Michael Bay reveals his favourite action movies
When it comes to the art of the big-budget, hard-hitting, spectacle blockbuster action film, there are few directors quite like Michael Bay. Recognised for his fast cuts and his use of special effects, including intense explosions, Bay has delivered several high-grossing action flicks throughout his career.
While Bay’s films, including 1996’s The Rock, 1998’s Armageddon, 2001’s Pearl Harbour and the Transformers movies, are not the best received critically, it’s fair to say they bring in a rather generous box office, having grossed over $7.8 billion dollars worldwide. Quite a feat, indeed, regardless of their lack of thematic quality.
The works of Bay are considered some of the biggest action films of all time, but that doesn’t stop the director himself from being in distinct admiration of some of his fellow filmmakers. When speaking to Joe, Bay discussed some of his favourite action films and kicked things off with a Steven Spielberg adventure classic starring Harrison Ford.
“Raiders of the Lost Ark. It has some action that I really loved as a kid because I saw that when I was 16,” Bay said. “I told my 15-year-old buddies that I thought the movie was gonna suck. True story. I finally saw it, and I was like, ‘Oh my God. This is what I wanna do.'”
Evidently, Spielberg’s film had a real impact on a young Bay and showed him the power of the action movie, inspiring him to become a filmmaker himself. Bay noted: “When he’s hanging under the window and under the truck, I’m like, I really gravitate towards action.”
Continuing to name some of his favourite action movies, Bay said, “Ah great one is Bruce Willis, Die Hard. It’s a great tight movie.” The director is picking out one of the greatest action movies of all time here, the 1988 John McTiernan film starring Bruce Willis as the New York detective John McClane who is tasked with saving several hostages from a terrorist.
Bay already paid his respects to Steven Spielberg, but he called out another of his iconic movies as one of his favourites. “One of the greatest to me – it’s a traumatic scene, but it’s action,” he said. “It’s Saving Private Ryan.” That is Spielberg’s 1998 epic World War II film, starring Tom Hanks and Matt Damon, telling of a group of soldiers’ journey to rescue one of their fellow servicemen.
Discussing Spielberg’s direction on his film, Bay said: “It was interesting how Steven approached it – we’re friends – and he’s like, ‘I didn’t want to scout the set. I just wanted to start at the boat, and I wanted to go through the boat, the process of what it would be like getting to that bluff.'”
Spielberg looks to have inspired Bay on more than one occasion, then, as he admitted: “Sometimes that’s the way you approach action. In my action, I’m always trying to converge three things, four things, different elements.” The director has undoubtedly established himself as one of the most prominent action filmmakers of all time.
Michael Bay’s favourite action movies:
- Raiders of the Lost Ark (Steven Speilberg, 1981)
- Die Hard (John McTiernan, 1988)
- Saving Private Ryan (Steven Spielberg, 1998)
