The “babe scientist” phenomenon: the illusion of inclusion in 1990s American action films

Chick Flicks ◽  
2008 ◽  
pp. 202-215
Keyword(s):  
Action Films ◽  
American Action

Making enemies: A theoretical approach to antagonism and emotion in the contemporary American action film

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lennart Soberon
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Theoretical Approach ◽  
Essential Component ◽  
Action Films ◽  
Action Film ◽  
American Action

Conflict and adversity form an essential component of many American action films. Not only are these spectacular blockbuster films often grafted on forms of contemporary geopolitical warfare, moreover, the violent deaths of the film’s villains arguably form one of the genre’s key pleasures. Utilizing Laclau and Mouffe’s concept of antagonism, this article deconstructs how within the action film, discursive articulations of enemyhood attempt to structure heroic violence as just and the lives of villains as ungrievable. The action films Lone Survivor (2015) and London Has Fallen (2017) will operate as case studies in elucidating how antagonistic frontiers between the hero self and the enemy other are cinematically drawn and strengthened.

scholarly journals Masculine Performance in Hong Kong Crime Films from Post-Bruce to the 2000s

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 73-82
Author(s):  
Gabriel F. Y. Tsang
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Film Industry ◽  
Cultural Development ◽  
Action Films ◽  
Crime Films ◽  
Crime Film ◽  
Male Characters ◽  
Bruce Lee ◽  
Chinese Masculinity ◽  
Artistic Images

Masculinity, in Lacan’s sense, is an imagination. To specifically theorise Chinese masculinity, Kam Louie examined the elements of wen (cultural attainment) and wu (martial valour) rendered through historical or artistic images, and Song Geng and Derek Hird guide the discussions about Chinese manhood represented in everyday life. With a Marxist perspective, Lo Kwai Cheung illustrated the dissolvability of Chinese masculinity under international capitalism. With reference to Aristotle, it is supposed that Chinese masculinity, similar to ‘tragicity’ in nature, can be represented through imitating actions and hence be perceived. Based on Aristotle’s understanding, we can regard actions as ‘iterable’ media (like Derrida’s understanding of written texts) which engender performances according to the genealogy of quantitative mimesis. Integrating theoretical discussions with a chronological approach, my full paper will go through following points in order to summarise the changes in Hong Kong crime films from the post-Bruce Lee era to the 2000s: (1) Hong Kong crime film inherited the martial side of masculinity from action films and became a popular genre since A Better Tomorrow was well received in the mid-1980s. (2) Many directors diversified the interpretation of crime in the late 1980s and the 1990s, but remained a focus on the strength, nimbleness and boldness of men. (3) After the decline of Hong Kong film industry for several years, Infernal Affairs’s success renewed the representation of manhood. (4) From the 2000s to now, male characters in crime films are preferably intelligent and wisely-romantic, like the fragile scholar in ancient China. (5) While globalisation seems to be eliminating the Chineseness of Chinese masculinity, I argue that geographical specificity and different speed of cultural development lead to the impossibility of synchronic masculine similarity. (6) Through a brief discussion concerning Hollywood’s adaptation of Hong Kong films, I argue that local masculinity is not transformable.  

THE AMERICAN ACTION WRITERS

2017 ◽  
pp. 69-120
Keyword(s):  
American Action

Karmic Redemption: Memory and Schizophrenia in Hong Kong Action Films

2009 ◽  
pp. 138-159
Author(s):  
Vivian P. Y. Lee
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Action Films

Startling, Unusual Sensation

2020 ◽  
pp. 99-117
Author(s):  
Steven C. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Film Music ◽  
Special Effects ◽  
New Era ◽  
Action Films ◽  
Box Office ◽  
Sound Technology ◽  
Title Character

Before leaving RKO in late 1932, David O. Selznick greenlit the studio’s most costly and ambitious production: King Kong. The result was a landmark in Hollywood special effects and storytelling; its influence continues today, in the fantasy/action films that dominate the industry. Just as significantly, Kong inspired a Steiner score that is still cited by many directors, screenwriters, and composers as the work that first made them aware of the power of film music. This chapter aims to provide a definitive account of the score’s creation, from Steiner’s use of lyrical melodies and startling dissonance to humanize and add credibility to the title character; through the challenges of recording music whose orchestral richness tested the limits of 1933 sound technology. King Kong’s box office success, at the height of the Depression, temporarily saved RKO. It also launched Steiner into a new era of creative experimentation.

Catherine Belsey

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pamela McCallum
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Theory ◽  
Present Moment ◽  
Country House ◽  
Action Films ◽  
Cultural Texts ◽  
Raymond Williams ◽  
Low Culture ◽  
Distinguished Research ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The University

Catherine Belsey (b. 13 December 1940) is a British scholar distinguished in the areas of literary and cultural theory, Shakespeare studies, early modern studies, and feminism. Educated at the Universities of Oxford, Somerville College (BA), and Warwick (MA, PhD), she taught at the University of Cambridge (New Hall). Moving to University College Cardiff as a Lecturer in English in 1975, she was appointed Professor of English in 1989 and Distinguished Research Professor in 2002, a position she held until 2006. A Research Professor at Swansea University from 2006 to her retirement in 2014, Belsey holds an appointment as Visiting Professor at University of Derby (2014–2020). She is a Fellow of the English Association (2001) and a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales (2013). Together with Terence Hawkes, Stephen Heath, Terry Eagleton, and others, Belsey became an important voice in the burgeoning interest in French theories in the late 1970s. Her books deploy French structuralist and post-structuralist theories to open up possibilities for innovative analyses of literary and cultural texts. Her achievement lies in producing a body of literary and cultural criticism that acknowledges its rootedness in a present moment and deploys theoretical insights to achieve nuanced readings of texts from earlier historical periods—research that connects her with the British cultural materialist criticism of scholars such as Alan Sinfield, Louis Montrose, and Jonathan Dollimore. For Belsey, “text” has a very broad meaning: art, sculpture, architecture, film, novels, drama, poetry, and other writings can all be read as cultural texts. In these assumptions, Belsey draws on the earlier writings of Richard Hoggart and Raymond Williams, who both questioned an elitist division of high/low culture and extended the meaning of culture to include a whole way of life. The breadth of references in her books is unquestionably impressive: medieval theology, eighteenth-century country house architecture, funerary sculpture, carvings on household furniture, Renaissance paintings, detective novels, contemporary action films, and even cartoons make appearances in her analyses. All of these, and more, offer perceptions into how cultures order themselves into what they assume to be dominant modes and also into to what they understand to be resistant. Her books on Shakespeare, Milton, tragedy, and desire all explore how cultural texts negotiate these pressures, tensions, and anxieties. Feminism and gender figure as important questions throughout her research. Belsey’s commitment to pedagogy and learning is evident in several introductory books accessible to nonspecialists.

“I Have Ambition”: Muhammad Ramadan's Proletarian Masculinities in Postrevolution Egyptian Cinema

2020 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-214
Author(s):  
Frances S. Hasso
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Close Reading ◽  
Story Line ◽  
Action Films ◽  
Egyptian Cinema

AbstractThis article provides a close reading of two popular Egyptian action films, al-Almani (The German, 2012), the first blockbuster since the 25 January 2011 revolution, and Qalb al-Asad (Lion heart, 2013), both starring Muhammad Ramadan as a socially produced proletarian “thug” figure. Made for Egyptian audiences, the films privilege entertainment over aesthetics or politics. However, they express distinct messages about violence, morality, and revolution that are shaped by their moments of postrevolutionary release. They present the police state in salutary yet ambivalent terms. They offer a rupture with prerevolutionary cinema by staging the failure of proletarian masculinities and femininities that rely on middle-class respectability in relation to sex, marriage, and work. Even as each film expresses traces of revolutionary upheaval and even nostalgia, cynicism rather than hopefulness dominates, especially in al-Almani, which conveys to the middle and upper classes the specter of an ever-present threat of masculine frustration. The form and content of Qalb al-Asad, by comparison, offer the option of reconciling opposing elements—an Egyptian story line with a less repressive conclusion if one chooses a path between revolutionary resistance and accepting defeat.

Reflective practice and motion sickness: thoughts on the first North American Action Research Study Day

2014 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 251-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lonnie Rowell ◽  
Noriyuki Inoue ◽  
Cheryl Getz
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Reflective Practice ◽  
Motion Sickness ◽  
North American ◽  
Research Study ◽  
Action Research Study ◽  
American Action
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