How it's done

I hate Hollywood action movies. They're usually shot so terribly that I can't even get excited about the action they portray. Often I can't even follow the action.

The failure of these movies stems from an understandable impulse. Modern Hollywood action-movie directors try to pack the maximum kinetic and emotional energy into each individual frame. So when someone gets hit, they cut to a close-up of the hit. When a machine gun fires, they cut to a panning shot of the bullets hitting the wall. And cutting as much as possible to close-ups of the leading actor making faces is a given -- after all, that face is what the studio paid a lot of money for.

The price of this kind of shooting is that the audience often has no idea where they are, or even when they are. While individual moments can have great impact, overall the spatial relationships between the elements of the scene get lost. The hero jumps through the air in an awesome slo-mo low-angle shot. But how far did he jump? From where to where? The villain on the hero's trail looks really villainous in a tight tracking shot that emphasizes his determination. But how far behind is he? Twenty feet? Twenty yards? Fifty yards? It matters. If I were the hero, it would matter to me.

The simplest kind of information -- where the subject is in relationship to other elements -- gets tossed out by Hollywood as if it doesn't matter. And that, by and large, is why Hollywood action movies suck. (Well, that and also they're not about anything.)

This is a pretty generic fight scene, but it is shot better than most American action scenes ever are. It breaks many rules of Hollywood action filmmaking. No close-ups of the hero's face. No cuts to get in closer to the impacts. No slo-mo replays of the most spectacular stunts. Just one wide-angle (probably 28mm) shot following the hero, who is generally seen head-to-toe or wider, and mostly from behind.

And somehow it works. To say the least.

(Thanks, Mitch)

UPDATE: Josh Olson, who knows everything about every movie ever made, writes: "It's from The Protector, a Thai film that played here earlier in the year. The second movie starring Tony Jaa, and directed by Prachya Pinkaew."