Yakima Canutt Jumps Between Horses in Stagecoach (1939)
A lot of our idealized picture of the Previous West, each as a historic setting and as a film style, is derived from the iconography of John Ford. Mythic compositions of males on horses, and maybe thornier depictions of Native People in pursuit, outline a lot of Ford’s greatest movies. And 1939’s Stagecoach is excessive amongst them. This was the primary movie during which Ford labored together with his onscreen muse John Wayne in Monument Valley, and it set the tropes that many Westerns nonetheless comply with. What’s Firefly if not Joss Whedon’s Stagecoach in house?
Stagecoach additionally has maybe the definitive “cowboys and Indians” chase sequence the place Apache raiders descend on the titular stagecoach because it makes a frantic sprint throughout Indigenous territory. The chase options two iconic stunts executed by the film’s stunt coordinator Yakima Canutt. The primary of which sees Canutt play an Apache warrior who jumps from his horse to the stagecoach’s crew of steeds—solely to fall beneath the animals and the wheels of the coach. It’s such a spectacular picture that Steven Spielberg remade it 40 years later in Raiders of the Misplaced Ark, minus the horses. But the much more spectacular stunt is when Canutt, now made as much as resemble Wayne, leaps between every pair of horses pulling the stagecoach in an effort to take the reins of the out-of-control chief and information man and beast to security. It’s nonetheless breathtaking virtually a century later.
Chariot Race in Ben-Hur (1959)
Ben-Hur grew to become the primary movie to ever win 11 Academy Awards. To today, no movie has bested that quantity (although a number of have tied it). Effectively, it might have been 12 if there was an Oscar for stunt work. Even 65 years later, there are few sequences as astonishing because the Roman chariot race that proves to be the centerpiece of this monumental Biblical epic.Operating at 11 minutes in size, the race was not truly directed by Ben-Hur helmer William Wyler, however slightly second unit administrators Andrew Marton and Yakima Canutt (sure, him once more). Filmed with luscious 65mm cameras and 72 horses beneath a vibrant Italian solar, the sequence is attractive eye sweet to only stare at. However the stunt work is itself so marvelous that to today city legends persist that both a stuntman or horse died whereas making it.
There isn’t any historic proof of both occurring, nevertheless there was a detailed name that you may watch within the movie: the shot of Judah Ben-Hur getting flipped over his personal chariot after it strikes a barrier alongside a wall of the world? That wasn’t scripted, and the stuntman who carried out it almost died: Joe Canutt, Yakima’s son. He didn’t although, and it modified the scripting of the scene with the filmmakers including a beat of Charlton Heston being pressured to tug himself again in.
Rick Sylvester Skis Off a Glacier in The Spy Who Beloved Me (1977)
Actually if there had been Oscars for stunts within the final 100 years, the James Bond franchise would have in all probability collected near a dozen by now. There are such a lot of to select from: Invoice Suitor working a real-life jetpack in Thunderball (1965); Wayne Michaels performing the best bungee leap ever captured on movie in Goldeneye (1995); every little thing Sebastien Foucan did within the Madagascar parkour sequence of On line casino Royale (2006).
But if we’re solely going to choose one for this checklist, it needs to be when Rick Sylvester skied proper off a glacier atop a Canadian mountain for a sum of $30,000. It’s nonetheless the defining 007 stunt which opens one of many sequence’ greatest motion pictures the place Bond, in a ridiculous yellow “undercover” ski uniform, escapes Soviet assassins by launching himself into an abyss the place he does nothing however fall for a breathless 20 seconds. He then pulls the chord on an absurd and terrific Union Jack parachute. Solution to hold a low-profile, James. It’s all captured in a single unbelievable lengthy shot that cuts simply earlier than certainly one of Sylvester’s skis almost punctures his parachute, which might have despatched him plummeting.
