The movie's star, Lillian Gish, suffered frostbite that afflicted her for the rest of her life, but she did not quit taking physically risky roles. For Victor Sjöström's 1928 drama "The Wind," Gish was placed in the Mojave Desert: "Sand was blown at me by eight airplane propellers," she later wrote in her autobiography, and she was "in danger of having my eyes put out." The Biblical flood in Michael Curtiz's 1928 film "Noah's Ark" was so intense involving at least six hundred thousand gallons of water-that the movie's star Dolores Costello was knocked unconscious and reportedly caught pneumonia; extras in the scene were rumored to have been killed.
The development of special effects and specialized stunt performance, which made swift advances in the nineteenthirties, was a mark of progress. Neither life nor limb should be risked for the making of a movie. But the result is that we no longer experience onscreen disaster as viscerally as we did the freezing waters of "Way Down East." Modern audiences are in the know about the trickery that simulates great dangers. Films must find creative ways to arouse thrills.
"Twisters," like its 1996 predecessor,
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YULE RULES
“Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point.”
COLLISION COURSE
In Devika Rege’ first novel, India enters a troubling new era.
NEW CHAPTER
Is the twentieth-century novel a genre unto itself?
STUCK ON YOU
Pain and pleasure at a tattoo convention.
HEAVY SNOW HAN KANG
Kyungha-ya. That was the entirety of Inseon’s message: my name.
REPRISE
Reckoning with Donald Trump's return to power.
WHAT'S YOUR PARENTING-FAILURE STYLE?
Whether you’re horrifying your teen with nauseating sex-ed analogies or watching TikToks while your toddler eats a bagel from the subway floor, face it: you’re flailing in the vast chasm of your child’s relentless needs.
COLOR INSTINCT
Jadé Fadojutimi, a British painter, sees the world through a prism.
THE FAMILY PLAN
The pro-life movement’ new playbook.
President for Sale - A survey of today's political ads.
On a mid-October Sunday not long ago sun high, wind cool-I was in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, for a book festival, and I took a stroll. There were few people on the streets-like the population of a lot of capital cities, Harrisburg's swells on weekdays with lawyers and lobbyists and legislative staffers, and dwindles on the weekends. But, on the façades of small businesses and in the doorways of private homes, I could see evidence of political activity. Across from the sparkling Susquehanna River, there was a row of Democratic lawn signs: Malcolm Kenyatta for auditor general, Bob Casey for U.S. Senate, and, most important, in white letters atop a periwinkle not unlike that of the sky, Kamala Harris for President.