Made in the wake of Tim Burton’s Batman, this adaptation of Captain America has a beam of pre-VFX action-filmmaking vision sneaking through the bargain-basement entertainment façade. There’s an alchemy to the way the gunfire lights up a running figure, to how a close-up gives way to a panorama of combat. The camera dynamically tracks his body as it crashes through flimsy sets and practical explosions, Salinger’s wooden smile masking the utter effort required to pull it all off. In scene after scene, Salinger heaves an oversize Frisbee of a shield (that wasn’t yet the centerpiece of a billion-dollar franchise), flying to retrieve the thing when it mystically boomerangs back and logrolling behind it when enemies start shooting. Salinger’s son, Matt Salinger, strapped on a skintight red, white, and blue suit, pulled a matching rubber mask over his eyes and head, and fought a leather-trench-coat-wearing villain styled to look as though a thousand red crayons had melted over his head.

Read about the winners of the inaugural celebration of stunt professionals here. Photo: Cannon Films/Courtesy Everet CollectionĪlbert Pyun is the recipient of Vulture’s first ever Stunt Award: Lifetime Achievement.

The audacity of this b