Action & Adventure Movies

Action movies usually involve a fairly straightforward story of good guys versus bad guys, where most disputes are resolved by using physical force. Action movies are usually "high concept" films where the whole movie can be easily summarized in a simple sentence (eg. "a scientist brings dinosaurs back to life only to find them trying to dominate earth, again" for Jurassic Park). Who exactly the good guys are differs from film to film, but in Hollywood films they usually are patriotic and rather conservative Americans, whereas the bad guys are usually either criminals or agents of foreign powers. In the 1980s and before, they were very often Communists, which brings some action films fairly close to propaganda films. With the fall of Communism, Communists were no longer the villains, and the focus turned to drug lords or Middle Eastern terrorists. Action movies also tend to have a single heroic protagonist and often portray institutions such as the military or police as incompetent and limited by rules and regulations which the protagonist has no regard for. This creates the stereotypical conflict between an action hero and the establishment.

Action films tend to be expensive requiring big budget special effects and stunt work. Action films are mainly an American 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 protoganist while American action films typically feature big explosions and cool gadgets.

Action films also constitute very good examples for feminist film theory, because in them, the separation between the physical male who controls the scene and the look and the female, who is almost always the object of the look is very clear. Although female characters in most action films are nothing more than objects, a prize for the winner, hostages, loving wives and the like, there has been a move towards stronger female characters. These are maybe best exemplified in works by James Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow.

Current trends in action film include a development toward more elaborate fight scenes, perhaps because of the success of Asian martial arts films in Western film. Actors in action movies are now much more skilled in the art and aesthetic of fighting than they have been in the past, apart from a few acknowledged fighters like Steven Seagal. Now, a distinction can be made between films that lean toward physical agile fighting, such as The Transporter, and those that lean toward other common action film conventions, like explosions and plenty of gunfire, such as Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever or Lethal Weapon, although most action movies employ elements of both.

The first modern action film was The Seven Samurai of Akira Kurosawa. Although the plot is more complex than many action movies today, the premise was very simple: set in Feudal Japan, the basically good, weak villagers are about to be attacked by a large horde of bandits. So, the villagers hire seven samurai to protect their village and train their people for the upcoming onslaught. This movie introduced basic, recurrent action film themes such as good vs. evil, sacrifice, the vigilante spirit of the protagonists, and the use of an action climax (which until then had been restricted to westerns).

Other common action film conventions saw their birth in the release of James Bond series (containing many of the original elements of spy movies still seen today) and Bullitt, which contains one of the earliest car chases, a feature that is almost standard in action films.

Due to their widespread appeal, many of the following films have also spawned one or more sequels.

The Beginning of Action Films:

This film genre actually began with the silent era's serial films around the time of Edwin S. Porter's classic action-western The Great Train Robbery (1903). And it has remained strong throughout all of cinematic history. Action films then expanded in the 80s and 90s, with the growth of special effects techniques and in response to jaded audiences who demanded faster plots (coherent or not), greater violence, and stimulation.

Notable Action Movies:

James Bond 007:

According to Guinness World Records, the most profitable film series of all time is "James Bond." It is also the longest continuing series of English language films. The modern day action-hero - the James Bond '007' character that was employed for Her Majesty's Secret Service - was loosely based on the character in Britisher Ian Fleming's twelve James Bond novels. A number of Fleming's short stories were developed by other writers. Before the movies, Bond made his first appearance on TV, debuting on CBS in 1954, with Barry Nelson as the American 007 agent named Jimmy Bond in an adaptation of Fleming's first Bond novel Casino Royale. Fleming made his sole cameo appearance in the Bond film From Russia With Love (1963).

Beginning in the Cold War 60s (after restrictions on violence and sex were lifted somewhat), the slick, escapist Bond action/adventure Spy Films appealed to large audiences with their exotic, travelogue locales, tongue-in-cheek humor and dialogue, nifty gadgets and ingenious toys to combat evildoers, fast-action suspense and audacious stunts, and gorgeous scantily-clad sexy women. The action-oriented, sophisticated and skillful agent, with a taste for fancy clothes (often tuxedos), dry martinis ('shaken, not stirred') and cars (notably the Aston Martin DB5, the Lotus Esprit, and various BMWs), battled various types of eccentric, deadly and infamous criminals who planned to assault the world. The intriguing superhero lead role has been played by five actors - Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, and Pierce Brosnan.

Sean Connery made a reluctant comeback as Bond for Never Say Never Again (1983) - a virtual remake of Thunderball (1965). The film was reportedly titled that way since Connery was quoted as saying "Never again!" after making Diamonds Are Forever (1971). Currently, Roger Moore is the longest continually-serving James Bond actor (with 12 years and 7 films).

Martial Arts in Action Films:

The popular, Hong Kong kung fu genre was catapulted to world-wide prominence in the 1970s with Bruce Lee's four martial-arts films, with spectacular fight scenes. Unfortunately, many of them were dubbed and had poorly-contrived plots containing copy-cat James Bond elements. Lee's best films were his last two - they were released post-humously after he died at the young age of 32.

A variant on the martial-arts films has been the films of Jackie Chan (nicknamed the "Buster Keaton of Kung-Fu") and his numerous 80s and 90s Hong-Kong and US-produced action comedies. Success finally arrived for Chan with Rumble in the Bronx (1996), Rush Hour (1998), Shanghai Noon (2000), Rush Hour 2 (2001), The Tuxedo (2002), and Shanghai Nights (2003).

Belgian Movie star Jean-Claude Van Damme starred in a variant of the Asian martial-arts films - the action-filled kickboxer film, as in Bloodsport (1988), Black Eagle (1988), Kickboxer (1989), Death Warrant (1990), Double Impact (1991), Nowhere to Run (1993), and Hard Target (1993).

Violent and graphic action films (as well as gangster flicks) also owe a debt to Hong Kong's legendary John Woo, who helped to shape the genre with scenes of stylish choreography in The Killer (1989) and Hard-Boiled (1992), both with Chow Yun-Fat in the lead role. John Woo's intense and intelligent action film Face/Off (1997) featured a stolen-identity plot with Nicolas Cage and John Travolta in the good/evil roles. Woo's sequel film Mission: Impossible 2 (2000) to the inferior 1996 Brian De Palma version Mission: Impossible (1996) was filled with exciting, no-holds-barred action sequences. And Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), the winner of the Best Foreign Film Oscar and three others (Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, and Best Score), was a spectacular and entertaining martial arts entry.

US films influenced by the martial arts craze included The Karate Kid (1984) and The Karate Kid, Part II (1986), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990) and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze (1991), Blade (1998) and Blade II (2002), and the video-game adaptation Mortal Kombat (1995).