Large Man with Dead Body: Who's that then?
The Dead Collector: I dunno, must be a king.
Large Man with Dead Body: Why?
The conspicuous lack of grime, dirt, or bruises on actors, especially those in action sequences. There is an inherent suggestion of grueling
badassness to completely cover a character in sweat and grime to show that he's
really gone through the wringer. This might be a remnant of older special effects, which lacked CG but were very fond of various fluids and chemicals being waded through and thrown around.
Particularly noticeable on actresses, who come off as
Faux Action Girls because the studio doesn't dare film them except in the most flattering light. The human antithesis to this is probably Bruce Willis, who by the end of his movies is drenched in about 5 pints of grime, sweat and blood, mostly his own.
Sigourney Weaver's stint as Ripley was probably the first major female exception.
See also
Beauty Is Never Tarnished and
Bullet Proof Fashion Plate. May not protect against
Gunge.
Examples
Comics
- Both lampshaded and justified in an issue of Superman, during John Byrne's run. Using his voluminous cape as an impromptu "robe" during a journey to the thirteenth century, Superman speaks briefly with two peasant farmers, then continues on down the road. The farmers turn to each other.
"Who was that strange man?"
"I know not; some great king, belike."
"Aye, for who else could walk in such filth and not stain his robes?"
- At this time, Superman's invulnerability was a protective aura - a literal dirt forcefield.
- That quote looks like a reference to the one at the top of the page. Is anyone else seeing it?
- Gotta be intentional. Gotta be.
- In the pages of X-Men, Emma Frost's costumes are always a pristine white no matter what she goes through on a mission.
Film
- Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films subtly obey this trope. The peasant characters are always dirty, whereas a King like Aragorn is at least less dirty. Not to mention Gandalf the White's whiter-than-white robes.
- Every Western prior to Spaghetti; The Hero was always immaculate and wore a dust-free white hat across the desert. No longer used in any Western made after Savage Guns.
- James Bond almost never gets dirty during his action scenes - the biggest exception being Licence To Kill, where after setting the villain on fire, leading to a big explosion, Bond is bloody, with a wild hair and entirely covered in sand. Nothing less glamourous.
- And he gets really, really dirty throughout the entirety of Quantum Of Solace.
- Quantum Of Solace also features an exception to the rule regarding actresses never getting dirty. By the end, Olga Kurylenko is covered in just as much grime and sweat as Daniel Craig.
- Horror movies usually avert this trope, with their stars (particularly the Final Girl) being absolutely covered in grime and blood (some of it their own) by the time the credits roll.
- Sort of lampshaded in Last Action Hero after Arnold's character falls into a tar pit and all it takes to clean himself completely is a few wipes with a tissue, prompting his kid sidekick to comment, "Tar actually sticks to some people."
- Humorously done at the end of Ghostbusters, when Venkman (the "coolest" Ghostbuster) has far less marshmallow on him than the other guys.
- This is reputedly because he got "slimed" by the onion head ghost earlier on in the film and didn't think it very fair he should have to get completely covered in the finale.
- Every Transformer with a GM-licensed vehicle mode in the Transformers Film Series, thanks to the Product Placement agreements.
- Well, they're only clean in vehicle-mode. In robot-mode you can see the paint scuffs and dents.
- Considering the amount of time that the characters of Resident Evil: Extinction have spent on he road on a refugee convoy they all seem to have dirt forcefields, especially the women.
Literature
- Rachel from the Animorphs series. To the extent that the others (especially Marco) snark about it.
Web Original
Tabletop Games
Animation
- Done in Advent Children. No character goes out of a fight dirty. Epicly fixed in Advent Children Complete, where everyone, after fighting, gets a good amount of dust, grime, and of course, blood.
