An Ode to Stan Winston

Stan Winston, special effects wizard.

"I don't do special effects. I do characters. I do creatures."

Stan Winston was certainly right with what he said. Though the casual film viewer may look at a film with Winston's name in the credits and think of the directors, actors, writers, Winston left a distinct mark for creating his own characters. Winston's repretoire of projects ranged from dramas to gory horror films, from W.C. Fields and Me (the first film he worked on) to Predator. You knew that if you walked into a movie with Stan Winston's name on it, that while perhaps the acting would be bad, the directing stilted, or have a badly written screenplay, his on-screen creations would compensenate the viewer.

Not much credit is given to the artists who create the robots, aliens, or other creatures that are characters in the films along with the actors. The AMPAS didn't even have an award for Makeup until 1981. Rick Baker won that year for American Werewolf in London, but the only other nominee was Stan Winston for Heartbeeps, which should come as no surprise. Winston gave the special effects medium a face. It wasn't tinkering with remote controls anymore or trying to make the creature have the most disgusting teeth with blood dripping down. He elevated it to a new level. The films he worked on, perhaps the most famous being Predator, Jurassic Park, and Terminator 2: Judgement Day, all used effect creations as characters.

In Predator, Winston created a unique looking figure that is mysterious, yet intruing. Why is the alien here? What does it look like without the mask? When the mask is finally pulled off, we get a look at the creature that has been hunting for Dutch. It's weird mandible that opens not like a regular mouth, but like something not of this earth is perhaps it's most notable characteristic. And we do agree with Dutch when he exclaims "You're one ugly motherfucker."

Winston made his movies memorable. It's as simple as that. Would T2 have been as good a film had the effects been subpar? Would Jurassic Park even be watchable without a T-rex staring into a van with a single flashlight on it's eye? In a field that is dominated now with CGI, the true special effect art is dying. Soon, there won't be need for anymore Stan Winston's. Hopefully, it won't come soon.