Action Genre

Action films have traditionally been aimed at male audiences from the early teens to the mid-30s. The "Action film" genre began to develop in the 1970s and many action filmmakers from the 1990s and 2000s added female heroines in response to the expanding conceptions of gender, trying to get their audiences to be wider and more people interested in the certain film. 

This major genre type includes films that have impact, continuous high energy, many physical stunts, races, rescues, battles, martial arts, destructive disasters(floods, explosions, natural disasters, and fires), fights, escapes, non-stop motion, spectacular rhythm and pacing, and adventurous heroes.

Action film is a genre where one or more heroes are thrust into a series of challenges that require physical feats such as extended fights and frantic chases. They occasionally have a resourceful character struggling against incredible odds such as, life-threatening situations, an evil villain, and/or being chased in several ways of transportation such as car, bus or truck with victory achieved at the end after difficult physical efforts and violence.

 The main action centres on a male action hero, normally portrayed by these most prominent actors: Bruce Lee, Steven Seagal, Sylvester Stallone, Harrison Ford, Bruce Willis, Chuck Norris, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Douglas Fairbanks Sr., Charles Bronson, Steve McQueen, Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Claude Van Damme. Women in action-films usually play the roles of accomplices or romantic interests of the hero.

Story and character development are generally secondary to explosions, fist fights, gunplay and car chases. They almost always have a resourceful hero – or heroine - struggling against incredible odds, life-threatening circumstances or an evil villain and are normally stuck in a form of transportation such as bus, ships, trains, planes, on horseback and on foot, and are sometimes starting a chase. The hero – or heroine - ends in victory or the problem is resolved through fighting.

Hollywood has generally been making more action films now than ever, because the advancement in technology have made things cheaper and easier to create which would have used to of required professional stunt crews and dangerous staging.

The action genre is closely linked with the thriller and adventure film genres. Action films and adventure films have tremendous cross-over potential as film genres. Both types of films come in a variety of forms or genre-hybrids: sci-fi or space, thrillers, crime-drama, war, horror, westerns, etc. Oftentimes, action films are great box-office hits, but lack critical appeal because of their two-dimensional heroes or villains.

This research has helped me because I now know what people watching the Action genre will be expecting. This makes things easier because we can now see if we want to look more into this genre, or whether we want to do another. The research I’ve done has shown me what kind of fighting is expected, and also which kind of characters we need. I would also check to see if this work could fit in with the thriller genre, which it says it normally is closely linked with. I know people are expecting violence within this genre, and that it is mostly men being aimed at rather than woman.