The History of Action Movies

Early Action movies:

The Great Train Robbery was one of the first ever action movies. It was written in a 1903 which was a American Western based film. This was a largely important convention in the past, as it was vastly popular.

Throughout the 1920’s-1930’s they were still often Adventure or Western films including movies such as The Mask of Zorro, The Last of the Mohicans

In the 1940’s-1950’s, action then took a turn to War themed films. This included titles such as

The trends have changed quite substantially with time, leaving modern day action films being more supernatural, as well as the influence of personal issues (rather than solving crimes such as Batman etc)

1960’s = James Bond

James Bond became a leading movie title, which involved most of the current conventions. These included things such as

Gadgets Fast Cars Guns Fight Scenes

Continued

At the time, the gadgets seemed astonishing, but looking back at them compared to current props that are used, they have been adapted a lot.

Smoking used to be popular, therefore Bond’s gadgets were often based around practicality and looked like they weren’t harmful.

In the Quantum of Solace however, the gadgets have become far more high-tech.

Feminism

Feminism has also taken over cinema in a sense that not only are male protagonists, but women can be the heroes also.

This helps to benefit the female audience, hence the movies being popular amongst other groups.

CGI (Computer Generated Imagery)

Action movies (plot wise) haven’t experienced a large amount of change. The main features that have been adapted are things such as special affects.

Over time, sound effects (both diegetic and non-diegetic) have become clearer and more enhanced, due to the improvements in software and computing devices.

2000’s

During the mid 2000’s, 3D movie experiencing was being developed.

Once the 3D became a well liked effect, cinemas had built specific screening rooms for them and movies such Avatar (2009) as became very popular

Mise en Scene enhancement

The immensely clear makeup effects create a very surreal experience for the viewers. This means that scenes which may contain blood/wounds have become scarier as they are much more life like. This wasn’t as effective a few decades ago.