History of Genre

Action movies are a film genre where in the story is largely told through physical action as opposed to talking. While action has long been a big part of films, the "Action film" as a genre of its own began to develop in the 1970s. The genre could be said to be a mix of thriller and adventure films. Traditionally Action films were aimed at a male audience from early teens to the mid 30s. With films such as ‘Die hard’, ‘Lethal Weapon’ and with actors like Arnold Schwarzenegger, the genre did not appeal to females. However the genre moved with the times and many action filmmakers from the 1990s and 2000s added female heroines. A prime example of this move was ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ were we saw Keira Knightley take the film by a storm.

In the early days of film, action-based films would involve wielded swords in period pieces, but as times moved on so did the media business and by the 1950’s Cowboy movies where the next big thing. ‘The Gunfighter’ and ‘Annie Get Your Gun’ are just two examples of films that were successful in the 50’s thanks to the Cowboy Western scene. The 1960’s brought us the rise of the well known ‘James Bond’. The movie showed us ‘The sign of the times’ with male dominance playing a key part in the movie. With bold character’s including Sean Connery these action packed films were very successful especially in Hollywood. The 1964 ‘Goldfinger’ film saw a $125 million gross profit with just $3 million being spent. To this day ‘James bond’ films are still being made and bring in huge profits, most recently being ‘Quantum of Solace’

The 1980’s brought a male dominance to screening, displaying a new image of a macho man. This macho man image was well built, fearless men that craved action. A great example of this was Arnold Schwarzenegger who stared in films like ‘The terminator’ which made him a film superstar. The film was all about his fierce and male dominance, including guns and big machines. Other actors that created this image in the 80s have included Sylvester Stallone, Mel Gibson and Bruce Willis.

The 90’s followed suit with the 1980’s by still producing male targeted films. These action films included ‘Braveheart’, ‘Saving Private Ryan’ and ‘Terminator 2’. ‘Saving Private Ryan’ staring Tom Hanks is said to be one of the best films on the century. An American war film set in World War 2 saw revenue of $553,709,788. However in 1997 the genre all changed and suddenly the appeal to women was made with ‘Titanic’. This thrilling film about the sinking of the RMS Titanic made huge gross revenue of $1,843,201,268. British actress Kate Winslet stared in the film and showed Action thriller didn’t have to involve well built and controlling men.

To date, action films tend to be expensive, requiring big budget special effects and stunt work. The release of ‘Titanic’ though showed film producer’s women can star in these films and help them to be a real success. ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ and ‘King Kong’ have both proved this point. The film industry is forever evolving and the Action genre will decently have to involve with it as well.