When Hardcore Henry released in cinemas last month, it marked a major leap forward for so-called ‘first-person films’.
Originally attempted in 1947’s Lady in the Lake, the experimental format has been used sparingly since with mostly underwhelming results. The critical issue that drama productions face is that first-person films are not first-person at all; they’re second-person, as the protagonist is defined as ‘you’ the viewer, not ‘I’ the character. As such, there’s little they can do in the film but stand around and watch the other characters play their parts.
Hardcore Henry avoided this issue by being a movie all about the kind of high intensity action usually confined to the realms of video games. Those who saw it left the cinema in awe, wondering how the filmmakers managed to pull off such an intense feat.
Fortunately for us, production company STX Entertainment decided to reveal a tease at how everything came together, and it’s just as mindblowing as the film itself.
Check it out.
If the style seems familiar, it may because director Ilya Naishuller developed the concept off the back of his 2013 viral music video, Bad Motherfucker.
Reception for Hardcore Henry was mixed, though the three cinematographers who pulled off such incredible stunts could hardly be blamed.