About a year ago I wrote up Hell's Angels here on Cinema Styles and remarked how terrific the action scenes were. That was before I was doing the series In the Land Before CGI and now that I am I'd like to include it. At the time I concentrated only on the Zeppelin sequence but I'd like to expand it here to three action sequences, all masterfully directed by Howard Hughes and cinematographer Elmer Dyer (the dialogue scenes in the film were directed by the uncredited James Whale).
The incredible thing about the action scenes in Hell's Angels is that they utilize full-scale action so much of the time. Miniatures are used as well but even then they're built up so large they're practically half-scale of the objects they're meant to represent. The action sequences in the film are each a good 15 to 20 minutes long so I've truncated them and broken them into three segments for your viewing pleasure.
The first is the munitions depot bombing. In this sequence Hughes uses miniatures interspersed with full-scale. The explosions are no firecrackers either with several being actual dynamite blasts taken from an aerial viewpoint. As our heroes in a stolen German bomber set out to bomb the German munitions depot they find that their bombs set off a chain reaction which quickly eliminates the entire depot. I like the small touch at the end where the two look at each and shrug as if to say, "Damn, that was pretty cool."
The second is the dogfight that occurs shortly after the depot raid. If you've seen The Aviator you will recall Hughes setting up the dogfight sequence near the beginning of the film. Those scenes were not exaggerated as the dogfight scene uses no miniatures and, most importantly, no optical effects. The pilots in the planes are actually in the air in the planes! Even at the end of the sequence, when one of the planes we've been following crashes down it is tempting to think that is a miniature as well but in fact was an actual plane nose-dived into the ground. Check out the soldiers dispersing in the background.
The third and final sequence is the showstopper Zeppelin fight that occurs in the film just before intermission. I recommend watching the entire film to see the whole incredible scene that builds tension for a good twenty minutes before we arrive at the highlighted section here. In this part, the Zeppelin, which has shot down every plane trying to bring it down, is attacked by the final pilot who, out of bullets, flies his plane into the Zeppelin, sending it to a spectacular fiery end.
10 comments:
I've always wanted to see this movie, but I was never sure the non-action stuff would hold me. But the clips I've seen over the years are fucking nuts.
I bought the DVD a couple of years ago and can say, no, the non-action stuff probably wouldn't hold you. Even as directed by Whale, it's pretty dry. But I don't ever feel like I wasted my money because the action stuff is incredible!
Take the Zeppelin sequence. I can't even tell you how balls to the wall good it is. It's 20 minutes long! And it's tense the whole way! If you ever get the DVD just go to scene select and pick Zeppelin attack and watch the whole sequence.
The good thing about Hughes as a filmmaker was that he was crazy AND rich, so except for a couple of shots (like some in the depot sequence) you get no miniatures or optical work at all. You get the real life-sized freaking thing.
But the "acting" scenes, uh... yeah, they don't really grab you.
The first bombing sequence - did they actually drop bombs? I don't know how else they got that shot of the bombs descending toward the target.
The depot and bombs were miniatures (but about 1/4 scale so pretty damn big anyway) with dynamite explosives set to go off when the bombs reached the ground. And you can tell from the force of the explosion how large the blasts were, no chintzy effects here. Elmer Dyer was the first specialist in aerial cinematography and they were a hundred or so feet up filming the explosions.
So they had a remote control that dropped the bombs from a height? Or at 1/4 size, were they actually flown with pilots? This is rather confusing to me.
For the aerials the bombs were dropped from a tower platform. Ever watched the "Making of" doc on THE WIZARD OF OZ dvd? On there they show how they got the house to "land" on the camera. They hold the model house with its foundation to the camera, then drop it from fifty feet up and the stage floor is painted with clouds. Then they just reversed the film. Anyway, it shows what I'm trying to describe here, where they dropped the bombs from much higher, over the model munitions depot. They had dynamite charges ready to blow and when the bombs hit, someone on the ground triggered the dynamite.
The whole movie was fraught with irresponsibility on the part of Hughes. The tower could have toppled from the dynamite explosion.
This is such a great idea for a series. Before CGI, guys really had to know the intimate mechanics of film in order to create SFX. Thanks for using your wonderful writing in service of this tribute.
Off topic here Greg, but I wanted to issue my congratulations to you for finishing in the top 20 of the recent Wilko ratings along with Marilyn and Rod and Ed Howard. That is a staggering accomplishment when one considers the hundreds of thousands of film blogs out there. The film community you've bulity here and the level of erudition is always nothing less than top-rank, and the ranking is richly earned.
Doug, I agree, before CGI there was a lot more work, and above all, creativity involved. Looking at past FX work I'm constantly amazed at what they achieved.
Sam, you are far too kind but I humbly thank you for your graciousness. I don't think there are hundreds of thousands of film blogs out there though, maybe a thousand or so. Still, I'm happy for whatever success I have. Thanks again.
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