The history of action films began in the 1920s, featuring actors like Douglas Fairbanks in films such as Robin Hood and The Mark of Zorro. In the following decades, action films were often Westerns or based on historical events. The 1960s saw the rise of James Bond films starring Sean Connery, moving the genre from Westerns to modern spy thrillers. Bruce Lee's Enter the Dragon in the 1970s helped popularize martial arts films. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Chuck Norris, and Bruce Willis rose to fame in the blockbuster action films of the 1980s, like the Rambo and Die Hard franchises. CGI technology advanced significantly in the 1990s and 2000s, allowing for more realistic effects

1. The History of Action

2. 1920
The genre of Action started in the 1920. Films of
this genre usually involved the actor Douglas
Fairbanks. Two of his most well known films are
Robin Hood and The Mark of Zorro.

3. 1920 -30
Most action films in this period of time were
usually based on the Western life and Historical
representations.

4. 1940
During this decade western films were growing
every more popular; the most famous film
produced during this time was Red River,
staring Howard Hawks

5. 1960
Bond! In the 1960’s the James Bond series began,
overruling all other action films and began the
action, taking us out of Western films and into
the modern world. These films were a revelation,
staring many different gadgets, car chases, fights
and many other action packed scenes.

6. 1970
After the huge success of James Bond, another
film (which was specifically Asian influenced)
was produced which hit off many different actors
careers; Enter the Dragon. This film stared
actors such as Bruce Lee, John Saxon and Jim
Kelly.

7. 1980
The 1980’s was where the action film genre took
over Hollywood which instantly popularized
actors such as Arnold Schwarzenegger, Chuck
Norris and Bruce Willis and even Steven
Spielberg began is major career in this decade.
This was also the beginning of the Rambo series
and in 1985 the film Rambo: The First Blood
Part II because the most successful film in the
series

8. 1980
One other major film which was released in the
1980s was 24Hours which stared veteran actor,
Nick Nolte and rising comedy star Eddie
Murphy. This film was then credited as the first
buddy cop film, which then went on to influence
many other directors and writers.

9. 1990
The 90’s was an era of sequels and hybrid action.
Western, Spy and urban action films started to
parody themselves. With CGI developing, the
amount of environments being produced was
growing rapidly. Films in the action genre began
to have larger budgets leading filmmakers to
create new technologies to create new amazing
and desirable films.

10. 1990
In 1989 Batman was made into a film and led to a
string of very successful sequels and inspired
many to develop other ‘comic-book movies’

11. 2000
Action films finally had their won their rightful
place, and now has the sam2 power in the film
industry as any other film. Now having massive
budgets to product amazing technologies and
films to create amazing and realistic effects .
Films such as Avatar have now been made which
based themselves massively on CGI and other
technologies.