Okay, apparently this is old news (from the Daily Mail Sept. 2010), but I just heard of it and my head has been spinning over it all day. Here’s the scoop: There is a scene in the new Captain America movie in which our hero tackles a gun-toting woman to keep her from killing someone. Our heroic captain, dressed nonchalantly in a white t-shirt, khaki pants and bare feet, tackles the woman with a full-speed running jump just as she pulls the trigger. Perhaps unfortunately, superheros like Captain America don’t exist in real life, and evidently neither do their feet even in the movies.
The stunt actor in this scene was not barefoot. He was wearing prosthetics designed to make him look barefoot.
There are so many insanities here I don’t where to start unpacking them. First, the guy is a STUNTman who tackles a stuntwoman from a running start. Actor Chris Evans and his stunt double participate in many harrowing scenes throughout the movie, but they apparently cannot run across a street barefoot!
As you can see from the picture, the actor tumbles hard on the city street with the murderous woman in tow. His arms are bare and his torso covered only with a flimsy – practically see-through – t-shirt, but God bless his poor feet… they must be protected. They cannot withstand even a few steps on pavement.
What has happened to us? How can we think our feet are so useless and pathetic and incompetent that even a stunt man can’t use them for something as innocuous as running across pavement? Since I have run thousands of miles barefoot on pavement, clearly I should be getting paid more for my “stunt” that even a professional can’t pull off.
And yet… yet… we want them bare. Why not just film the scene with shoes? Why bother with the awkward prosthetics to give the impression of bare feet? Is it that most people believe our feet are so inept that having our hero in this scene barefoot adds to his “superhero-ness”?
I’m truly disturbed by this. I guess the only good news to take away from here is that the powers-that-be wanted to show bare feet in this scene even if they couldn’t bring themselves to bare any feet.
If there are any trained psychologists reading this post, then please… contact me. I would love to pick your brain about this bizarre foot-anxiety that plagues the “civilized” world.
