Media AS

1. Genre Analysis- Action
The genre of actionrequires the scenestobe overthe topand almostimpossiblestuntsoract that
are almosteveryone of the target audience’s fantasies.The elementscaninclude thingssuchas
gunsbeingfired, explosions,death aswell asthe maincharacterswhichinclude the heroalways
beingvictoriousandthe villainbeingcaughtoutby the hero’swit. Actionhasbeena majorsuccess
since the earlytwentiethcentury.
Whilstthere are propsthat are usedinactionfilmsthere are alsokeylocations suchas military
bases,forests,officeblocksetcandtheyare
The genre ‘Action’wasbornin the 1920’s where the genre wasusually‘swashbucklingadventure
movies’whichusuallyincludedDouglasFairbanksineitherahistorical piece oraWild-Westbased
film.Asthe genre evolvedthroughthe decades,more andmore variationsstartedappearing.Inthe
1960’s the legendary‘JamesBondFilms’werecreatedandhasservedasinspirationforall modern-
day actionfilmsbyintroducing the ‘One-manhero’whoisbothresourcefulandwitty.The 1980’s
was arguablythe bestyearfor the ActionGenre withmovieslikeTrue Blood,RoboCopandStar
wars beingcreated,whichare the ActionGenre’sbiggesticons.
Examplesof the films fromthis genre:
-JamesBond(FilmSeries)
-Die Hard (FilmSeries)
-Transformers(FilmSeries)
-IndianaJones(FilmSeries)
Actionas a genre has beenbothexpandinganddecreasinginpopularityovertime withalmostsub-
genresof filmsbeingintroducedunderthe title of action.Forexample the earlydaysof the film
genre was duringthe 1920s and 30’s action-basedfilmswereoftenadventurefilmsinwhichDouglas
Fairbankswieldedswordsinwesterns.The genre thenlaterdevelopedmore overtime whenduring
the 40’s and 50’s saw actiondevelopintowarandcowboymovies.AlfredHitchcockalmostsingle-
handedlyusheredinthe spy/action genre.
In termsof the 1960’s the filmseriesof JamesBonddominated the actionfilms.Thisseries
essentiallyintroducedall the staplesof the modern-dayactionmovie.The Bondmovieswere most
knownforlargerthan life characters,suchas the resourceful hero.Alwaysable todispatchof the
villaininevermore imaginative ways.The Bondfilmsalsoutilizequickcutting,carchases,fistfights,
a varietyof weaponsandgadgets.
Later on towardsthe 1970’s Bond firststartedto see competitionasgrittydetective storiesand
urban crime dramasbeganto merge themselves withthe new ‘action’style.Thisleadtoa stringof
maverick police officerfilms,suchasthose definesbyBullitt(1968) and DirtyHarry (1971). Both of
whichfeaturedanintense carchase inspiredbythe popular stuntworkor the Bond films. Dirty
Harry signalledthe endof the CowboyandIndianseraof filmwesterns.Alsoinspiredbythe success
of the JamesBondfilm‘youonlylive twice’,martial-arts-themedactionmoviesexplodedontothe
westerncinemascreenswithBruce Lee’s‘Enterthe Dragon(1971).

2. The 1980’s saw the actionfilmbecome the mostdominant genre inHollywood.Thiswas‘the action
era’popularizedbyactorssuch as SylvesterStallone,ArnoldSchwarzenegger,Bruce WillisandChuck
Norris. Inthe 90s filmsbudgetsincreaseddramaticallyandbythe 21 st centuryfilmssuchas
‘SherlockHolmes’and‘CasinoRoyale’were released.