A deep look into the action film genre

**Zeeboe** · 09-04-2012, 09:28 PM

It seems to me most films mirror whatever is going on in the world. In the 1980's, the U.S.A. was feuding with Russia who made it clear they were going to beat us through strength and aggression, as in, "we've got the biggest muscles/guns and we're not afraid to use them".

To prove we Americans are just as bad-ass as Russia, in a lot of action films, you often saw a brawny looking bad-ass....fighting with another brawny looking-bad-ass.

Today, it's all mostly pretty boys or average looking guys who don't look like they could kick any ass at all playing the action heroes or a woman plays a role a man should be playing. Such as the case with the T-X in "Terminator 3".

I realize producers these days use the angle of "It's one you least suspect" to explain their poor casting. That's honestly not my thing, and I feel it's been overplayed way too much in action movies for the last ten years or so. To me, it's just an excuse to justfity why Hollywood these days gets pretty boys to play action heroes, or puts women in roles that men would have been playing if it was the 1980's.

However, if you think about it - Through out the 2000's in the real world, no one knows who to trust, or who the enemy is, they could be among us, sitting next to us on the bus, or it could be the government, and this is reflected in our action films in which "ordinary" people are either the villian of the movie or they are the heroes and are caught up in situations and have to fight, but inevitably end up wondering if what they're doing is right and if violence or revenge is ultimately a good thing, blah, blah, and all that liberal cheesy nonsense.

09-04-2012, 09:28 PM	#1
Zeeboe Posts: 6,269	A deep look into the action film genre It seems to me most films mirror whatever is going on in the world. In the 1980's, the U.S.A. was feuding with Russia who made it clear they were going to beat us through strength and aggression, as in, "we've got the biggest muscles/guns and we're not afraid to use them". To prove we Americans are just as bad-ass as Russia, in a lot of action films, you often saw a brawny looking bad-ass....fighting with another brawny looking-bad-ass. Today, it's all mostly pretty boys or average looking guys who don't look like they could kick any ass at all playing the action heroes or a woman plays a role a man should be playing. Such as the case with the T-X in "Terminator 3". I realize producers these days use the angle of "It's one you least suspect" to explain their poor casting. That's honestly not my thing, and I feel it's been overplayed way too much in action movies for the last ten years or so. To me, it's just an excuse to justfity why Hollywood these days gets pretty boys to play action heroes, or puts women in roles that men would have been playing if it was the 1980's. However, if you think about it - Through out the 2000's in the real world, no one knows who to trust, or who the enemy is, they could be among us, sitting next to us on the bus, or it could be the government, and this is reflected in our action films in which "ordinary" people are either the villian of the movie or they are the heroes and are caught up in situations and have to fight, but inevitably end up wondering if what they're doing is right and if violence or revenge is ultimately a good thing, blah, blah, and all that liberal cheesy nonsense.