Developments of Action Films Over Time

Action Films

 There has been many action films since the 1903 and has changed over time similar with thriller and adventure genres and may contain elements of drama and spy fiction. Action film is a genre that the protagonsist(s) are in a sequence being challenged by violence, fighting, physical feats, and frantic chases. This genre holds a hero struggling with the odds of an antihero threatening. Antihero is the opposite to a hero because they are more dangerous than hero, a hero is a real person or fictional character that faces danger through bravery to go up against their enemies also called antihero. However, in 1903 The Great Train Robbery was directed by Edwin S. Porter which is a former Edison Studios cameraman. It was the first action film that had came out. The three different movies this paper will include is To Kill A Mockingbird (1962), Rush Hour (1998), and Fast & Furious 6 (2013),by different filmmakers.

To kill A Mockingbird by the director Robert Mulligan. According to New York Times, Robert Mulligan, Director, Is Dead at 83, by Margalit Fox states “Robert Mulligan, a hollywood director best known for the 1962 classic film To Kill A Mockingbird died on Saturday at his home in Lyme, Conn.” Those who do not know who Mulligan is, he was an American film and television director. The cinematographer in this film was Russell Harlan who was born in Los Angeles. Cinematographer is the art of making motion pictures which is what Harlan did. The plot To Kill a Mockingbird starts off with Scout and Jem living with their father name Atticus Finch who is a Lawyer in the community living in Alabama. Mary Badham plays role of Scout Finch, who Phillip Alford plays a role as Jem being her brother and John Megna is Dill their friend. In addition, Robert Duvall is Boo Radley in this film being a mysterious neighbor while Gregory Peck who plays the role of Atticus is Scout and Jem’s father and a lawyer. Although, Atticus who is the father and lawyer defending an African American Brock Peters who plays a role as Tom Robinson against charges. However in my view point, the narrator in this film is Scout who is smart, and a tomboy dressing with overalls to get into battles with boy. On the other hand Jem who is dreams about football but he proctects his little sister just like any brother would protect their sister. Both Scout and Jem are two different personality trait, therefore one is more likely to get into fights while the other is a caring person. In this film, Radley stabbed his cruel father with scissors, hardly being outdoords living close to Scout and Jem. The sound effects used in this film are birds chirping in the early morning hours, crikets that are at nightime, screen door when being open or closed, dogs barking, church bell to design nostalgic of the living in this film. Tom Robinson who is acused of rape, while his attorneys defends him stays calm without attacking his enemies so that their children can do the same by becoming sympathetic with respecting others. The American Cinema Editors in this film was Aaron Stell who was nominated by his professional achievements.

The second film I picked out is Rush Hour, a thriller and action film from 1988 by the director Brett Ratner. He was born on March 28, 1969 converting himselves as an American directore and a producer. Although he directed this film series of Rush Hour, he also directed, The Family Man, Red Dragon, ect. His first motion picture was in 1997 while he started directing music videos in 1990s. The film plot is a Chinese diplomat’s daughter who is kidnapped in Los Angeles. Lee who is a detective inspector known as Jackie Chan is in Hong Kong comes to Los Angeles to solve this case. He is assisted with an FBI James Cater known as Chris Tucker to watch him over, while he does not want anything to do with him. Although, in this film is silly, they both have different personality traits but Cater who is the FBI seems to not care what he does or what others think and is the person to be making funny jokes. I find it really hilarious when Detective Carter is says a sentence because in this film most of the time he says something. Detective Carter “Don’t you ever touch a black man’s radio, boy! You can do that in China but you can get your ass killed out here, man.” Detective Carter says this because in the film Lee touches his radio, which if he did that with a different African American he would get his ass killed. Therefore, there are certain African American who would probably not like if someone did that. This film only includes Asian American and African American culture because the whole film takes place at Hong Kong. Although I have pointed out some of the characters in this film, there are others such as Soo Yung (Julia Hsu) and Ambassaor Han (Tzi Ma). Soo Yung was the Chinese diplomat’s daughter that got kidnapped. The next film by the same director was Rush Hour 2 in 2001 with the same main characters. Those main characters are Jakie Chan and Chris Tucker.

The director Justin Lin an American, directed Fast and the Furious 6 which he also directed other films and a couple of the series of Fast and Furious. In my opinion, since the first film of Fast and the Furious came out I have like the film because it was very interested. As years went by and new films from the series of Fast and the Furious, it has changed over time. Therefore in the first film there were only like four to six main characters. Those characters were Bryan O’Conner (Paul Walker), Dominic Torreto (Vin Diesel), Mia Torreto (Jordana Brewster), Letty (Michelle Rodriguez), Vince (Matt Schulze), Johnny Tran (Rick Yune), and Jess (Chad Lindberg). As new films were created from this series, there were new actors involved or some would not be involved in the films. As the series of Fast and the Furious has changed over time with different actors, the whole film of the series has also changed by the location, time such as seasons, cars the actors used. From the first film until the last film of this series, took place in Los Angeles, to South Florida, to Los Angeles, to Los Angeles and Mexico, to Brazil, to London, Scotland, and spain. All these films from the series of Fast and the Furious were filmed in different states. The cinematographer of Fast and the Furious 6 is Stephen F. Window. This film is about a criminal Vin Diesel that propose inexchange for Dom and his crew’s crimes from Luke Hobbs. They both make a deal, which is for Dom and his crew to take down Owen Shaw, while Luke Hobbs gives them a clean record for Dom and his crew. Dom was a criminal gang who has been put in jail a coluple times of the series of Fast and the Furious. In one of the films, there is a scene where he is on a road with other criminals on the bus. Couple minutes passes by and there are like three sports car who end up helping Dom get out of the bus. The drivers of those sports cars were some of his crew.

I picked out these action films to write my paper because I have seen it, it is interesting, as well as the seeing different time and location the film takes place. In Tenth grade, I had read the book To Kill a Mockingbird and towards the end of the school year we watched the movie. However, the movie was different to what I had read. I had an image of the age from the characters in the book, while in the movie the characters seemed older by their height. Although the movie was somewhat different to the book, I still found it interesting. The film was black and white which at the beginning of the movie I thought to myself that I would not like to watch it. However, I still think of that wheneve I watch a film without color. Years later went by, now that there is technology the filming produces is very different to the filming in 1940s. For that reason, the Motion Picture, sound, digital and technology. In the early years 1880s-1904 is when cinema was invented. During that time, motion picture was created as well as designing cinematographe who the Lumiere brothers, Louis and Auguste. Later in 1919-1929 French films were created after World War I while they had also included films for African American.

To conclude these action films have improved over time. Actions films have an actor who is a hero struggling against antihero in certain situations. Although this genre is associated with thriller and adventure genres and may contain elements of drama and spy fiction, I think that action films can be associated with other genres. I also think that in a couple years from now the process of film will change or improve. The three different movies this paper includes To Kill A Mockingbird (1962), Rush Hour (1998), and Fast & Furious 6 (2013),by different filmmakers. This filmmakers were born in different years with different early life, career path and different lifestyle. Movies have changed over time dramatically and several of these changes in popular English language filmmaking practice are reflected in patterns of film style. It has also change by the arrangements of shots durations, motion, and luminance have come to reflecting aspects of the narrative form. Narrative form appears to have relatively unchanged over time and often characterized four or more or less equal duration parts, which are called acts- setup, complication, development, and climax.

Work cited

• The Great Train Robbery (1903), www.filmsite.org/grea.html
• “Action Film.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 26 May 2019.
• Cutting, James E. “The Evolution of Pace in Popular Movies.” SpringerLink, Springer International Publishing, 19 Dec. 2016, link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s41235-016-0029-0.
• Foca, Anna, and Laura Fine. “To Kill A Mockingbird.” Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc. 14 Dec. 2018, www.britannica.com/topic/To-Kill-a-Mockingbird.
• Fox, Margalit. “Robert Mulligan, Director, Is Dead at 83.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 23 Dec. 2008, www.nytimes.com/2008/12/23mulligan.html
• Hill, Logan. “Meet Justin Lin, the Most Important Blockbuster Director You’ve Never Heard Od.” Wired, Conde Nast, 4 Oct. 2018, www.wired.com2016/05/justin-lin-star-trek-beyond/.
• Mulligan, Robert. “To Kill A Mockingbird (film) Characters.” GradeSaver, www.gradesaver.com/to-kill-a-mockingbird-film/study-guide/character-list.
• “Stephen F. Window.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 24 May 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_F._Windon.
• “To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) Film Summary and Movie Synopis.” MHM Podcast Network, 27 Nov. 2018, www.moviehousememories.com/to-kill-a-mockingbird-1962-movie-synopsis/.