Live Explosions! And Live People! Orson Welles's justly acclaimed Touch of Evil opens with a celebrated tracking shot that is long and stunningly complex. Poor Orson! What fans of this scene never remember is that it ends with a cut to some cheesy stock footage of an explosion, which looks to have been filmed in another country. It was ever thus in the bad old Hollywood, when studios didn't have the technology to do realistic-looking explosions. Fans of World War II movies will recall countless scenes that obviously combine footage of real actors with grainy pyrotechnics culled from some other source (often newsreel footage of the war itself*). Even Hollywood's sharpest critics must concede that today's explosions are unmatched in terms of color and brio. And in a corollary to the machine gun rule, they're totally harmless! If you're a bad guy, an explosion will blow you out of your bunker or guard tower, but you will wave your arms as you're flying, to let the audience know (whew!) that you're ok - just a few cuts and bruises. And if you're the hero, all you have to do is jump toward the camera, with flames licking at your back! You won't lose any limbs at all! * Studies have shown that footage of actual events is bad for movies. Unless it's digitally remastered to appear seamless with the action.

Hollywood's bad old days are always beckoning ... ... but you'd rather press on, and enjoy the luck of the Irish!