The Action and Adventure Cinema

The Action and Adventure Cinema PDF Author: Yvonne Tasker
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134564937
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 432

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Book Description
This exciting collection addresses action and adventure from the silent to the contemporary period exploring diverse questions of aesthetics, industry and ideology. Action has established itself as one of the leading commercial genres of the New Hollywood cinema, generating extensive debate in the process. Contributors consider how action might best be defined, how it has developed historically, and how it works formally. The critical reception and standing of action and adventure cinema is considered in relation to questions of national culture, violence and the 'art' of cinema. Themes explored include genre and definitions; early action, sensation and melodrama; authorship and action; national and transnational action-adventure traditions; action aesthetics; spectacle and narrative; stars and bodies; class; gender; race and ethnicity. Attempting to evaluate the significance of this type of filmmaking for both popular cinema and film studies, the book underlines the central place of action and adventure within film history.

The Action and Adventure Cinema

The Action and Adventure Cinema PDF Author: Yvonne Tasker
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134564937
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 432

Get Book

Book Description
This exciting collection addresses action and adventure from the silent to the contemporary period exploring diverse questions of aesthetics, industry and ideology. Action has established itself as one of the leading commercial genres of the New Hollywood cinema, generating extensive debate in the process. Contributors consider how action might best be defined, how it has developed historically, and how it works formally. The critical reception and standing of action and adventure cinema is considered in relation to questions of national culture, violence and the 'art' of cinema. Themes explored include genre and definitions; early action, sensation and melodrama; authorship and action; national and transnational action-adventure traditions; action aesthetics; spectacle and narrative; stars and bodies; class; gender; race and ethnicity. Attempting to evaluate the significance of this type of filmmaking for both popular cinema and film studies, the book underlines the central place of action and adventure within film history.

Action and Adventure Cinema

Action and Adventure Cinema PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description


The Hollywood Action and Adventure Film

The Hollywood Action and Adventure Film PDF Author: Yvonne Tasker
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0470659254
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 219

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Book Description
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

The Action and Adventure Cinema

The Action and Adventure Cinema PDF Author: Yvonne Tasker
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134564945
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 431

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Book Description
Addressing areas such as genre, film history and style, action and spectacle, stars and bodies, action auteurs and the film industry, the reader covers both Hollywood and also European and Asian action cinema.

Action Speaks Louder

Action Speaks Louder PDF Author: Eric Lichtenfeld
Publisher: Wesleyan University Press
ISBN: 9780819568014
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 408

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Book Description
An authoritative and entertaining history of the action film

Spectacular Bodies

Spectacular Bodies PDF Author: Yvonne Tasker
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134873018
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 215

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Book Description
While films such as Rambo, Thelma and Louise and Basic Instinct have operated as major points of cultural reference in recent years, popular action cinema remains neglected within contemporary film criticism. Spectacular Bodies unravels the complexities and pleasures of a genre often dismissed as `obvious' in both its pleasure and its politics, arguing that these controversial films should be analysed and understood within a cinematic as well as a political context. Yvonne Tasker argues that today's action cinema not only responds to the shifts in gendered, sexual and racial identities which took place during the 1980s, but reflects the influences of other media such as the new video culture. Her detailed discussion of the homoeroticism surrounding the muscleman hero, the symbolic centrality of blackness within the crime narrative, and the changing status of women within the genre, addresses the constitution of these identities through the shifting categories of gender, class, race, sex, sexuality and nation. Spectacular Bodies also examines the ambivalence of supposedly secure categories of popular cinema, questioning the existing terms of film criticism in this area and addressing the complex pleasures of this neglected form.

Action Movies

Action Movies PDF Author: Harvey O'Brien
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231850220
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 145

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Book Description
Action Movies: The Cinema of Striking Back is a study of action cinema, exploring the ethics and aesthetics of the genre with reference to its relatively short history. It moves from seminal classics like Bullitt (1968) and Dirty Harry (1971) through epoch-defining films like Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985) and Die Hard (1988) to revisions, reboots, and renewals in films like Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003), Taken (2008), and The Expendables (2010). The action genre is a fusion of form and content: a cinema of action about action. It is a cinema of the will, configured as a decisive reaction to untenable circumstances. Action heroes take up arms against the sea of troubles that beset them, safe in the knowledge that if they don't do it, nobody will. Though this makes the action movie profoundly disturbing as an embodiment of moral ideology, its enduring appeal proves the appetite for assurance remains undiminished, even in the wake of 9/11.

The Hollywood Action and Adventure Film

The Hollywood Action and Adventure Film PDF Author: Yvonne Tasker
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 111901493X
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
The Hollywood Action and Adventure Film presents acomprehensive overview and analysis of the history, myriad themes,and critical approaches to the action and adventure genre inAmerican cinema. Draws on a wide range of examples, spanning the silentspectacles of early cinema to the iconic superheroes of21st-century action films Features case studies revealing the genre’s diverse roots– from westerns and war films, to crime and espionagemovies Explores a rich variety of aesthetic and thematic concerns thathave come to define the genre, touching on themes such as theoutsider hero, violence and redemption, and adventure as escapefrom the mundane Integrates discussion of gender, race, ethnicity, andnationality alongside genre history Provides a timely and richly revealing portrait of a powerfulcinematic genre that has increasingly come to dominate the Americancinematic landscape

The Asian Influence on Hollywood Action Films

The Asian Influence on Hollywood Action Films PDF Author: Barna William Donovan
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476607702
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
Filmmakers of the Pacific Rim have been delivering punches and flying kicks to the Hollywood movie industry for years. This book explores the ways in which the storytelling and cinematic techniques of Asian popular culture have migrated from grainy, low-budget martial arts movies to box-office blockbusters such as The Magnificent Seven, Star Wars, The Matrix and Transformers. While special effects gained prominence, the raw and gritty power of live combat emerged as an audience favorite, spawning Asian stars Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan and martial arts-trained stars Chuck Norris and Steven Seagal. As well as capturing the sheer onscreen adrenaline rush that characterizes the films discussed, this work explores the impact of violent cinematic entertainment and why it is often misunderstood. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

A Companion to the Action Film

A Companion to the Action Film PDF Author: James Kendrick
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1119100763
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 578

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Book Description
An authoritative guide to the action-packed film genre With 24 incisive, cutting-edge contributions from esteemed scholars and critics, A Companion to the Action Filmprovides an authoritative and in-depth guide to this internationally popular and wide-ranging genre. As the first major anthology on the action film in more than a decade, the volume offers insights into the genre’s historical development, explores its production techniques and visual poetics, and provides reflections on the numerous social, cultural, and political issues it has and continues to embody. A Companion to the Action Film offers original research and critical analysis that examines the iconic characteristics of the genre, its visual aesthetics, and its narrative traits; considers the impact of major directors and stars on the genre’s evolution; puts the action film in dialogue with various technologies and other forms of media such as graphic novels and television; and maps out new avenues of critical study for the future. This important resource: Offers a definitive guide to the action film Contains insightful contributions from a wide range of international film experts and scholars Reviews the evolution of the genre from the silent era to today’s age of digital blockbusters Offers nuanced commentary and analysis of socio-cultural issues such as race, nationality, and gender in action films Written for scholars, teachers and students in film studies, film theory, film history, genre studies, and popular culture, A Companion to the Action Film is an essential guide to one of international cinema’s most important, popular, and influential genres.