How come most characters don't bruise when punched ?

[Spidey]

Why is it that in almost every movie when the main characters get punched in the face in big fights or are thrown through a car windshield or something like that....they don't bruise ? And if they bruise they still manage to look very sexy. They don't have swollen lips or black eyes, just a very small purple bruise. Do they all have healing powers like Wolverine ?
How about some reality ? I got punched in the eye once and it took weeks until my black eye was totally gone.

[cstroman]

That's not always the case. (As Good As It Gets for example)

It has to do with the "intent" of what you want the audience to feel/think when they see your character.

If you want your character to look like one bad @ss mofo who's taking names and cleaning house, then you don't want him to looked like he's been hit by a Mack Truck. (Lethal Weapon Movies) Or you create a way for the character to get "cleaned up" (rain, diving in a pool, having gasoline poured on them, etc.)

There's "Macho Man Beat up Look" vs. "Hospitalized Beat Up Look" and you have to know where the line is drawn between looking "worked over" but still a threat to looking "beaten into unrecognizable"

However, if you want your audience to SYMPATHIZE with your character, then you show the horrible results of that can o' woop @ss so the audience feels pity for them.

Or you can go with a combination of both (Rocky/Passion of the Christ) where the hero gets whipped but is still a hero.

It's all about audience manipulation.

[APzombie]

Micheal held a nice shiner in The Godfather. Lasted forever.

[adamjohnson]

Same Gittes in Chinatown. He had that bandage on his nose the whole movie.

[quoth_the_raven]

Actually I can sort of see where spidey is coming from. Weirdly, I read a line in a book just last night along the lines of "in reality you can't trade blows like they do in the movies- a punch to the heads tends to do a lot more damage". Having punched people and been punched, I tend to agree with that.

Still, movies don't have to be realistic, and I;d bitch if the action scenes were all over in one punch, so in that sense, I do disagree with the rant. That, and the wonderful examples already provided by my fellow schmoe.

Right, I'm going back to bed ;)

[Spidey]

I think the writers of The Last Action Hero had it right.
When Jack Slater enters the 'real' world and he smashes a car window , his hand hurts , unlike the 'movie' world.

[Cronos]

i can kinda agree with you but there are films that have very bruised characters