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Airbolt 
"teil mann, teil maschine"
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 Posted - 05/28/2007 : 21:41:32
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I cant remember if i asked on this site or another so apologies if a repeat.
The heroic " a group of men walk slowly towards the viewer " has been done on many occasions ( such as Armageddon ) and also played for laughs ( Monsters Inc )It even surfaces in commercials .
It is the ultimate in macho-bonding moments. " We don't expect to come back so we're gonna look the part "
So who did it first ? My vote went for " The Right Stuff " , a film that in itself about an iconic moment in US history ( also one of my top ten Books )
If anyone knows of an earlier instance of this visual motif , I would be intrigued to hear it.
As an aside , it's funny that certain motifs/techniques have caight on while others are used sparingly. Apart from the above ( to symbolise doomed heroics ) there are techniques like the "Hitchcock Focus Pull " ( think thats right ). Often used to indicate a character's sudden realisation of an impending event , it involves moving the camera toward the subject while pulling the focus back to create a vertigo-like sensation ( Of course , first used in Vertigo ). You see this technique used in hundreds of films .
I was reminiscing about "Kung Fu- TV " the other day , which along with the Six-Million Dollar man used slow-motion to great effect ( much imitated by boys everywhere ). It's not a technique that gets a lot of airing these days.
Finally ( Before this turns into an essay ! ) the "Potemkin Steps" gag which ( to my knowledge )has only been copied , er...homaged by Brian De Palma in " The Untouchables " ( oh how he wished he wre Hitchcock) . Come on , Directors , surely you can work a Baby Carriage and a flight of steps into your movie? ( OK , it would have been tough in Sunshine , but you get the point! )
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Edited by - Airbolt on 05/28/2007 21:43:14 |
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Rovark 
"Luck-pushing, rule-bending, chance-taking reviewer"
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Posted - 05/28/2007 : 22:37:14
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How about The Wild Bunch ?
I can't remember if they walked in regulation 'we mean business' slo-mo however.
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Joe Blevins
"Don't I look handsome?"
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Posted - 05/28/2007 : 22:38:01
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| There are probably earlier examples, but perhaps the definitive "slow-motion group saunter," as Roger Ebert called it, was in The Wild Bunch. |
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randall 
"I like to watch."
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Posted - 05/29/2007 : 02:04:11
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| BUNCH, definitely. |
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demonic
"Cinemaniac"
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Posted - 05/29/2007 : 03:14:46
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| I've always assumed the oft repeated modern homage was to "The Right Stuff" rather than "The Wild Bunch". |
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ChocolateLady
"500 Chocolate Delights"
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Posted - 05/29/2007 : 06:01:10
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| Reservoir Dogs deserves a mention in this category. |
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damalc
"last watched: Sausage Party"
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Posted - 05/29/2007 : 17:53:44
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quote:
Originally posted by ChocolateLady
Reservoir Dogs deserves a mention in this category.
didn't quite have the same effect in RD, with K-Billy's Super Sounds of the 70s playing in the background  |
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benj clews 
"...."
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Posted - 05/30/2007 : 16:17:45
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Lawrence of Arabia must have the ultimate one, surely?
On a similar note, I wonder which film used the first disappearing-into-the-sunset shot? I seem to recall a lot of old B&W final circular fade outs have used it, so this one might be as old as cinema  |
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BaftaBaby
"Always entranced by cinema."
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Posted - 05/30/2007 : 16:29:48
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quote:
Originally posted by benj clews
Lawrence of Arabia must have the ultimate one, surely?
On a similar note, I wonder which film used the first disappearing-into-the-sunset shot? I seem to recall a lot of old B&W final circular fade outs have used it, so this one might be as old as cinema
I think you're right about LoA, boss! [one of my fav big screen images is Shariff approaching through the desert haze].
As for iris-outs, many people attribute the technique to Griffith's stalwart cameraman Billy Bitzer. Dunno who first added the sunset, tho! There may have been some tie over from early pulp fiction and dime novels, many of which had the line ... "and as the sun fades slowly into the west" ...
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lemmycaution
"Long mired in film"
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Posted - 05/30/2007 : 18:19:26
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quote:
Originally posted by benj clews
Lawrence of Arabia must have the ultimate one, surely?
On a similar note, I wonder which film used the first disappearing-into-the-sunset shot? I seem to recall a lot of old B&W final circular fade outs have used it, so this one might be as old as cinema
Chaplin used the walk off often. I believe City Lights is one instance.
The most iconic has to be John Wayne at the end of The Searchers and then of course there is Truffaut's variation at the end of The 400 Blows. |
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RockGolf
"1500+ reviews. 1 joke."
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Posted - 05/30/2007 : 18:57:22
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quote:
Originally posted by AIRBOLT
Finally the "Potemkin Steps" gag which ( to my knowledge )has only been copied , er...homaged by Brian De Palma in " The Untouchables " ( oh how he wished he wre Hitchcock) . Come on , Directors , surely you can work a Baby Carriage and a flight of steps into your movie?
I know of at least one other movie which referenced the Potemkin sequence, but can't remember if it was Brazil or Time Bandits. Definitely Terry Gilliam. The mother & baby were replaced by a janitor and some Zamboni-sized floor polisher, but the close-up on the screaming bespecled face and the slow tracking shot of the machine going down the steps were precise visual puns on the original.
UPDATE: It's definitely Brazil. From IMDB.com's Trivia page on the film:
quote:
During the climactic shootout at Information Retrieval, the janitor is killed and her vacuum cleaner rolls down the steps as the storm troopers walk and fire their weapons in a skirmish line formation. This is a reference to Sergei M. Eisenstein's film, Bronenosets Potyomkin (1925), when the Cossacks march down the steps of the Port of Odessa, firing away as a baby carriage rolls by.
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Edited by - RockGolf on 05/30/2007 19:00:35 |
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damalc
"last watched: Sausage Party"
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Posted - 05/30/2007 : 20:07:37
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quote:
Originally posted by benj clews
Lawrence of Arabia must have the ultimate one, surely?
On a similar note, I wonder which film used the first disappearing-into-the-sunset shot? I seem to recall a lot of old B&W final circular fade outs have used it, so this one might be as old as cinema
for my money, "Shane" has the best riding off into the sunset scene.
also, my memory's fuzzy but isn't there a menacing looking shot in "Desperado" with Antonio Banderas walking toward the camera in silhouette? |
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Heroic Walk into Camera
