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How did they make cars fall apart in old movies (2017)

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Re: How did they make cars fall apart in old movies (2017)

#51

Post by crazygringo »

krisoft wrote: post #44
wisty wrote: post #6

For those who don't know, Keaton was amazingly dedicated as a comedic stuntman - a silent era Jackie Chan (he was less popular after the silent era, but kept working until his death in the 60s). From Wikipedia: Garry Moore recalled, "I asked (Keaton) how he did all those falls, and he said, 'I'll show you.' He opened his jacket and he was all bruised. So that's how he did it—it hurt—but you had to care enough not to…

> He opened his jacket and he was all bruised. So that's how he did it—it hurt—but you had to care enough not to care. I don't want performers to risk their safety, health and life for my entertainment. Obviously I cannot stop it, but I can stop watching those who engage in things like this. (And I don't just mean the stunt performer, but the director, the producers, the studio and the franchise.) I have unsubscribed…

> I don't want performers to risk their safety, health and life for my entertainment.

I mean, they pretty much all do to some degree. It's not healthy on your body to do eight Broadway shows a week. Or to be constantly switching between all-day and all-night shoots on a TV show. And performing a role of high emotional trauma every day for weeks or months takes its own kind of toll too.

Obviously nobody should be at risk of life or of permanent injury, that goes without saying.

But getting bruises while doing stunts, that's just what being a stuntperson is. Nobody is forced into it. And this is why there are stuntpeople in the first place -- it's not just for skills. Sometimes the regular actor could do it fine, but there's no time in the schedule for their body to recover afterwards.

Re: How did they make cars fall apart in old movies (2017)

#52

Post by hilbert42 »

nejsjsjsbsb wrote: post #45
hilbert42 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not an American either so I've not a patriotic fervor over the outcome of the Civil War to the extent as that most Americans have. That the movie showed the Confederates in better light than the Yankees wasn't appreciated much when it was released. Back then, there were Civil War veterans who were still alive who criticized the film which contributed to its poor ratings. Also, keep in mind the film was based on t…

The entire film is embedded on the wiki page. Public domain is cool!

If you can, buy a DVD copy from Kino, it's a much higher quality copy than any of the public domain copies available. In fact, the quantity is quite excellent.

The reason the DVD copy is in copyright is because it has a new musical soundtrack. That said, the soundtrack is excellent and the music (which includes Civil War tunes) is both appropriate and is well integrated into the visual material.

Re: How did they make cars fall apart in old movies (2017)

#53

Post by yowzadave »

mrb wrote: post #14

I immediately assumed this article was about the French movie Le Corniaud (1965) in which a 2CV falls apart in 250 pieces in an accident—this scene specifically: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnLj5Xo4zBc&t=19s It became one of the most iconic scene of French comedy movies. To prepare the scene, the special effects engineer sawed off the car in 250 pieces, reattached every piece with hooks, and secured the hooks wit…

The one I thought of was the Silver Hornet from Revenge of the Pink Panther:

https://youtu.be/0z-FtAMg6Vw?si=zGsEnyt4NKtsMnLb

Even though I’ve seen many different versions of this gag, they are all still funny to me.

Re: How did they make cars fall apart in old movies (2017)

#54

Post by TacticalCoder »

mrb wrote: post #14

I immediately assumed this article was about the French movie Le Corniaud (1965) in which a 2CV falls apart in 250 pieces in an accident—this scene specifically: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnLj5Xo4zBc&t=19s It became one of the most iconic scene of French comedy movies. To prepare the scene, the special effects engineer sawed off the car in 250 pieces, reattached every piece with hooks, and secured the hooks wit…

[dead]

Re: How did they make cars fall apart in old movies (2017)

#55

Post by krisoft »

BiteCode_dev wrote: post #50
krisoft wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> He opened his jacket and he was all bruised. So that's how he did it—it hurt—but you had to care enough not to care. I don't want performers to risk their safety, health and life for my entertainment. Obviously I cannot stop it, but I can stop watching those who engage in things like this. (And I don't just mean the stunt performer, but the director, the producers, the studio and the franchise.) I have unsubscribed…

[flagged]

> Then you have to stop watching any competition of anything

Done. Easy.

> stop reading about start up on HN as well

I don’t think there the motivation is to create entertainment though. But i don’t care much about that kind of content either.

> forget about any extra ordinnary human achivement

I disagree with that. Plenty of extraordinary human achievements were created under circumstances I find acceptable to celebrate and watch.

Re: How did they make cars fall apart in old movies (2017)

#56

Post by krisoft »

crazygringo wrote: post #51
krisoft wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> He opened his jacket and he was all bruised. So that's how he did it—it hurt—but you had to care enough not to care. I don't want performers to risk their safety, health and life for my entertainment. Obviously I cannot stop it, but I can stop watching those who engage in things like this. (And I don't just mean the stunt performer, but the director, the producers, the studio and the franchise.) I have unsubscribed…

> I don't want performers to risk their safety, health and life for my entertainment. I mean, they pretty much all do to some degree. It's not healthy on your body to do eight Broadway shows a week. Or to be constantly switching between all-day and all-night shoots on a TV show. And performing a role of high emotional trauma every day for weeks or months takes its own kind of toll too. Obviously nobody should be at r…

> Nobody is forced into it.

And i’m not forced to watch it. So all is fair.

Re: How did they make cars fall apart in old movies (2017)

#57

Post by saalweachter »

hilbert42 wrote: post #38
saalweachter wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some context for non-Americans: the 1920s (when the film was released) was the hey-day of Civil War revisionism; that was when most of the statues of Confederate generals were erected and the narrative of the noble Confederates was written. "1920s film made Confederates the good guys" is one of the least surprising things ever.

Thanks for that, that's a perspective of which I was unaware but I've long been aware there was a reasonable level of criticism when the film was released. It's notable from this outsider's perspective that there's still levels of animosity over the War and that statues of Lee get desecrated and or damaged from time to time.

Well, it wasn't just putting up statues and making movies where the Confederates were the good guys -- the 1920s was also the peak of organized white supremacy like the Ku Klux Klan, when lynching and other mob violence was common. The Tulsa massacre, which involved burning one of the wealthiest black neighborhoods in the United States, was only 5 years before this film came out.

You can kind of think of this era as a sort of "anti-Civil Rights movement", and it was the same group of people burning houses and lynching and putting up statues and working politically to keep black Americans disenfranchised. And it's still a salient issue today -- disenfranchisement of minorities (closing polls in minority neighborhoods to create multi-hour waits to vote; gerrymandering to concentrate minorities in a small number of Congressional districts; disproportional felony convictions and the accompanying loss of franchise) is an issue in every election. Hell, one of the initial backlashes against public health measures early on in the COVID pandemic was that the early waves primarily affected large cities and the initial mortality rates were higher for blacks than whites, so it was viewed as a problem more for blacks than whites, and therefore, not a problem.

The white-washing of Lee and the other Confederate traitors is still part of modern American politics -- it reframes the Civil War from a bunch of rich slave-owners rebelling against the United States to maintain their power and privilege, and getting hundreds of thousands of other people killed for it, to cast these men as victims of a rapacious Federal government meddling where it didn't belong. This narrative that was (and is still, eg, Shelby County v Holder) used to claim the Federal government had no right to improve the lives of minorities over the wishes of the States, is now used to claim the Federal government has no right to mandate minimum wages, or environmental regulations, or educational standards, or a thousand other things, over the wishes of the individual States.

So it's still modern politics to cast down Lee and declare that he was not a noble martyr fighting for States Rights against an oppressive Federal government, just a traitor to his oaths who was personally and politically reprehensible. And to point out that States Rights have always just been a political shell game -- Slave States were happy to use the power of the Federal government to override the will of Free States, and force them to extradite escaped slaves back to the Slave States, just like issues like abortion are "sent back to the States" until a Federal ban can be passed, at which point it will miraculously no longer be an issue for the States to resolve.

It's the old quote -- "The past is never dead. It's not even past."

Re: How did they make cars fall apart in old movies (2017)

#58

Post by [deleted] »

exitb wrote: post #23
wisty wrote: post #6

For those who don't know, Keaton was amazingly dedicated as a comedic stuntman - a silent era Jackie Chan (he was less popular after the silent era, but kept working until his death in the 60s). From Wikipedia: Garry Moore recalled, "I asked (Keaton) how he did all those falls, and he said, 'I'll show you.' He opened his jacket and he was all bruised. So that's how he did it—it hurt—but you had to care enough not to…

> He opened his jacket and he was all bruised. So that's how he did it—it hurt—but you had to care enough not to care." It reminds me of the glass eating trick by David Blaine, where the trick is to… just eat glass. It makes it quite bittersweet, as after all, those men are trading some of their wellbeing for some of their fame. Not sure how to feel about it.

[deleted]

Re: How did they make cars fall apart in old movies (2017)

#59

Post by scarface_74 »

exitb wrote: post #42
thih9 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am also trading my short term wellbeing, if only for money - by working in an unappreciative startup; I suppose many others do the same, and even more would like to. My hope is that my long term wellbeing improves as a result.

That's true, although society generally does not applaud sustaining permanent injuries at work as dedication.

https://www.sportico.com/business/media/2025/nfl-owns-73-of-...

Usually 90 of the top 100 shows on American TV are football games. It was 72 out of 100 in 2024 because it was an election year.

Re: How did they make cars fall apart in old movies (2017)

#60

Post by scarface_74 »

saalweachter wrote: post #57
hilbert42 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for that, that's a perspective of which I was unaware but I've long been aware there was a reasonable level of criticism when the film was released. It's notable from this outsider's perspective that there's still levels of animosity over the War and that statues of Lee get desecrated and or damaged from time to time.

Well, it wasn't just putting up statues and making movies where the Confederates were the good guys -- the 1920s was also the peak of organized white supremacy like the Ku Klux Klan, when lynching and other mob violence was common. The Tulsa massacre, which involved burning one of the wealthiest black neighborhoods in the United States, was only 5 years before this film came out. You can kind of think of this era as…

There are eight states that have a Confederate memorial day and two that combine Martin Luther King and Robert E. Lees birthday.
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