eBook - PDF

Contemporary Action Cinema

Name: Contemporary Action Cinema
ISBN: 9780748646128

Lisa Purse,

233 pages
English
PDF
Available on iOS & Android

eBook - PDF

Contemporary Action Cinema

Lisa Purse,

About this book

Action cinema is a popular and familiar form which reflects the cultural, industrial and historical landscape from which it emerges. Lisa Purse analyses the genre's pleasures and complexities in the light of both its cinematic history and the latest critical debates. Focussing on action cinema of the 2000s, this book explores issues of visual style, narrative, representation and the various contexts of production through a diverse series of case studies including Avatar (2009), Casino Royale (2006), The Hurt Locker (2008) and Banlieue 13 (2004).Providing a groundbreaking account of the way that the spectator engages with the action body and the action narrative, and including analyses of areas of representation that have seldom received sustained attention in the past, this comprehensive study is the perfect companion to modern action cinema.Key Features* Provides wide-ranging analyses and interpretation of action cinema* Discusses representations of heroism, gender and ethnicity* Explores the spectator's embodied engagement with the action film* Examines the effect of 9/11 and changes in US foreign policy

Publisher

EUP

Year

2011

Edition

eBook ISBN

9780748646128

Topic

Media & Performing Arts

Subtopic

Film & Video

36

contemporary 

action 

cinema

notes

1.

For

example, 

see

Schatz 

1993

,

Wyatt 

1994

,

Gross 

2000

,

Dixon 

2001

and

Sobchack 

2006

.

2.

See

Geoff 

King, 

who

argues 

that 

claims 

about 

spectacle 

replacing 

narrative 

are

‘often 

based 

on

an

exaggerated 

assumption 

of

the

extent 

to

which 

Hollywood 

movies 

were 

ever 

dominated

by

a

commitment 

to

classical 

narrative 

norms’ 

(italics 

in

original) 

(King 

2002

:

180

).

See

also 

Gunning 

2000

and

Neale 

2000

.

3.

The

cat’s 

presence 

in

the

scene 

is

interesting. 

Even 

a

trained 

cat

could 

not

perform 

(or

indeed 

stay 

still) 

in

the

midst 

of

a

building 

collapse 

achieved 

with 

practical 

effects 

(given 

the

fright-inducingly 

loud 

explosions 

and

falling 

objects 

that 

that 

would 

involve), 

so

the

cat’s 

apparent 

interaction 

with 

other 

scenic 

elements 

is

clearly 

constructed 

in

post-

production. 

Aside 

from 

introducing 

a

comic 

element 

and

perhaps 

also 

emphasising 

the

fragility 

of

animate 

forms 

when 

faced 

with 

the

onslaught 

of

debris 

from 

the

disintegrating 

house, 

then, 

the

cat’s 

purpose 

seems 

to

be

to

point 

reﬂexively 

to

the

presence 

and

skill 

of

the

digital 

compositing 

in

the

sequence.

4.

Sarah 

Street 

ascribes 

a

similar 

function 

to

spectacular 

costuming 

in

The

Matrix

,

in

that 

the

‘spectacular 

garments 

convince 

us

that 

the

characters 

are

capable 

of

undermining 

the

Matrix’ 

(Street 

2001

:

99

).

Contents
Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Introduction: ‘Where are we, and how did we get here?’
Chapter 1 Narrative and the action film
Chapter 2 The action body
Chapter 3 The action sequence
Chapter 4 Action women
Chapter 5 Action men
Chapter 6 Race in the action film
Chapter 7 Homosexuality in the action film
Chapter 8 Action cinema after 9/11
Chapter 9 The ‘European connection’
Afterword
Bibliography
Filmography
Television Series
Index

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Related ISBNs

9781119014935,

9781134873005,

Contemporary Action Cinema

Contemporary Action Cinema

About this book

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