History of Action

1. HISTORY OF ACTION
By Matthew Potter

2. WHAT IS ACTION AND WHAT IS THE
TYPICAL ICONOGRAPHY IN ACTION FILMS?
• Action Is a genre where the protagonist are involved in a series of challenges
that if they fail them have serious consequences for the characters personally
e.g. they lose a family member, get money stolen off them.
• These challenges typically include: Violence, fighting, physical feats, and
frantic chases where the protagonist chases the antagonist or vice versa. In life
threatening situations the hero typically triumphs over the villain conforming
to various narrative theories like Propp because Action films have a classical
storyline which allows Propp’s theory to be adapted into many Action films e.g.
Baby Driver (Dir. Edgar Wright, 2017) and Hollywood blockbusters like Jaws
(Dir. Steven Spielberg, 1975).
• The iconography of an Action film is mostly related to the challenges the
protagonist has to endure like: car chases, violence, high emotion interests and
in some cases depending on the sub-genre can be a love interest in Taken (Dir.
Pierre Morel, 1988) or hilarious personalities of characters like Hot Fuzz (Dir.
Edgar Wright, 2007).

3. ACTION FILMS THAT HAVE A “CLASSICAL
STORYLINE”
• Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark (Dir. Steven Speilberg,1981) conforms to
the “classical storyline” due the protagonist: Indiana Jones having to overcome
a series of obstacles to defeat the antagonists and save Marion Ravenwood and
try and get the ark. The morals of the film is family and friends first as the ark
is left behind, with moral messages applying to many Action films other than
Raiders of the Lost Ark.
• Raiders of the Lost Ark also embodies typical themes that Action films need
like: violence, fight between the protagonist and the antagonist and dependant
on the sub-genre, a character may be saved from the hero e.g. Marion is saved
from Indiana Jones. These themes and moral messages are pivotal for Action
films to appeal to the target demographic and so that the audience can
differentiate between genres.

4. THE TYPICAL CINEMATOGRAPHY IN
ACTION FILMS
• In action films, there is various of close ups and reaction shots, so that the audience can
relate to the character better. Also, these shots may help illustrate a character’s emotions or
feelings, which they may show a reaction to a major event in the film, so the plot can be
progressed.
• Examples with this typical cinematography is Spiderman 2 (Dir. Sam Raimi, 2004) where the
reaction from Spiderman (Tobey Maguire) informs the audience of the protagonist’s feelings
and emotions, which help advance the plot.

5. EDITING IN ACTION FILMS
• Fast paced editing accompanied with jump cuts help describe the craziness of a scene to the
audience, so that it makes the viewers confused like the protagonists/antagonists and put the
target demographic in the character’s perspective.
• Examples of fast paced editing is in Saving Private Ryan (Dir. Steven Spielberg, 1998) This
scene manages to create fear against an unseen enemy. He also borrows the same technique
used in Raging Bull by (Dir. Martin Scorsese, 1980), by moving between fast and slow
cutting. This is used on the beach when all war sounds are drained out and Tom Hanks looks
hopelessly across the war-torn landscape.

6. CONCLUSION
• Overall, typical Action films have this natural storyline because it is appealing due to it being
a filming norm in the film industry. This is why Raiders of the Lost Ark grossed $384,140,454
worldwide, highlighting how Propp’s theory has become a blessing for increasing profits for
multi-billion dollar conglomerates like Paramount.