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Action film
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Action movies are a film genre where action sequences, such as explosions, fights, shootouts, stunts, car chases or explosions either take precedence over or, in finer examples of the genre, are used as a form of exposition and character development. The action typically involves individual efforts on the part of the hero. While action has long been an element of films, the "Action film" as a genre of its own began to develop in the 1970s.
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Encyclopedia
Action movies are a film genre where action sequences, such as explosions, fights, shootouts, stunts, car chases or explosions either take precedence over or, in finer examples of the genre, are used as a form of exposition and character development. The action typically involves individual efforts on the part of the hero. While action has long been an element of films, the "Action film" as a genre of its own began to develop in the 1970s. The genre is closely linked with the thriller and adventure film genres.
While the non-stop motion and fast pacing of action films makes these escapist "popcorn films" a reliable source of revenue for movie studios, relatively few action films garner critical praise. Action films tend to be formulaic works based around clichéd stock characters and well-worn plots. While action films have traditionally been aimed at male audiences, from the early teens to the mid-30s, action filmmakers from the 1990s and 2000s added female heroines, romance subplots, and more substantial storylines to broaden the appeal of action films.
History
During the 1920s and 1930s, action-based films were often "swashbuckling" adventure films in which Douglas Fairbanks or Errol Flynn wielded swords in period pieces. The long-running success of the James Bond series of spy films in the 1960s and 1970s helped to popularise the modern day action film. The early Bond films were characterised by quick cutting, car chases, fist fights and ever more elaborate action sequences. The series also established the concept of the resourceful hero, who is able to dispatch the villains with a ready one-liner. Early American action films usually focused on maverick police officers, as in Bullitt (1968), The French Connection (1971) and Dirty Harry (1971). These were among the earliest films to present a car chase as an action set-piece. Dirty Harry (1971) can be considered "the action film's first true archetype."
The genre came about as a synthesis of the existing western and film noir genres, with some elements of the police procedural.
However, the action film did not become a dominant form in Hollywood until the 1980s, when it was popularized by actors such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Mel Gibson and Sylvester Stallone. The 1988 film Die Hard was particularly influential on the development of the genre in the following decade. In the film, Bruce Willis plays a New York police detective who inadvertently becomes embroiled in a terrorist take-over of a Los Angeles office block. The film set a pattern for a host of imitators, like Under Siege (1992) or Air Force One (1997), which used the same formula in a different setting. Action films tend to be expensive when requiring big budget special effects and stunt work. As such, they are regarded as mostly a Hollywood genre, although there have been a significant number of action films from Hong Kong which are primarily modern variations of the martial arts film. Because of these roots, Hong Kong action films typically center on acrobatics by the protagonist while American action films typically feature big explosions and modern CGI special effects technology.
Current trends
Current trends in action film include a development toward more elaborate fight scenes in Western film. This trend is influenced by the massive success of Hong Kong action cinema, both in Asia and in the west. Asian martial arts elements, such as kung-fu can now be found in numerous non-Asian action films. Many credit Jackie Chan's Rush Hour to have been the first film to really get North American's to enjoy the martial arts/comedy which has now appeared in numerous films. Now, a distinction can be made between films that lean toward physical, agile fighting, such as Blade and The Matrix, and those that lean toward other common action film conventions, like explosions and plenty of gunfire, such as Mission: Impossible III, although most action movies employ elements of both.
Another trend of growing appearance is the tendency of fight scenes to be filmed with actors being filmed one at a time in front of a blue or green screen, so that special effects experts can then combine the different images. This means that the two actors do not have to be swinging swords, knives or fists at each other, as was done through much of the history of action and adventure movies. This, coupled with computer graphics used to enhance and edit the eventual film makes stunts less dangerous and permits swifter movement by actors.
Sub-genres
- Die Hard Scenario - The story takes place in limited location - a single building, plane, or vessel - which is seized or under threat by enemy agents, but are opposed by a single hero who fights an extended battle within the location using stealth and cunning to attempt to defeat them. This sub-genre began with the film, Die Hard, but has become popular in Hollywood movie making both because of its crowd appeal and the relative simplicity of building sets for such a constrained piece. Among the many films that have copied this formula are Under Siege (terrorists take over a ship), Under Siege 2: Dark Territory & Derailed (hostages are trapped on a train), Sudden Death (terrorists take over a Ice Hockey stadium), Passenger 57, Executive Decision & Air Force One (hostages are trapped on a plane), Speed (hostages are trapped on a bus), Con Air (criminals take over a transport plane), and Half Past Dead & The Rock (criminals or terrorists take over a prison).
- Heroic bloodshed - This Hong Kong sub-genre revolves around dramatic themes such as brotherhood, honour, redemption and the effects of violence on the individual and society at large. It often features stylized shootouts with slow-motion scenes of barrages of gun fire with large-calibre automatic pistols.
Notable individuals
Actors
Actors from the 1950s and 1960s such as John Wayne, Steve McQueen and Lee Marvin passed the torch in the 1970s to actors such as Charles Bronson, martial artist Chuck Norris, and Clint Eastwood. In the 1980s, Mel Gibson and Danny Glover had a popular string of "buddy cop" films in the Lethal Weapon franchise. Beginning in the mid-1980s, actors such as the burly ex-bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone wielded machine guns in a number of action films. Stern-faced martial artist Steven Seagal made a number of films. Bruce Willis played a Western-inspired hero in the popular Die Hard series of action films.
In the 1990s and 2000s, Asian actors Chow Yun-Fat, Jet Li, and Jackie Chan appeared in a number of different types of action films, and US actor Wesley Snipes had many roles. As well, several female actors had major roles in action films, such as Michelle Yeoh, Lucy Liu and ex-model Milla Jovovich. While Keanu Reeves and Harrison Ford both had major roles in action sci-fi films (The Matrix and Blade Runner, respectively), Ford branched out into a number of other action genres, such as action-adventure films.
European action actors such as Belgian-born Jean-Claude Van Damme and French-Born Jean Reno and British-born Jason Statham appeared in a number of 1990s and 2000s-era action films. US actor Matt Damon, who was nominated for an Academy Award for his sensitive portrayal of a math genius working as a janitor in Good Will Hunting, metamorphosed into an action hero with the car chase and gunfire-filled Bourne Identity franchise. For a longer list of action film actors, see the List of action film actors article.
Directors
Notable action film directors from the 1960s and 1970s include Sam Peckinpah, whose 1969 Western The Wild Bunch was controversial for its bloody violence and nihilist tone. Some of the influential and popular directors from the 1980s to 2000s include James Cameron (the sci-fi action Terminator trilogy); John Woo (Hong Kong action films such as Hard Boiled and US-made English-language films such as Hard Target); Ridley Scott (Black Hawk Down); and The Wachowski Brothers (the sci-fi The Matrix trilogy), . For a longer list, see the List of action film directors article.
Producers
Crewmembers
See also
Sources
Action Chicks: New Images of Tough Women in Popular Culture, Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.Kim, L. S. "" . No. 48, Winter, 2006.Osgerby, Bill, Anna Gough-Yates, and Marianne Wells. Action TV : Tough-Guys, Smooth Operators and Foxy Chicks. London: Routledge, 2001.———.Spectacular Bodies : Gender, Genre, and the Action Cinema. London and New York: Routledge, 1993.Tasker, Yvonne. Action and Adventure Cinema. New York: Routledge, 2004.
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