The Action Genre: Codes And Conventions Explained

Maybe your like

Dark Mode Light Mode

Film Genres

Film Genres: Satire Read Now Dark Mode Light Mode HomeFilm Genres: Action Film Genres: Action Tapping into the most primal of storytelling, the action movie is hard-wired into mainstream cinema.

Action - Science Fiction - Hero - Hero Journey

Tapping into the most primal of storytelling, thrill-seeking, and wry humour, the action movie is hard-wired into mainstream cinema. Driving things forward – violence, car chases, revenge, and killer one-liners.

Preview

History in the Action Genre
Action Themes
Action Codes and Conventions
Directors, Cast and Crew
Notable Works
Action Sub-genres

History in the Action Genre

The first action movie, arguably, is The Great Train Robbery. Not only revolutionising narrative storytelling as we know it but initiating long since imitated tropes such as firing a gun into the camera. James Bond, anyone?

Away from Hollywood, Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai is possibly the most influential movie of all time, spawning some key action and narrative practices all in a single film; such as the slow-motion battle sequence, the reluctant hero, and recruiting heroes to accomplish a goal.

With western cinema’s action movies rooted firmly in swashbucklers and war films, the 1960s/70s began to embrace those heroes that don’t follow the rules. Steve McQueen in the first cinematic car chase in Bullitt, the no-nonsense street clean-ups from Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry, and Charles Bronson’s ever more ridiculous Death Wish series. Walter Hill’s classic The Warriors followed a New York gang fighting their way back to home turf after being wrongly accused of killing a prominent gang leader. Incredibly raw and flamboyant, “Warriors, come out to play” has become one of the genre’s most recognizable and referenced lines.