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Action Speaks Louder Violence, Spectacle, and the American Action Movie
Eric Lichtenfeld
ISBN: 0-275-98054-5
ISBN-13: 978-0-275-98054-2
336 pages
Praeger Publishers
Publication: 9/30/2004
List Price: $43.95 (UK Sterling Price: £30.95)
Availability: In Stock
Media Type: Hardcover
Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
Subjects:
Description: For more than 30 years, the action movie has been the film genre that most represents Hollywood to the world, and represents the world to American audiences. Still, the action film has never received the critical attention it deserves. Studying its various trends and visual excesses, Action Speaks Louder: Violence, Spectacle, and the American Action Movie traces the genre's evolution and sources to reveal how it has come to assume its place of prominence in American identity and American life. With scores of in-depth case studies—including films such as Dirty Harry, Death Wish, RoboCop, Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, Armageddon, and Spider-Man—author Eric Lichtenfeld draws on film analysis, production histories, critical responses, studio marketing, original filmmaker interviews, and considerations of the genre's weaponry itself.

No previous book has taken on this subject with such rigor, and few genre studies of any kind synthesize critical reaction, studio marketing and advertising, and filmmaker interviews. Moreover, the action genre has never been studied with the dedication that critics have devoted to other genres, such as the Western, film noir, and screwball and romantic comedies. Action Speaks Louder provides a fresh perspective on the history and craft of a category of films that are among cinema's most popular, ones that certainly represent the movies' most primal form of fun.
Table of Contents:
  • Acknowledgments
    Foreword
    Introduction: A Little Violence Never Hurt Anyone
    Prelude: 1971
    "The Law's Crazy": The Vigilante and Other Myths
    Automatons: Hard Bodies and World Pacification
    Enter the Fists: The Body as the Weapon
    Into the Jungle, Out of the Wasteland: Action in the Wild
    Blowing Up All Those Familiar Places: Terror and the Confined Arena
    Unmitigated Disasters: Old Formulas and the New Spectacle
    Tomorrow's Heroes Today: Action Meets the Fantastic
    Excelsior!: March of the Superheroes
    Conclusion: Sifting through the Rubble
    Endnotes
About the Author: ERIC LICHTENFELD is a freelance writer who has contributed to film publications including Film Score Monthly, The Scenographer, and the Journal of the Art Directors Guild. He has worked in many areas of the film industry, including pre-production and marketing, and studied cinema at Wesleyan University and the University of California, Los Angeles, where he received his Master's degree.
LCC Class: 791
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