Where the Action is

When I was growing up, we had a different sort of hero to look up to. It was the man willing to do anything to get the job done. Sure, there were superheroes, but they were mainly in comics and cartoons, and we recognized them as such. On the playground, you would more likely catch boys playing as the good Terminator, Robocop, or John Rambo, than you would anyone taking on the role of Iron Man or Captain America. This is because heroes were a more tactile, weighted thing, than they would become decades from then.

Of course, over the years, a lot of that has been warped and tarnished due to the very heavy cultural hate of the 1980s that persisted over the '90s and into the '00s. It was especially prevalent in the late '90s and early '00s. Before '80s and '90s nostalgia became the zeitgeist in the mid '00s, after the realization that modern culture was fairly lousy, the concept of heroism had long been a punching bag for realism and downbeat dour trends.

Which is funny to think about, because '80s nostalgia has, at this point, been around longer than the 1980s, but the one aspect of it that still doesn't get quite the respect it deserves is the action movie. This despite the fact that it was one of the most popular aspect of the era. Think about it: TV re-releases and movie reboots flood out of the rusted Hollywood gates extensively. Even Blu-Ray re-releases of family adventure movies and horror from that time get much focus and press. But action movies? Not so much. They'll talk your ear off about a Blu-Ray re-release of Doctor Butcher MD, but a movie like Invasion USA? No chance. This despite the last Rambo movie being a huge hit and showing their is an audience for the genre. You will still find those in higher positions in the terrible culture of today downplaying the genre as even lower than trash while celebrating known trash ironically. It's a bit of an awkward position to be in, but it is what it is.

This is why it's always nice to see those attempting to give the action movie the respect it deserves. Believe it or not, it does happen.

I had the pleasure to recently view the documentary In Search of the Last Action Heroes, by the same creators of '80s horror documentary In Search of Darkness. In case you couldn't guess, this one is about the 1980s action boom, at least, for the most part. I found it to watch on youtube and thought it worth talking about in greater detail. Especially since the era is rapidly becoming culturally obscure due to not getting nearly the focus horror or even children's programming from that time is. I'm not sure why that is, because this genre holds up.

The fact of the matter is that there is much to discuss from that time beyond how politically incorrect or problematic certain wonks might think it is. Neither is it as dumb as you've been told--the best works are as good as anything else from the time period. Thankfully, this documentary doesn't talk about such frivolous or "ironic" things, choosing instead to follow the rise and fall of a film genre that defined several decades, and influenced a storytelling genre quite extensively.

The basic flow of the documentary has a loose structure. It features a chronological order of events, interviewing some folks from the era but not others, starting at the origins and moving through to the dead zone of the 2000s. It's not quite as in-depth as I would like, so I'm going to use this opportunity to talk about why in this post. That said, it also does much right, and I want to mention that, as well.

What exactly is the action film? There are many definitions, so I'm going to start from the beginning. We'll get into it right now. 

The documentary starts where I'm going to: Westerns.

Think about the Western story and where it comes from. Small group or lone hero in an unstable environment, enforcing Justice where there isn't any, reward be damned. This is the underpinning spiritual and moral nature of an action story. It's about the inevitability of Justice through an agent fit to see it through, no matter the cost. Some of the earliest action-based films were Westerns, and were all about enforcing Justice in a land where Justice was uncertain to win. I don't think I have to tell you about the gun fights, romance, or one-liners that also carry over into the genre.

The second origin point were old War films. War films were, more or less, the original blockbusters before the mess they became in the 1990s. Big budgets, big casts, big drama, big heroics, all set to a Good Vs. Evil moral framework. A few of the early action stars got their start here. While typically much longer than action stories would become (usually nearing 3 hours!) they contain the bombast and epic-scope westerns usually did not, due to their differing natures and focus.

The final influence on the action movie would be film noir. Noir rolls into thrillers, which themselves have plenty of action in them (see: Heat and Copland), but the intensity, modern urban settings, and striking and more dynamic use of the visuals and more energetic camera, clearly lent a hand to making the genre what it is. The too-cool and charismatic heroes notwithstanding.

This development formed around the genre through the 1960s when it started to become its own thing through necessity. Through franchises such as the James Bond superspy series, and actors with an image and clout like Steve McQueen, and the rise of foreign stars and involved choreography by those like Bruce Lee, the landscape for this new genre was quickly taking shape, and through the 1970s it would solidify into its final form. Adding in a touch of urban intensity from the exploitation films of such stars as Fred Williamson and Jim Brown gave the final dab of the brush to complete this Frankenstein portrait of a genre. What you got as result was the action movie.

For all intents and purposes, the 1970s were the real beginning of the action film, and in a way they were a push-back to the dour atmosphere of the time. The three movies that solidified what would soon come started in three influential movies: Death Wish, Enter the Dragon, and Dirty Harry. All three are considered classics today, for good reason, but they also kick-started an entire genre that would reach millions over the next few decades. Everything that came afterwards took a few things from at least one of these films.

Getting away from the seeping nihilism of 1970s film, these films dared to show another way out. Adventure had returned, and so were protagonists that could take you on them. It was a perfect storm of events that led to something more hopeful to arise is a sea of despair.

1971-1974

It was from this point that things shifted hard from the standard detective thrillers and police procedurals cluttering the landscape (all three used these as frames, but clearly moved beyond it in execution) and dipped their toes into the stories of larger than life heroes tasked with dispensing Justice (in Death Wish's case, despite himself) in a world that has forgotten it or sees it as secondary. It is the return of the western with war movie spectacle in noir setting where action movies formed from, all merged into one. This would be the framework that would carry the genre forward into big success in the 1980s.

Critics, however, very much did not like this shift. Enter the Dragon was written off as inconsequential fluff, Death Wish as promoting vigilante justice and telling people to "fight back", and Dirty Harry as promoting fascism and wanton carnage. The genre still receives these complaints to this day, too. Not one of these complaining critics, of course, would ever take Chinatown to task for its absolutely pointless and hopeless ending destroying the very point of the story itself. Which message is more unhealthy? That you can't do anything about injustice, or that you can? We know why critics didn't like them. What was more important than film quality was that these new and dangerous films taught the wrong thing.

One of the films that fought against these unfair condemnations from an out of touch press was Dirty Harry's sequel, Magnum Force, a film about actual criminals dispensing their own brand of justice at the expense of the law. The film is essentially about proving it is about Justice, not personal grudges masquerading as law. For some reason, it isn't a movie given much discussion today, despite charges that the genre is brainless. But it is a classic for those who know the genre.

Penned by the controversial John Milius, a man since blacklisted by Hollywood, he wrote this exchange at a key pivotal moment in the movie:

There isn't a bigger condemnation of 1970s morality than Magnum Force. The series remained a sore point for critics for years afterwards, not unlike Black Sabbath or Rush was with Rolling Stone magazine. The concept of an objective existence of Justice that supersedes appetites and political motives is frightening to a generation taught to think and believe good and evil didn't exist.

It was from this point that the shift away from doomed nihilistic hero working in a world where his efforts didn't matter began to fade. The 1970s influence on film simply didn't stick as the decade rolled on. Every Dirty Harry movie ended with him getting his man, for instance. Others would follow in his footsteps, trying their hand at being the ultimate dispenser of Justice.

The old movies used emotional stakes as a way to allow action to punctuate the tension. As time went on, and effects became better, newer writers wanted to show it more overtly. This allowed for the usage of more stunts, choreography, and special effects, to spice up the action. In other words, to use the medium as more than just a way of transcribing text to a screen and having actors deliver it. This wasn't going to be a stage-play with more camera angles. They desired to use the film format to its greatest extent. The visuals mattered!

This was what quickly led to the genre's overwhelming success, not only domestically, but all over the world. You can find action aficionados with movie libraries that span across the globe from the Philippines to Hong Kong, for a very specific reason: action speaks louder than words. You can watch the screen without subtitles, without a dub, and without any prompting, and understand the story and stakes through just the action displayed before you. This gives the genre a universal appeal no other film style can manage quite as well. The action movie achieved such wide appeal for this reason. Justice is a universal thing, after all.

For instance, there is a universal appeal in a hero like Max Rockatansky, a man who lives and survives, never needing reward or improved stature. He does what he does because it needs to be done. This is what led Mad Max, and eventually its star, Mel Gibson, to be as popular as they were in the decades to come. The influence is unavoidable. Mad Max itself more or less created an entire adventure genre on its own, and for good reason.

Another changing aspect of the 1970s culture was the explosion and reemergence of the big blockbuster. I don't have to tell you how big that space battle brand film and the shark movie were at the time, but they convinced Hollywood that audiences wanted spectacle and big action. All of a sudden, action movies were a hot commodity. Not too long after came Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1980, a film that exemplified everything that audiences wanted, packed in one film, and would get in plentiful doses throughout the following decade.

It was a perfect storm of occurrences that also helped the genre. Because, while big blockbusters were now beginning to be made, the now affordable VHS market allowed b-moves into the door for easy availability for the first time ever. I wrote about the emergence VHS and rental shops already, but their influence on the era cannot be underestimated. For the first time, audiences were in charge of the film medium. They took full advantage of that fact.

And I would be remiss to mention the home market and b-movies without discussing Cannon Films, the company that filled in the gaps between the mega-hit blockbusters. They were the ones to help solidify the genre's success at a time when it was blowing up. It was because of them that the genre kept a ubiquitous presence throughout the era. If Commando was out you could instead rent Revenge of the Ninja. And that was what people wanted.

So who was at the top during this time? Who were the stars that drove the genre to success? Many names come to mind, but there are two that define 1980s action no matter who you are. You cannot talk about 1980s in film without mentioning them.

The ones everyone were trying to keep up with at the time were Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone. The two of them, and their rivalry through the decade, presented the image, the style, and the presence, that everyone else was trying to match. There is a reason just about every action film, more or less, from the two during this era are still genre classics to this day. They were the kings of action, and for many, they still are.

This is how ubiquitous the two were

I would be remiss here to not mention some of the names that came out of this era, so I'll create a bit of a list. You could use this for recommendations if you want, this is mostly to highlight just what came out in the genre through its peak years. There are many more, and I would easily run out of space if I kept going. Nevertheless, I would recommend any of these if you want to know more about the genre, or the time period.

So let us begin.

• Steve McQueen (The Getaway, The Towering Inferno, Bullitt)
• Arnold Schwarzenegger (Conan the Barbarian, Commando, Terminator)
• Sylvester Stallone (Rambo, Cobra, Tango & Cash)
• Bruce Willis (Die Hard, The Last Boy Scout, The Fifth Element)
• Clint Eastwood (Dirty Harry, The Gauntlet, Firefox)
• Charles Bronson (Red Sun, Death Wish, The Mechanic)
• Bruce Lee (Fist of Fury, Game of Death, Enter the Dragon)
• Fred Williamson (Hell Up in Harlem, Three the Hard Way, No Way Back)
• Chuck Norris (Lone Wolf McQuade, Missing in Action, The Octagon)
• Sonny Chiba (The Street Fighter, Bullet Train, Karate Warriors)
• Jim Kelly (Black Belt Jones, Three the Hard Way, Melinda)
• Kurt Russell (Escape from New York, Big Trouble in Little China, Tango & Cash)
• Burt Reynolds (Smokey & the Bandit, Shamus, The Cannonball Run)
• Mel Gibson (Mad Max, Lethal Weapon, Maverick)
• Eddie Murphy (48 Hrs., Beverly Hills Cop, The Golden Child)
• Jackie Chan (Drunken Master, Police Story, Rumble in the Bronx)
• Wesley Snipes (New Jack City, Passenger 57, Demolition Man)
• Nick Nolte (48 Hrs., Extreme Prejudice, The Deep)
• Rutger Hauer (Blind Fury, Split Second, Wanted: Dead or Alive)
• Dolph Lundgren (Red Scorpion, Dark Angel / I Come in Peace, Showdown in Little Tokyo)
• Brandon Lee (The Crow, Showdown in Little Tokyo, Rapid Fire)
• Sho Kosugi (Revenge of the Ninja, Pray for Death, Rage of Honor)
• Michael Dudikoff (American Ninja, Avenging Force, Platoon Leader)
• Jean Claude Van Damme (Bloodsport, Hard Target, Timecop)
• Chow Yun Fat (The Killer, A Better Tomorrow, Hard Boiled)
• Cynthia Rothrock (Yes, Madam!, Righting Wrongs, China O'Brien)
• Powers Boothe (Red Dawn, Southern Comfort, Extreme Prejudice)
• Steven Seagal (Out for Justice, Above the Law, Under Siege) 
• Patrick Swayze (Red Dawn, Road House, Point Break)
• Tom Cruise (Top Gun, Days of Thunder, Mission: Impossible)
• Keanu Reeves (Point Break, Speed, The Matrix)

As you can see, that is quite the list and it's not even close to complete. Some are even still around making movies to this day. These are just some of the names that you wouldn't escape whether at the theater or at the video store during the high point of the genre. Action was everywhere, and if you were a red-blooded male, you were everywhere with it.

But, things were beginning to change by the early '90s. Everything eventually ends, and the action genre was no different. The landscape was rapidly changing, and Hollywood was seeing dollar signs in places we would later learn weren't there.

The first is the success of family movies like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, a movie made in 1989 with a clear influence of action movies of the time. Because it was relatively tame, it received a PG-13 rating, which allowed kids in the door to see it. In 1990, when the film released, this success was a game changer. You could tweak the formula, and do whatever you wanted! And that's just what they did.

Now you could get more butts in the seats and make more money, at the same time! If you make the leading men more tailored to women's tastes, you could also get them there! The birth of the corporately retooled movie had begun in earnest. This meant a retooling of the action formula you can plainly see taking effect around this time. Even the sequels to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were blunted when it came to the action and the intensity, and that was already meant for younger audiences. This was a sign of things to come.

At the same time, merchandising was becoming a real profitable endeavor. While the ACT protested against this sort of thing on television, eventually killing western animation by the end of '90s, no one really noticed this trend effecting action movies. At least, not right away. Do you want to know why there were Terminator, Robocop, and Rambo, toys for kids in the early '90s? This is why. And now they could edit down those movies so the kids could get in and, theoretically, make the studios more money. Make the movies for kids instead! You can keep the core audience, and bring more demographics in. How could that lose?

We now know the results of this fruitless endeavor. It didn't take. The reasons people, including children and women, liked the genre, is because of what it already was. They didn't react well to the changes, and the genre began its downhill slide into being a punchline.

Ironically, around this time came the movie The Last Action Hero in 1993, which was written by lovers of the genre as an affectionate satire and rewritten by those who were veterans of the genre and getting sick of it. What you get is a movie that encapsulates the feeling of the genre at the time. As a consequence, this movie was and still is controversial, feeling like the last gasp of the genre and a real sign of the divorce between Hollywood and audiences. It was barely two decades prior when Dirty Harry released, and this is where the genre ended up.

Action movies were now bloodless cartoons, and being treated as jokes by those writing them. Of course, it was also skewered by the hyper-ironic grunge landscape of the early 90s, much for the same reason their dads thought Charles Bronson was just too mean to those rapists and hired killers. But you wouldn't see either of those in the '90s action movies--those were too intense for kids, after all. Now you got PG-13 movies and, much like horror of the time, hasn't aged the greatest and led to the genre's death and destruction.

This change led to overly cartoony action movies such as Street Fighter, made directly for younger audiences. They made money, but the writing was on the wall. The genre was now a parody of itself, and there was no move to change that impression.

The documentary thinks this, too. By the time it reaches the 1990s it begins to list movies without any context or relation to other movies that came out before them or around that time period. It's just a jumble of random films that stand out, but there isn't much of a theme that relates them anymore. For all intents and purposes, the genre was over by 1995, with Speed as the last movie that focused on practical effects for spectacle. We all know what came next.

Enter CG.

By the time of The Matrix in 1999, the genre was hardly the same thing anymore. There is no longer any connection to the '70s masters, and the bloodless action is supported solely by computers and camera tricks--a sign of things to come. Computers were now cheaper than stunts and practical effects, changing the genre forever.

What actually really put the final nail in action movies, however, were the sudden return of Event Blockbusters of the sort that existed way back before action movies began. The ones starring bloated casts that rambled on for over three hours. With the arrival of CG and an easy way to appeal to all demographics at once, this became the focus of the summer season.

The difference between the old blockbusters and these was that these were written, produced, and directed, by then-modern action directors with a focus on spectacle over logic, clarity, and even the action itself. Anything you can accuse a 1980s action movie of being: dumb, loud, and gloss over substance, goes triple for 1990s blockbusters. And these had no moral core like the old ones did. There is no focus on Justice. It's just random carnage.

Spearheaded by Jerry Bruckheimer and Roland Emmerich came movies such as Independence Day in 1996. An infamously bad movie that everyone admits is bad, but shelled out money for to make a huge success anyway. This is where the troubles truly started for the action genre.

Not long later came Titanic, Armageddon, Godzilla, and Deep Impact, and so many other movies that used effects and epic scope over any sort of moral theme or tactile action. Former action movie directors Michael Bay and James Cameron joined this movement, abandoning their old ways in the process. It was now about empty spectacle and grimy characters guiding you through a nihilistic plot about random events killing people randomly without any hope to guide them onward. Heroism had been ejected for sappy speeches and computer graphics. Audiences were engrossed in the shiny lights of this newfangled CG, and studios no longer needed the old guard for stunts or practical effects. They no longer needed people who could take a fall or a punch. By the year 2000, the action genre was more or less over and replaced with these empty epics.

The rise of CG should not be dismissed as small factor in how things have changed. This focus on computers, pushed forward with Jurassic Park and Terminator 2 devalued stuntmen and practical effects makers, pushing the human element to the back in a genre that was about the human first. For all intents and purposes, action movies showed man at his physical best, performing physical feats only they could, and dispensing justice with all they have. The intensity matches the work put into the film itself. Using computers to do the heavy-lifting replaces that humanity and takes away the tactile element. Much like horror of the time, it misses the human element for effects that are purely artificial. It doesn't help that CG ages like spoiled milk, too.

Comic book movies followed on from this epic era, replacing choreography with camera tricks and special effects learned from The Matrix to mask physicality and hide deficiencies in any actor. Now anyone can be an action star, with a little tinkering and without even half the effort it used to take! It is now completely detached from the person, and has severed the connection to the audience and what they really want. Much like auto-tune ruined the singer, advancement in computer effects also took away the human element.

It used to be about taking action men and turning them into actors, but now it is easier to take actors and turn them into action men. In a genre that is about the action first, it leads to a change in how things are done. And audiences notice it, even if they can't put a finger as to why.

The biggest example is the franchise that dealt the last blow to the action genre: the Jason Bourne movies. The camera shakes and shivers, hiding the fact that the star can't fight, but what it does is take away the relationship the audience has to the character because they cannot see his struggles before them. There is no visceral connection between the two.

However, you no longer need to coordinate as much in the way of action or stunts, and since the computers take care of the rest, you hardly need to do as much in the way of editing. This is, oddly enough, why so many modern action movies have pointless random cuts and edits in the action--to give a false sense of movement to the audience. Otherwise you would notice how bad the action actually is. It's all manipulation. It isn't honest.

In old action movies, the stories were pushed by people who knew the basics of storytelling from a basic story arc to a rising climax. You can see this even in the lesser movies from the time period. The story motivated the action, the action flowed from what happened in the plot, which made the spectacle all that more impressive and involved. Because of the story, the audience is invested in the characters and that escalating action strengthens the bond the audience has with the heroes. This is the secret of the action movie's success.

It doesn't work that way anymore.

Now the action motivates the story. They think up set pieces, action scenes, and character archetypes they want to see, then they fashion a movie around it. That is why there are so many empty blockbusters that have no staying power. You would care if Col James Braddock, Mad Max, or John Rambo, died in their movies, because you care about the stakes of what they are doing. Would you care if anyone died in a modern action movie? Could they just be replaced in the sequel and no one would be the wiser? Could they be written out and little to nothing about the story would be changed? That's the difference, and it means everything.

Unfortunately, the documentary ends with a bit of undeserved hope in the genre's future. There are some newer stars, such as Tony Jaa and Scott Adkins, but they will never allowed to break out the way the old guys did because they work old school, and they simply don't get same amount of care or promotion the industry used to give talented workers. That said, at least someone out there is carrying on the tradition almost lost by the mindless pursuit of progress.

It should also be mentioned that we'll always have the classics.

However, all in all, I would say the documentary is worth seeing. For those who weren't around at the time between the '80s and '90s, it provides a good summary of what it was like experiencing it at the time, and for those who enjoy action movies it reminds you just of what you had and why you enjoyed it. The interviews are good, as is information it gives about the movies. There are few documentaries of this neglected era, and it is nice that at least they attempt to fill the gap here. And one can never get sick of hearing clever one-liners or seeing villains defeated in overwhelming fireballs that take up an entire city block.

Of course, the documentary isn't perfect. You can't go without mentioning the elephant in the room that many, many, many, actors, directors, and writers, from the era are simply missing without being interviewed. Some are not even mentioned. The narrative focus isn't as tight as it should be, and some things are given shorter shrift than others (I spent more time talking about the genre's origins above than the documentary does, for instance), and it is needlessly hopeful about the genre's future without giving clear examples as to why we should be.

But all that is negated by the subject matter being treated with respect and legitimately being covered as a serious genre. Action deserves this sort of attention.

In our irony obsessed culture overjoying in re-writing and destroying the recent past, it is nice to see someone talk about the genre without a tongue firmly planted in cheek or in a condescending manner. It's made by legitimate genre aficionados, and that is a breath of fresh air. You should see this, if only for that.

Are you into action movies or want to know more about the genre? If so then this is the documentary for you. Check this out, then start scouring for some Schwarzenegger and Stallone classics to get you started. You will be hooked. Soon enough you'll be one of us!

Stories of heroism and incredible feats will never go out of style, not so long as human beings have a sense of wonder and awe. This is the sort of thing we live for, and what we will never truly abandon. "Progress" be damned.

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