History of Action genre

Generic conventions of Action Films

• There are lots of generic conventions in action films that are featured throughout the history of the genre. These are things such as; explosions, a dilemma, guns, heroes, villains, a damsel in distress, chase scenes, wisecracking protagonists and a transition from calm to intense with some sort of generic convention like an explosion or gunshot.

1920s – 1930s• The first action films started in 1920 and kept to the same

conventions for the next 20 years. In the period between 1920 and 1940, action films were typically cowboy films and medieval films. This franchise started to change slightly in the period between 1940 and 1950.

1940s – 1950s• The action film franchise started to move away from the

medieval and staggered towards war in films such as ‘Days of Glory’ and ‘The Seventh Survivor’ while still keeping the western films but now making them a lot more unrealistic. This is the era when actors like John Wayne and Clint Eastwood.

1960s• This period lasted 10 years and the action film franchise was

dominated by the James Bond series which is still around today. It inspired the franchise for all spy movies made afterwards such as The ‘Bourne’ series.

1970s• The next period of the action film franchise lasted 10 years.

This saw the emergence of other action films inspired by the still dominant ‘Bond’ films. There were also other countries attempts at action films which were very successful and unique that included lots of martial arts. Actors like Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan came into the franchise at this point.

1980s• The next development of the action film franchise brought a

new set of generic conventions that are very similar and are still used in action films today. These are conventions such as explosions, chase scenes and witty protagonists etc. It is this time period that set the benchmark for action films for the future.

1990s - Present• The next time period was from the 90s until present day. The

action film franchise turned into a series of sequels for successful action movies, superhero movies, hybrid genres such as action; adventure, romance, comedy, etc. and remakes of classic successful action films from different time periods.