Action Speaks Louder: Violence, Spectacle, and the American Action Movie

Wesleyan Film

by Eric Lichtenfeld

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 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.

Genres: Nonfiction, Film

336 pages, Hardcover

First published September 30, 2004

Reviews

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

What I love about Lichtenfeld's book is its coverage of the Hollywood business aspect of films. Little nuggets of information from behind the scene help me better understand the hows and whys of a film's end product. I also like that he gives more attention to the filmic elements themselves when going into the occasional analysis. This kind of proof is more helpful and shows appreciation of the film as a medium that some scholars do not show (when they treat it as literature and just talk about action and dialogue).

[Fraser Sherman · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5. Lichtenfeld argues that the action movie genre started in the 1970s with Death Wish and Dirty Harry, drawing elements from Westerns and crime thrillers. He then traces its growth through the Stallone and Schwarzenegger years, the martial artists (Chuck Norris, Jean Claude van Damme), the really over-the-top stuff and then 1990s disaster movies followed by superheroes.
I find some of his selections odd — why is Batman Begins an action movie but not Batman? — hence the 4.5. But his analysis of individual films and how the genre evolved over time is excellent.

[Randy Lander · Rating 1 out of 5]

In all honesty, I only got about 60 pages into this before realizing it wasn't for me. Lichtenfeld has some interesting observations to make about the action genre, but the approach is extremely dry and academic, and it makes for a tedious read.

So I'm not sure who the audience is. Surely someone with a familiarity with these movies is going to want a breezier read, and surely someone with an eye towards purely academic writing is more likely to be a Merchant Ivory fan, right? :)

[Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting academic study of action movies. I especially liked the first third of the book, where he discusses the origins of the action genre. It's a bit like a Western transplanted to the big city, mixed in with a bit of old fashioned film noir. The later chapters aren't as compelling, I think -- it seems silly to read a discussion of the merits of Dante's Peak vs. Volcano, for example.