Research: Action MoviesSpy/Detective Movies.

Action

Action film is a film genre were one or more heroes is thrust into a series of challenges that require physical feats, extended fights and frenetic 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. Victory is normally achieved at the end through huge physical efforts and violence

Early Action Films

During the 1920s and 30’s action-based films were often ‘swashbuckling’ adventure films is which Douglas Fairbanks wielded swords in westerns

The 40’s and 50’s saw action develop into war and cowboy movies. Alfred Hitchcock almost single-handedly ushered in the spy-adventure genre

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The long-running success of James Bond series easily dominated the action films of the 60’s. This series essentially introduced all the staples of the modern-day action movie. The Bond movies were characterized by larger than life characters, such as the resourceful hero: a veritable “one man army” who was able to dispatch villainous masterminds in ever more creative ways. The Bond films also utilize quick cutting, car chases, fist fights, a variety of weapons and gadgets and ever more elaborate action sequences.

North by Northwest

North by Northwest is a 1959 American thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, Starring Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint and James Mason.

North by northwest is a tale of mistaken identity, with an innocent man pursued across the united statues by agents of a mysterious organization who want to stop his interference in their plans to smuggle out microfilm containing government secrets

Alfred Hitchcock

Sir Alfred Hitchcock was a British film director and producer.

Over a career spanning more than half a century he pioneered the use to a camera made to move in a way that mimics a person’s gaze, forcing viewers to engage in a for of voyeurism. He framed shots to maximize anxiety, fear, or empathy and use innovative film editing. His stories frequently featured fugitives on the run from the law alongside blonde female characters. Many of Hitchcock's films have twist endings and thrilling plots featuring depictions of violence, murder, and crime.

Voyeurism is the sexual interest in or practice of spying on people engaged in intimate behaviors, such as undressing, sexual activity usually considered to be of a private nature.

1970’s

Bond first started to see competition as gritty detective stories and urban crime drams began to fuse themselves with the new ‘action’ style. This lead to a string of maverick police officer films, such as those defines by Bullitt (1968) and Dirty Harry (1971). Both of which featured an intense car chase inspired by the popular stunt work or the Bond films.

Dirty Harry signaled the end of the Cowboy and Indians era of film westerns

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Also inspired by the success of the James Bond film ‘you only live twice’, martial-arts-themed action movies exploded onto the western cinema screens with Bruce Lee’s ‘Enter the Dragon (1971.

Dirty Harry

Dirty Harry is a 1971 American crime thriller produced and directed by Don Siegel, the first in the Dirty harry series. Clint eatwood plays the title role, in his first outing as San Francisco police department inspector ‘Dirty’ Harry Callahan .

1980’s

The 1980’s saw the action film become the most dominant genre in Hollywood. This was ‘the action era’ popularized by actors such as Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis and Chuck Norris.

48 Hrs

In 1982 veteran actor Nick Nolte and rising comedian Eddie Murphy smashed box office records with one of the first action comedy 48 Hrs. This was credited as the first ‘buddy-cop’ movie.

1990’s

This was an era of sequels and hybrid action. Like the western genre, the spy and urban action movies were beginning to parody themselves.

With a growing revolution in CGI the real world settings began to give way to increasingly fantastic environments.

The new era of action films had budgets unlike any is the past as franchises such as Dirty Harry and James Bond proved that one a single successful action film could lead to a continuing action franchise.

Therefore the 90’s saw a rise in budgets and the number of sequels whereas in earlier decades film makers frowned upon sequels.

GoldenEye

GoldenEye was the 17th spy film in the James Bond series. It was also the first to star Pierce Brosnan.

It was the first film in the series not to take story elements from the works of novelists Ian Fleming.

In the film, Bond fights to prevent an arms syndicate from using GoldenEye satellite weapon against London in order to cause a global financial meltdown.

2000

From 2000-2010 we saw new action films, such as Sherlock Holmes and The Bourne series. As well as the continuing Bond series, new with Daniel Craig acting as the 007 agent, now with less gadgets featured in previous movies and very much back to basics.

The Bourne Trilogy

The Bourne films are a series of action thriller spy films based on the character Jason Bourne, a former CIA assassin suffering from extreme memory loss.

The series is noted and credited for its realism with the growing use of

CGI in the action Genre.

James Bond

James Bond is a fictional character created in 1953 by Ian Fleming, who featured his in 12 novel and two short story collections.

Fleming died in 1964 and since then six other authors wrote authorized Bond novels.

In the 1962 Dr. No starring Sean Connery started of the James Bond series. Since then there has been 22 films released with a 23rd expected in 2012.

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The films are renowned for a number or reasons, including the musical accompaniment with the theme songs to the films having picked up academy award nominations on several occasions.

Other popular elements include Bond’s cars, his guns and the gadgets he is supplied with.

List of Bond films

1962: Dr. No. 1963: From Russia with love. 1964: Goldfinger. 1965: Thunderball. 1967: You only live twice. 1969: On her majesty’s secret service. 1971: Diamonds are forever. 1973: Live and let die.

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1974: The man with the Golden Gun. 1977: The spy who loved me. 1979: Moonraker. 1981: For your eyes only. 1983: Octopussy. 1985: A view to a kill. 1987: The living Daylights. 1989: License to kill. (Novelization)

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1995: GoldeEye. (Novelization) 1997: Tomorrow never dies.

(Novelization) 1999: The world is not enough.

(Novelization) 2002: Die another day. (Novelization) 2006: Casino Royal. 2008: Quantum on solace. 2012: Skyfall.

Novelization- not originated from Ian Fleming