Action movie

Action movie

Action movie

Characteristic persons John Wayne, Steve McQueen, Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Steven Seagal, Douglas Fairbanks, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Wesley Snipes, Jackie Chan, Chuck Norris, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas

The action film is a film genre in which action scenes are of great importance.

Typical action scenes are extensive and often lengthy fight scenes, chases, complicated stunt work and overwhelming explosions. The film usually revolves around a single hero who has to compete against a force majeure of opponents. An action hero is usually a man. The action movie is most common in the crime genre, but it can also be adventure, comic, science fiction or exciting films.

Rise of the action film

Action movies have been around since the silent era. The Great Train Robbery (1903), one of the first narrative films, for example, could be seen as an action film. But the most spectacular stunts of American cinema were often in the slapstick comedies of Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd, such as The General and Safety Last!.

Martial arts films were popular in China at an early stage, such as the thirteen-part series The Swordswoman or Huangjiang, of which only the first part has been preserved. This series had a major impact on the wuxia films that became popular in the 1960s: historical adventures in which a war hero takes on the poor and those in need.

In Japan, the action films were often about samurai. Well-known examples are the many films about the sword fighters Zatoichi and Nemuri Kyoshirō, based on popular novels. Two of the most important directors in the samurai genre are Akira Kurosawa (Rashomon, Seven Samurai ) and Masaki Kobayashi (Harakiri, Samurai Rebellion ). Many highlights from the genre come from the fifties and sixties.

The James Bond films (1962-present) were very popular in Great Britain at the time. Each of the more than twenty James Bond films contains typical action scenes: battles, chases, explosions, and incisive remarks from both the hero and the villain. Typical action films were also made in the United States around the same time, including Bullitt and Dirty Harry.

In the seventies and eighties we see many kung fu films in China with stars such as Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung and Bruce Lee. Many of these films combine martial arts with slapstick.

In the 1980s, action movies in Hollywood became more popular, with action heroes such as Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Harrison Ford, Jean-Claude Van Damme and Steven Seagal. Rambo and The Terminator are some of the great productions of that time. In 1988 the Bruce Willis ' film Die Hard was released, which would set the tone for the next decade.

Women in action movies

In the silent era we already see female action heroes in America in comic film series, such as Pearl White in The Perils of Pauline and Helen Holmes in The Hazards of Helen. These film series were mainly known for the spectacular stunts that the main characters performed themselves. While Pauline was often seen as a damsel in distress, Helen usually managed to save herself from plight situations without help.

Action heroines were also popular in China early on: Chen Zhi-gong became a star through her role in The Swordswoman of Huangjiang (1930). The wuxia films from the sixties and seventies also often had female lead roles. One of the best-known examples is Cheng Pei-Pei in Come drink with me (1966). In the late 1970s, Hollywood's influence on the Hong Kong film industry grew so that women played a less important role in action films.

With the science fiction film series Alien (from 1979) with action heroine Sigourney Weaver, female action heroines became more popular in America. Such as Jennifer Garner ( Elektra ), Angelina Jolie ( Tomb Raider ), Kristanna Loken ( Terminator 3 ), Milla Jovovich and Michelle Rodríguez (both in Resident Evil ), Uma Thurman and Lucy Liu (both in Kill Bill ).