Smash Cut

This past Sunday, June 15, Stan Winston passed away. Winston’s a contemporary special effects wiz who created some of movie history’s most memorable creatures — the terrifying alien queen from Aliens, the stunning live-action dinosaurs of Jurassic Park, the dreadlocked, skull-polishing, man-hunting Predator — and also relatively “low-key” make-up effects for characters like the Penguin in Batman Returns, or Edward Scissorhands’s shear-tipped fingers. His work was brilliant, and I think that the physical, tactile quality of his effects will always make them memorable. For example, his creations for The Terminator still carry a punch. Sure, even if computer graphics have become more sophisticated at finessing the illusion between actual actors and effects models these days, those part-man/part-machine cyborgs of James Cameron’s 1984 blockbuster remain ominous. I don’t think anyone will forget the self-surgery scene once he’s seen it.

At any rate, I’m relatively late in the game on my eulogy here, but I figure I shouldn’t let his untimely passing go unmentioned. Rest in peace, Mr. Winston. Fantastic cinema won’t be the same without you.

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