PeteLeo
05-01-2006, 01:38 AM
Anyone here have an idea which was the first movie to show the hero walking away (towards the camera) from a massive explosion that he instigated to incinerate the bad guy(s)? You know the scene I'm talking about, our ruggedly handsome yet at once satisfied and weary protagonist gazing at us through hooded eyes while not even flinching as a massive orange fireball erupts only yards behind him and silhouettes him in its blinding flash. It seems to me that nine out of ten action movies contain this scene nowadays (I just watched the end of THE PUNISHER, which stimulated this query), and I was wondering which screenwriter or director first came up with the idea. I guess in a way its roots might go all the way back to WHITE HEAT ('49?), though in that case the madly cackling Cagney certainly wasn't going to walk out of the inferno unscathed. PeteLeo.