1. History of the Action Genre
By Farida Islam

2. 1920’s-1930’s
• ‘The Three Musketeers’ was an
Action film made by Fred Niblo in the
1920’s. The DVD case (shown on the
right) shows clearly that is an Action
film as there is a weapon in the
man’s (main character) hand. This
film is a black and white silent film,
maybe due to lack of technology in
this decade.
• ‘Mutiny on the Bounty’ was an Action
film made by Frank Lloyd in 1935.
The film was rated a PG and was in
black and white with audio.

3. 1940’s-1950’s
• ‘The Mark of Zorro’ was made in the
1940’s by Rouben Mamoulian. It is
rated U and is a black and white film.
This is again due to lack of
technology. However unlike films in
the 1920’s and 30’s there is audio
showing that there is progress being
made.
• ‘Machine Gun Kelly’ was made in
1958 by Roger Corman, it was an
Action film. It was rated 15 due to
strong threat, menace and violence
being included. This was a black and
white film.

4. 1960’s
• Dominated by James Bond (based on
Ian Fleming’s novels) which was
introduced as the Modern-day Action
film, The Bond films also used fast
paced cuts, car chases, fist fights, a
variety of weapons and gadgets.
• ‘Dr No’ was made in 1962 by Terence
Young. This was rated PG and put
into the genre of Modern-day Action.
The film was in Technicolor by this
time it was the norm for films to be
in colour.

6. 1970’s
In the 1970’s Detective stories and Crime dramas were introduced, films such as
‘The French Connection’ and ‘Dirty Harry’.
• ‘Dirty Harry’ was made in 1971 by
Don Seigel. It was rated an 15 due to
violent nature. In the 70’s there were
more opportunities of doing stunts
and making them look believable to
the audience.
There were many other films made
in the similar category (Action
detective/crime) such as:
•Shaft (1971) by
•Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) by
•The rest of the ‘Dirty Harry’ series
–’Magnum Force’(1973), ’The
Enforcer’ (1976)

7. 1980’s- Also known as the ‘Action Era’ made popular by actors
such as:
• Sylvester Stallone
• Arnold Shwarzenegger
• Bruce Willis
• Chuck Norris
Genre hybrids were becoming the norm;
• War-action hybrids e.g. First Blood and Missing in Action
• Science fiction action e.g. The Terminator, and RoboCop
• Horror-action e.g. Aliens and Predator
• Musical-action-comedy hybrid e.g. The Blues Brothers

9. 1990’s
• This was the era of sequels as the
success of many successful film
sequels proved that one successful
film could lead to a whole franchise.
Also CGI (computer generated
imagery) was starting to be used in
films e.g. to digitally create
characters. The use of CGI has
massively increased quality of image
and made films so advanced that its
hard to distinguish between real and
digitally computed now.
• Films such as Die Hard 2, RoboCop 2,
and Terminator 2 used CGI

10. Present
• With technology being more
advanced than it has ever been, the
quality of films has never been
better. For example the use of CGI
and 3D graphics has improved film
quality, with surreal graphics and
crystal clear viewing.
• Throughout the years there have
been many aspects that make an
Action film an Action whether its car
chases, or fist fights. Now with more
than enough ideas to share between
films to make each one individual.
Action films are more unique than
ever with technology improving to
help them. For example CGI can
make a fake explosions seem so
realistic and 3D can make the
audience feel like they’re part of it.
By doing this Action films are making
the audience feel exhilarated and
thrilled whilst watching, which is how
they are meant to feel.

11. Reflection
By researching history of the action
genre I have been given many ideas on
what I could include is my opening. As
there is many different styles of Action
and aspects on what makes an Action
film. This research has helped me
figure out how to make my opening fit
in with the Action genre yet also be
different in the genre.