History of the Action Genre

By Farida Islam

1920’s-1930’s• ‘The Three Musketeers’ was an

Action film made by Fred Niblo in the 1920’s. The DVD case (shown on the right) shows clearly that is an Action film as there is a weapon in the man’s (main character) hand. This film is a black and white silent film, maybe due to lack of technology in this decade.

• ‘Mutiny on the Bounty’ was an Action film made by Frank Lloyd in 1935. The film was rated a PG and was in black and white with audio.

1940’s-1950’s• ‘The Mark of Zorro’ was made in the

1940’s by Rouben Mamoulian. It is rated U and is a black and white film. This is again due to lack of technology. However unlike films in the 1920’s and 30’s there is audio showing that there is progress being made.

• ‘Machine Gun Kelly’ was made in 1958 by Roger Corman, it was an Action film. It was rated 15 due to strong threat, menace and violence being included. This was a black and white film.

1960’s• Dominated by James Bond (based on

Ian Fleming’s novels) which was introduced as the Modern-day Action film, The Bond films also used fast paced cuts, car chases, fist fights, a variety of weapons and gadgets.

• ‘Dr No’ was made in 1962 by Terence Young. This was rated PG and put into the genre of Modern-day Action. The film was in Technicolor by this time it was the norm for films to be in colour.

1970’s

• ‘Dirty Harry’ was made in 1971 by Don Seigel. It was rated an 15 due to violent nature. In the 70’s there were more opportunities of doing stunts and making them look believable to the audience.

In the 1970’s Detective stories and Crime dramas were introduced, films such as ‘The French Connection’ and ‘Dirty Harry’.

There were many other films made in the similar category (Action detective/crime) such as:

•Shaft (1971) by

•Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) by

•The rest of the ‘Dirty Harry’ series –’Magnum Force’(1973), ’The Enforcer’ (1976)

1980’s- Also known as the ‘Action Era’ made popular by actorssuch as:• Sylvester Stallone• Arnold Shwarzenegger• Bruce Willis • Chuck Norris

Genre hybrids were becoming the norm; • War-action hybrids e.g. First Blood and Missing in Action• Science fiction action e.g. The Terminator, and RoboCop• Horror-action e.g. Aliens and Predator• Musical-action-comedy hybrid e.g. The Blues Brothers

1990’s• This was the era of sequels as the

success of many successful film sequels proved that one successful film could lead to a whole franchise. Also CGI (computer generated imagery) was starting to be used in films e.g. to digitally create characters. The use of CGI has massively increased quality of image and made films so advanced that its hard to distinguish between real and digitally computed now.

• Films such as Die Hard 2, RoboCop 2, and Terminator 2 used CGI

Present• With technology being more

advanced than it has ever been, the quality of films has never been better. For example the use of CGI and 3D graphics has improved film quality, with surreal graphics and crystal clear viewing.

• Throughout the years there have been many aspects that make an Action film an Action whether its car chases, or fist fights. Now with more than enough ideas to share between films to make each one individual. Action films are more unique than ever with technology improving to help them. For example CGI can make a fake explosions seem so realistic and 3D can make the audience feel like they’re part of it. By doing this Action films are making the audience feel exhilarated and thrilled whilst watching, which is how they are meant to feel.

Reflection

By researching history of the action genre I have been given many ideas on what I could include is my opening. As there is many different styles of Action and aspects on what makes an Action film. This research has helped me figure out how to make my opening fit in with the Action genre yet also be different in the genre.