing to do; take a risk, buck the trend, and kill him off.
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@ChannelSeals
@ChannelSeals
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