10 Most Influential Action Movies Ever Made
7. The General
Arguably the first-ever action blockbuster, over 90 years later and the studios are still following the template established by Buster Keaton in The General. Big-name actors willing to risk life and limb performing their own stunts to entertain the audience can be traced right back to Keaton and his contemporaries, and the tradition carries on today through the likes of Jackie Chan and Tom Cruise.
The General's climactic train wreck is reportedly the single most expensive shot in the history of silent film, marking one of the first instances of huge sums of money being spent on a single jaw-dropping stunt at the climax of the a movie's third act. Even when viewed today it remains a hugely-impressive feat of practical stunt-work.
The movie was backed by a major studio, armed with a massive budget ($750,000 was a hell of a lot of money to spend in 1926), had a cast and crew of thousands, balanced elaborately-planned set-pieces with plenty of humor and boasted an A-list actor both starring and producing. While that became standard practice for blockbuster filmmaking a long time ago, at the time The General was a groundbreaking piece of work, with an influence than can still be felt today.