[wisty]

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 care." This would have been in about 1955, when Keaton (born 1899) was an old man and well past his heyday of really dangerous stunts (he once broke his neck during an early stunt).

And he usually had an amazing commitment to film in a lot of other ways. The first time he was shot in a film he took a camera apart to figure out how it worked, because he really cared about every detail (though in the middle of his career this really hurt him, as execs wanted to just trot him up in front of the camera as a high paid celebrity - they didn't want him wasting his valuable time fussing over details, or risk their investment letting him do stunts).

[keiferski]

Video of some of his better stunts: https://youtu.be/yOo_ZUVU_O8?si=1OEwZTk-d88ma2Zs

And a great Every Frame a Painting film essay on his work: https://youtu.be/UWEjxkkB8Xs?si=n-4ZNr_cMnYVKijs

He was truly an innovator that makes today’s “films of people talking to each other” look amateurish.

A few months ago the local theatre was playing Sherlock Jr. with a live band, and it was awesome. Try to see it in similar circumstances if possible.

[PaulDavisThe1st]

> He was truly an innovator that makes today’s “films of people talking to each other” look amateurish.

I feel you could have said the first part without attempting to critique films with a different aesthetic aspiration.

I just watched Eisenberg's "A Real Pain" last night, and there is no way that any of the things Keaton was good at would have improved that film at all. Which is not to say that Keaton was not an innovator .. just that there is more than one aesthetic goal for films, and room for all of them.

[keiferski]

I was comparing Keaton to a modern film that has people talking back and forth without any interesting use of space on film. This video explains it well:

https://youtu.be/jGc-K7giqKM?si=0sOBkBrsYa4IBo5N

A lot of Keaton’s gags and shots are similar.

[exhilaration]

Wow, those stunts are incredible - it's hard to believe he died of old age and not of these super risky stunts.

[acuozzo]

> A few months ago the local theatre was playing Sherlock Jr. with a live band

AFI in Silver Spring?

[keiferski]

Nope, other side of the world

[smusamashah]

All those falls, my toddler is going to love his films I guess.

[exitb]

> 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.

[thih9]

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.

[exitb]

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

[scarface_74]

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.

[thih9]

I can’t imagine staring at a screen for 8h+ hours a day[1] is not causing some permanent injuries.

[1]: Not to mention daily zoom calls with a micromanaging boss and a mandatory video on rule.

[db48x]

Men sell their bodies all the time. Miners, fishermen, football players, etc. 97% of all workplace fatalities are men.

[krisoft]

> 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 from youtube channels when I felt that they were pushing themselves in dangerous directions. It is not like that alone will stop them, but if I would keep watching I would be complicit in the harm which might befall them.

There is the principle attributed to Houdini by Penn Jillette that a performance/trick should not be more dangerous than sitting in one's living room. Especially when it appears dangerous. I don't know about the exact line though. Strictly interpreting the "not be more dangerous than sitting in one's living room" definition would disqualify any performance where the performer had to drive (or be chauffeured) to the location of their performance. And that would be a bit ridiculous.

[josefx]

> There is the principle attributed to Houdini

Houdini died from a rather trivial stunt he performed many times before. A hit to the abdomen before he could flex his muscles most likely ruptured his appendix. Keaton died of lung cancer well past the end of his fame.

You can manage the danger of stunts, you can reduce it and prepare for anything that could go wrong. You can never completely avoid it and sometimes a single error is all it takes.

[krisoft]

> You can manage the danger of stunts, you can reduce it and prepare for anything that could go wrong.

I think that is all I'm asking. Or not even that. Just saying that if they don't, i don't want to watch it.

> Houdini died from a rather trivial stunt he performed many times before.

The blows which allegedly killed Houdini were not suffered during a performance or stunt.

[gigaflop]

There's a youtube channel out there that used to be a sort of nature channel, but seems to have devolved into 'Get stung/bit by painful animal X'. I haven't watched their stuff in ages, but I'm very aware that the original channel host isn't the one getting stung anymore. I have to wonder what it was like from their perspective, watching the view counts go up and up with each successive "Hurt yourself on camera" video, and wondering what to do next.

[astura]

>There's a youtube channel out there that used to be a sort of nature channel, but seems to have devolved into 'Get stung/bit by painful animal X'. I haven't watched their stuff in ages, but I'm very aware that the original channel host isn't the one getting stung anymore.

Brave Wilderness?

[gigaflop]

Yeah, that's the one! With the guy named Coyote.

[Fricken]

I'm a rock climber. There are many people out there who take wild and unnecessary risks on a regular basis for no accolades whatsoever, out in the middle of nowhere where no one can see them, and they don't tell anybody about it aftwerwards. However, if they want to do it for my entertainment that's fine too.

[crazygringo]

> 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.

[krisoft]

> Nobody is forced into it.

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

[adamc]

Your position is similar to why I stopped watched NFL games. I get that players choose to play (for money), but at the end of the day, I am unwilling to contribute to brain damage.

[crazygringo]

I think there's a pretty big difference between long-term brain damage and bruises though.

Stuntpeople aren't getting blows to the head, generally speaking.

[krisoft]

That is not what the research shows. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9835670/

“One hundred seventy-three performers (80%) indicated at least one head impact/head whip during their stunt career. Of these, 86% exhibited concussion-like symptoms and 38% received one or more concussion diagnoses. Sixty-five percent continued working with concussion-like symptoms.”

[BiteCode_dev]

[flagged]

[krisoft]

> 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.

[daseiner1]

Let's not scale mountains, explore the oceans, cross the poles, or go to space. Why be heroic when we can all hold hands and be safe.

"""They have left the regions where it is hard to live; for they need warmth. One still loveth one's neighbour and rubbeth against him; for one needeth warmth."""

[krisoft]

> Let's not scale mountains, explore the oceans, cross the poles, or go to space. Why be heroic when we can all hold hands and be safe.

In terms of exploring the oceans my hero is Admiral Rickover and not Stockton Rush. Different kind of heroism. Not the lack of it.

[justarobert]

Yeah, because scaling a mounting or exploring the ocean is exactly the same as "punch me in the kidney bro, it'll be funny".

[draven]

I saw a Jackie Chan interview years ago (20 or so) in which he said Keaton was an inspiration.

[adamc]

You can see some classic Keaton in "A Funny thing Happened on the Way to the Forum". He remained great, even as an old man.

[throw4847285]

Wow, I completely forgot that he played Erronius. Every time I think about the way he says "stolen in infancy by pirates" in that gravelly voices of his I have to stifle a laugh.

[vodou]

Here is the stunt where he broke his neck: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOo_ZUVU_O8&t=187s

[ErigmolCt]

His dedication was truly next-level