Think you don’t know Vic Armstrong? You’ve seen his work in countless films. He’s been stunt double for James Bond and Indiana Jones, and he’s directed action scenes for 3 Bond movies, Mission Impossible 3 and Thor, to name but a few. He’s got a lot of amazing stories to tell, and they’re all here in this acclaimed memoir, now updated with Vic’s work on The Amazing Spider-Man!
The life story of Vic Armstrong is a truly fascinating one. While the beginning of the book deals with his childhood (an interesting enough tale in its own right) it takes no time at all before it delves into his prolific career as a stuntman. The book covers just about all of the projects he has worked on over the years, and he reveals a huge amount of insights and opinions on films, actors and directors. Armstrong spends more time talking about some projects than others, although it never feels as if there is too much or too little said about any one of them. It's hard to imagine that fans of any of the films he has worked on will feel short changed, as Armstrong talks revealingly about those both big and small. As is customary with most autobiographies, the middle is fleshed out with dozens of glossy colour photographs, although the rest of the book also features plenty of brilliant black and white behind the scenes images. These aren't ones you'll come across using a quick Google Search either, as many clearly come from the collection Armstrong has amassed over the years.
The book is structured perfectly, with some chapters covering specific films (
Superman,
Raiders Of The Lost Arc,
Tomorrow Never Dies, etc.) and others touching upon certain periods in his life or brief stories which go on to inform later chapters. Basically, there's an awful lot of content, making this a fantastic purchase and an all round great read. Throughout the book, there are comments from the likes of Steven Spielberg (who also provides the introduction), Kenneth Branagh, Harrison Ford, Angelina Jolie, George Lucas, Arnold Schwarzenegger and many, many more. They all discuss what it was like to work with the prolific stuntman, providing the reader with the other side of the story so to speak, as well as some great insights into his work from a totally different perspective. Superhero fans will be very happy as he dedicates an entire chapter to his work on the likes of
The Green Hornet,
Thor and
The Amazing Spider-Man, also offering up brief comments and updates on the likes of
World War Z and
Akira.
The True Adventures Of The World's Greatest Stuntman is an essential read. Whether it's Armstrong's tale of butting heads with Christopher Reeve on the set of
Superman (the actor wanted to do more stunts than he could handle, but later acknowledged that he was out of his depth), his recollection of an epic 100 foot descent off a viaduct for
Omen III or an in-depth analysis of how Team Armstrong made Spider-Man web-swing for real in Marc Webb's upcoming reboot, it's a truly fascinating read. The book is very personal, and this ensures that it ends up being so much more than what could have been just a recollection of stunt after stunt. In fact, it's impossible to find any real faults with the book. It promises the story of The World's Greatest Stuntman and that's exactly what you get. It's not made clear just how much extra content is included in this updated and expanded paperback edition, although the additional details on
The Amazing Spider-Man (as mentioned numerous times above) surely make it a worthwhile purchase even for those who have the hardback, especially when it's priced up at an extremely reasonable £8.99/$14.95.
Simply fantastic. The story of Vic Armstrong is an essential read and you'll have no doubt by the time you reach the last page that he truly is The World's Greatest Stuntman.
The True Adventures of the World's Greatest Stuntman from
Titan Books is on sale now and you can check out my interview with Vic by clicking
HERE.