The Hollywood Action and Adventure Film

The Hollywood Action and Adventure Film presents a
comprehensive overview and analysis of the history, myriad themes,
and critical approaches to the action and adventure genre in
American cinema.

• Draws on a wide range of examples, spanning the silent
  spectacles of early cinema to the iconic superheroes of
  21st-century action films

• Features case studies revealing the genre's diverse roots

• from westerns and war films, to crime and espionage
  movies

• Explores a rich variety of aesthetic and thematic concerns that
  have come to define the genre, touching on themes such as the
  outsider hero, violence and redemption, and adventure as escape
  from the mundane

• Integrates discussion of gender, race, ethnicity, and
  nationality alongside genre history

• Provides a timely and richly revealing portrait of a powerful
  cinematic genre that has increasingly come to dominate the American
  cinematic landscape

Auteur
Yvonne Tasker is Professor of Film and Media at the University of East Anglia. She is the author of Spectacular Bodies: Gender, Genre and the Action Cinema (1993) and Soldiers' Stories: Military Women in Cinema and Television Since WWII (2011), and editor of Action and Adventure Cinema (2004).

Texte du rabat

Ever since Douglas Fairbanks let a sword do his talking in the swashbuckling films of the silent era, the action and adventure genre has evolved into one of the most enduring box-office draws in cinematic history. The Hollywood Action and Adventure Film presents a comprehensive overview and analysis of the history, myriad themes, and critical approaches to the action and adventure genre in American cinema. The book explores the genre's amazing longevity, one that stretches from the silent spectacles to the iconic superheroes of 21st-century action films. Case studies reveal the genre's diverse roots from westerns and war films, to crime and espionage movies and show how action and adventure represent pervasive modes of movie-making and storytelling throughout American cinema's lengthy history. By contrasting family movies such as The Adventures of Robin Hood with the breakneck-pacing of thrillers like The Bourne Identity, it illustrates just how extensive this popular American genre cinema can be. Chapters draw out a rich variety of aesthetic strategies and thematic concerns that have come to define the genre, touching on themes such as the outsider hero, violence and redemption, and adventure as escape from the mundane. The Hollywood Action and Adventure Film offers a timely and richly revealing portrait of a powerful cinematic genre that has increasingly come to dominate the American cinematic landscape.

Résumé

The Hollywood Action and Adventure Film presents a comprehensive overview and analysis of the history, myriad themes, and critical approaches to the action and adventure genre in American cinema.

• Draws on a wide range of examples, spanning the silent spectacles of early cinema to the iconic superheroes of 21st-century action films

• Features case studies revealing the genre's diverse roots from westerns and war films, to crime and espionage movies

• Explores a rich variety of aesthetic and thematic concerns that have come to define the genre, touching on themes such as the outsider hero, violence and redemption, and adventure as escape from the mundane

• Integrates discussion of gender, race, ethnicity, and nationality alongside genre history

• Provides a timely and richly revealing portrait of a powerful cinematic genre that has increasingly come to dominate the American cinematic landscape

Contenu

Contents

List of Plates vii

Acknowledgements xiii

1 Action and Adventure as Genre 1

2 Action and Adventure:Historical and Cultural Overview 23

3 Critical Perspectives on Action and Adventure 45

4 Silent Spectacle and Classical Adventure: The Thief of Bagdad (1924) and The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) 71

5 War, Violence and the American Action Hero:

Sands of Iwo Jima (1949) and Hell is for Heroes (1962) 89

6 Violence and Urban Action: Dirty Harry (1971) 107

7 Nostalgic Adventure and Recycled Culture: Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) and Pirates of the Caribbean (2003) 121

8 Action Blockbusters in the 1980s: Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985) and Die Hard (1988) 137

9 Global and Postmodern Action: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) and Kill Bill (2003) 151

10 Espionage Action: The Bourne Identity (2002) and Salt (2010) 165

11 Superhero Action Cinema 179

Bibilography 193

Index 000