The document traces the evolution of the action genre from the 1920s to present day. It began as adventure films starring Douglas Fairbanks and developed into war and western movies in the 1940s-1950s. The James Bond series popularized action films featuring spy adventures, gadgets, and fight scenes in the 1960s. Dirty Harry and Bruce Lee films further advanced the genre in the 1970s with urban crime dramas and martial arts films. The 1980s were dominated by action movies led by actors like Schwarzenegger and Stallone. Modern franchises like James Bond, Bourne, and new directors continue shaping the genre.

2.  Action film is a film genre were one or more
heroes is thrown into a series of challenges
that require physicalacts. They quite often
haveextended fights and chase scenes.
They may have a resourceful character
struggling against incredible odds such
as, life threatening situations, an evil
villain, and/or being chased in several
ways. Victory is normally achieved at the
end through huge physical efforts and
violence

3.  During the 1920s and 30’s action-based
films were often adventure films in which
Douglas Fairbanks wielded swords in
westerns
 The 40’s and 50’s saw action develop
into war and cowboy movies. Alfred
Hitchcock almost single-handedly
ushered in the spy-adventure genre

4.  The long-running success of James Bond
series easily dominated the action films of
the 60’s. This series essentially introduced all
the staples of the modern-day action
movie. The Bond movies weremost known
forlarger than life characters, such as the
resourceful hero. Always able to dispatch of
the villain in ever more imaginative ways.
The Bond films also utilize quick cutting, car
chases, fist fights, a variety of weapons and
gadgets.

5.  North by Northwest is a 1959 American
thriller film directed by Alfred
Hitchcock, Starring Cary Grant, Eva Marie
Saint and James Mason.
 North by northwest is a tale of mistaken
identity, with an innocent man pursued
across the united statues by agents of a
mysterious organization who want to stop
his interference in their plans to smuggle out
microfilm containing government secrets.

7.  Bond first started to see competition as
gritty detective stories and urban crime
dramas began tomergethemselves with the
new ‘action’ style. This lead to a string of
maverick police officer films, such as those
defines by Bullitt (1968) and Dirty Harry
(1971). Both of which featured an intense
car chase inspired by the popular stunt
work or the Bond films.
 Dirty Harry signaled the end of the Cowboy
and Indians era of film westerns

8.  Also inspired by the success of the James
Bond film ‘you only live twice’, martial-
arts-themed action movies exploded
onto the western cinema screens with
Bruce Lee’s ‘Enter the Dragon (1971.

9.  Dirty Harry is a 1971 American crime
thriller produced and directed by Don
Siegel, the first in the Dirty harry series.
ClintEastwood plays the title role, in his
first outing as San Francisco police
department inspector ‘Dirty’ Harry
Callahan .

10.  The 1980’s saw the action film become
the most dominant genre in Hollywood.
This was ‘the action era’ popularized by
actors such as Sylvester Stallone, Arnold
Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis and Chuck
Norris.

11.  In 1982 veteran actor Nick Nolte and
rising comedian Eddie Murphy smashed
box office records with one of the first
action comedy 48 Hrs. This was credited
as the first ‘buddy-cop’ movie.

12.  This was an era of sequelsof action. Like the western
genre, the spy and urban action movies were
beginning to deteriorate.
 With a growing revolution in CGI the real world
settings began to give way to increasingly fantastic
and futuristic environments.
 The new era of action films had budgets unlike any is
the past as franchises such as Dirty Harry and James
Bond proved that one a single successful action film
could lead to a continuing action franchise.
 Therefore the 90’s saw a rise in budgets and the
number of sequels whereas in earlier decades film
makers frowned upon sequels.

13.  GoldenEye was the 17th spy film in the
James Bond series. It was also the first to
star Pierce Brosnan.
 It was the first film in the series not to take
story elements from the works of novelists
Ian Fleming.
 In the film, Bond fights to prevent an
arms syndicate from using GoldenEye
satellite weapon against London in order
to cause a global financial meltdown.

14.  From 2000-2010 we saw new action
films, such as Sherlock Holmes and The
Bourne trilogy. As well as the continuing
Bond series, new with Daniel Craig
acting as the 007 agent, now with less
gadgets featured in previous movies and
very much back to basics.

15.  The Bourne films are a series of action
thriller spy films based on the character
Jason Bourne, a former CIA assassin
suffering from extreme memory loss.
 The series is noted and credited for its
realism with the growing use of
CGI in the action Genre.

16.  James Bond is a fictional character created
in 1953 by Ian Fleming, who featured his in
12 novel and two short story collections.
 Fleming died in 1964 and since then six
other authors wrote authorized Bond novels.
 In the 1962 Dr. No starring Sean Connery
started off the James Bond series. Since
then there has been 22 films released with a
23rd expected in 2012.

17.  The films are renowned for a number or
reasons, including the musical
accompaniment with the theme songs
to the films having picked up academy
award nominations on several
occasions.
 Other popular elements include Bond’s
cars, his guns and the gadgets he is
supplied with.

18.  1962: Dr. No.
 1963: From Russia with love.
 1964: Goldfinger.
 1965: Thunderball.
 1967: You only live twice.
 1969: On her majesty’s secret service.
 1971: Diamonds are forever.
 1973: Live and let die.

19.  1974: The man with the Golden Gun.
 1977: The spy who loved me.
 1979: Moonraker.
 1981: For your eyes only.
 1983: Octopussy.
 1985: A view to a kill.
 1987: The living Daylights.
 1989: License to kill. (Novelization)

20.  1995: GoldeEye. (Novelization)
 1997: Tomorrow never dies.
(Novelization)
 1999: The world is not enough.
(Novelization)
 2002: Die another day. (Novelization)
 2006: Casino Royal.
Novelization- not
 2008: Quantum on solace. originated from
Ian Fleming
 2012: Skyfall.