1. Action Films
By George I. Frost

2. Action Films
 There are many sub genres that fall under the
heading of “Action” such as Chase films, War,
Spy, Martial Arts and Disaster Films. In the
course of this slide show I will be examining the
evolution of the Action Film from its birth to
the present day. While trying to encompass as
many of the different sub genres as possible it
would be impossible to list, examine and write
about all action films so only the main or the
socially/ technologically most significant.

3. Attack on a China Mission
 Created 1900. Made in England. A silent film
 This is one of the first sort of action films. It is a simple film
created around the time of the Boxer rebellion to feed the
publics desire to see something of what was happening. In this
short film a British mission is attacked the women run indoors
and a priest tries to hold off the Chinese rebels with his revolver
before he is killed in a hand to hand struggle. A navel
detachment arrives and saves the day. Shortly after their arrival
smoke begins to billow out of one of thee windows. For the
duration of this film the camera is static and it
was all filmed in one take. The film was a great
success as it was the first film to use a small
choreographed army. And this gave the audience
a whole new level of action.

4. Daring Daylight Burglary
 Created 1903. Made in England. A silent film
 in this film a burglar who is keen to escape from the scene of a
crime throws a policeman off a roof and badly injures him. He
is pursued by the policeman's comrade intent on capturing him
to avenge his hurt friend, he pursued the burglar over open
country, over cliffs, across rivers before the thief escapes by
train only to be captured at the next station when the police
telegraph ahead. It was filmed over three days, it cost £25 to
film and was sold for £50. it was extremely popular in America
where it sold 100 of its 500-600 copies. Its revolutionary use of
jump cut editing and the use of large and imposing backdrops
thrilled audiences. This use of editing also allowed the
policeman to be substitued for a dummy only at the very last
moment of the scene.

5. The Great Train Robbery
 Created 1903. Made in the United States of America. silent film
 This is included because it was one of the first films to attempt a
narrative. Some Men hold up a Train, shoot the Guard and rob the
passengers [shooting one], before being hunted down and killed by a
sheriff and his posy. This is an important point in the making of early
Action Films, it had a huge Budget by standards of the time, featuring
several horses and a real train. It featured for the first time a camera
panning movement and many of the film frames were hand coloured
to give colour to the gunfire and some cloths. To increase Box-office
revenues by creating dramatic posters to advertise
the film. The idea of coloured images, real moving
trains and „match-on-action‟ allowing stunt dummies
to be inserted were used to make it look more realistic
and hep the audience engage more with the film.

6. Early Action Films
 Early Action Films were for mostly silent and had classical or
historical settings with Westerns, classic storeys and tales of
empire being some of the most popular. The immobile nature
of some cameras and the complex process of editing the film
meant that the plots often had to be simple and the actions of
the actors had to be exaggerated at times. As technology
became more advanced and the public began to become more
and more accustomed to films; styles of films changed as did
the specific genre of the films most in favour with the public.
Action films were at the forefront of that.

7. Westerns
 At the beginning of this period and throughout
westerns were extremely popular. This is because
they appealed to a wide audience because of their reasonably
simple plots of good against evil, the frequent chase scenes, gun-
play and the large settings in deserts and small towns. Camera
movement progressed rapidly as did editing techniques to
capture the fast speed actions and the expressions of the actors.
Large, medium and close shots were more widely used in
scenes, made easier by better editing and match-on-action gave
a sense of drama and reality to some gunfights.

8. North By Northwest
 This is one of the first big espionage Films. It is a story of spies
and mistaken identity. By now editing and camera movement
were similar to that used today. The previous move into colour
for all films had had the same effect that the move into sound
had had. It thrilled audiences by making it more realistic and
engaging. As budgets grew with public demand more and more
amazing stunts were called for. Including the famous aeroplane
and mount Rushmore scene.

9. Bond Films
 The series of James Bond films first took hold in the 1960s and
are an obvious part of any history of action films. The Bond
Films started the public liking for spy films. It was also one of
the first sets of films to really establish the character of the super
villain. One man behind the scenes who is running the whole
operation, these characters often had a unique quirk or physical
abnormality that distinguished them from the rest of the villains
in the film. But by far and away the most lasting impression they
made was in the creating of the high speed car chases.

10. The 1970s
 In the 1970s two film genres began to take off. police/ detective
films and martial arts films. Police films were originally popular
in the west and gradually spread east and the original martial
arts films were filmed in the east and gradually became more
popular in the west, especially America.

11. Dirty Harry
 This 1971 film stared Clint Eastwood in his firs major role
outside a western, this in marks the transition point in action
films from when westerns were the only films involving guns
and chases. This was one of the early films to give the police
guns and allow the hero to be nasty. At several points in the film
the hero tortures people mildly to get information but he
remains the hero with the audiences support.

12. Enter the Dragon
 Enter the Dragon staring Bruce Lee was the first film to
popularise the Martial arts genre of action film in America. The
high levels of violence thrilled American audiences and the high
level of English or American actors made it more accessible for
western audiences than previous films of that type. The
archetypal evil villain conformed to western film stereotypes
while the themes of honour and betrayal created a new
stereotype in the west regarding eastern style action films.

13. The 1980s
 The 1980s was one of the busiest times regarding action films.
It was during this time that different sub genres of action films
were merged. the overall budget of most action films were also
increased. It was during this time that serise of action films were
produced. An action film that was popular at the box-office was
likely to be made into an ongoing series of films.

14. Rambo
 Rambo is the archetypal action film.
They revolve around high levels of
action with one main character at its
heart. The first film was a great sucsess at the cinema box-office
so it was decided to create more films staring the same main
character. All of these films feature simular plots with different
backdrops. These were some of the fastest paced and most
violent films yet produced.

15. 48 HRS.
 This film was the first film to fully merge the two genres of
Action and Comedy. Despite initially bad reviews the film
made $78,868,508. It was a great success and has lead to the
creation of many police comedies or action comedies but few
films combining all three were made.

16. The 1990s
 Developments in Computer Generated Images took a leap
forward in this decade, allowing bigger and bolder scenes in
action films and allowing people with little or no training to
seemingly do physically impossible feats. Film budgets
continued to grow and more film sequels were produced. At
the same time westerns, war films and spy films became more
popular again but by this point those films had begun to be
parodies of themselves. The majority of action films made at
this time were filmed either in America or Hong Knong.

17. Siege Films
 Due to the success of films like Die Hard in 1988 films
following a similar plot were made to feed of the success of that
film. These were...
 The Under siege series
 Sudden Death
 Air Force One

18. Speed
 Speed is a basic action film of the time. It focuses
around high speed driving, explosions, an evil
villain and a pair of heroes who win the day through
luck and their ability. It had a budget of $25 million and made
$350,448,145 at the Box-Office. The film depends heavily on
CGI and well known actors.

19. Con Air
 Con Air was an action film that was meant to conform to the
idea of action films. It has plane crashes, car chases, maverick
policemen, gun fights, explosions, a reformed convict, a
controlling villain and death. This film is based on action films
and is there purely to entertain the audience, it uses lots of CGI
and famous actors.

20. Conclusion
 In this brief history of action films I have been able to track the
evolution of action films. Budgets have risen from £25 to
£25 million. The plots of action films have also become more
complex and the physical action required has increased. When
once the ability to jog and fire a gun was all required in an
action film. Now physical fitness, running, driving and a suitable
voice is important in an action film. The type or sub-genre of
action film that is popular with the public has changed the basic
function has not changed, to thrill and entertain the audience.
Genres have now started creating vague parodies of themselves
and this is just a further evolution of the genre. In short action
films must have none stop movement and escapism at its heart.