We take a look at ten of the most influential action videos ever made. . .
The type of action excites and entertains like no other and it’s fair to say that the enduring appeal shows that audiences have long had a preference for escapement. Whether it’s midday shootings in the West, kung fu battles on the streets of Hong Kong or high-octane car chases on the streets of San Francisco, the action has tended to dominate the sector for nearly a century.
There are a number of historical films that feature generations of action cinema. Some films are so influential that they end up generating their own subgenre.
Sometimes the impact of an action movie ends up being detrimental, as the films that persist end up being pale imitations, like the wave of Taken for box office imitators who, in retrospect, didn’t fake anything else. in ten of the most influential action films ever made. . .
The General
While it’s a full-blown action film, it’s one of the most dynamic and innovative films of the silent film era. Buster Keaton’s comic detours and brilliant physical performances suited the silent film aesthetic perfectly.
Chaplin had similar gifts for comedy although with some other accessory in many of his films, while Keaton had a chaotic adventure or a chaotic chase.
Keaton’s daredevil displays and the elaborate, mind-blowing stunts of his films have fostered action cinema in the sound age, to this day. Without Keaton, we wouldn’t fully appreciate the perception of a reckless actor either. Would we have had Jackie Chan or Tom?His standout clock press in Safety Last was done through Chan for Project A.
The exercises of the General’s ensemble are just as iconic and remain amazing to this day.
Akira Kurosawa was pretty clever about rewriting the rules. Rashomon’s nonlinear narrative design was unique at the time, but the film’s good fortune made it an even more popular device used by filmmakers such as Kubrick and Tarantino in the years that followed.
Accustomed to action videos since he put The Seven Samurai in front of the camera, Akira Kurosawa’s love for old Hollywood westerns is clear, but he redefined the technique for framing, blocking and cutting action videos.
Seven Samurai isn’t just a technical marvel (which still looks dazzling today thanks to the wonderful remasters), it’s an exciting adventure story with endearing characters and tough emotional rhythms. It also features one of the original ultra-cool heroes, Toshiro Mifune.
In many ways, The Seven Samurai have shaped many common aspects of today’s blockbuster cinema.
The Western genre is action-oriented and the influence of cowboy cinema on the action genre was huge. You can watch John Ford’s epic westerns or Sergio Leone’s spaghetti westerns, but stylistically, The Wild Bunch’s influence on action cinema is the most significant.
The story itself had an attractive bias toward antiheroes and was reminiscent of James Cagney’s gangster movies. Given the morally obtuse nature of those antiheroes, victory cannot be achieved, but they can fall into a burst of glory.
Director Sam Peckinpah was fascinated by confusing the protagonists about the law aspect, but more importantly, he liked to push conventions with his technique for staging action movies. The use of faster editing and the liberal use of slow movement to capture almost ballet-like moments. In fact, violence has replaced gambling. Everyone from Brian De Palma to John Woo, Michael Bay, the Wachowskis and many others followed suit.
Bruce Lee replaced that. He brought effectiveness to martial arts fights on screen. His taste on screen has been direct and precise, differentiating himself from the more old-fashioned Wuxia taste that populates the martial arts cinema of the last decade.
There were no graceful, dancing exchanges of blocks, kicks and punches. It was a swift cruelty that seemed ingrained.
Lee’s stoic and indestructible presence is something that many of those who followed him, especially in martial arts cinema, tried to emulate. Enter the Dragon, your bridge between Chinese movies and the state of Hollywood gambling. The film necessarily gave rise to the film of combat tournaments and many followed in its wake, from Norris to Van Damme, passing through the endless imitators that populated the video stores of the 90s, starring Don “The Dragon” Wilson.
Listen, there are a multitude of questionable choices of influential movies about car chases. You can watch Bullitt, one of the most iconic first films, which captures the power of a car chase from inside the vehicle itself, with competitive low-angle gear changes. The way Peter Yates’ very good car chase was also way ahead of its time.
You can also watch the thrilling and dynamic, almost documentary-style car chase in The French Connection, which influences films like The Bourne Supremacy.
However, The Driver offers the necessary fluid and dazzling car chases, which have yet to be shot today. Along with the car chases, there is the neo-noir aesthetic of a very action-oriented film. There’s the stoic, highly effective, professional pilot, played by Ryan O’Neal in the Walter Hills classic.
The film features Michael Mann, Nicolas Winding Refn, Edgar Wright, Michael Bay, the Transporter series and many more.
So, you take the aforementioned Buster Keaton, then you take the martial arts to videos, which are seen in videos like The Drunken Master, and evolve them, combining physical comedy with kung fu and crazy stunts as you film and cut combat scenes sequentially into small parts.
Jackie Chan, who controlled the action design well in most of his films at the time (if it was him, at least Sammo Hung), rewrote the rules on how to choreograph, shoot, and edit combat scenes.
With boundless imagination, Chan also created sets and sets that are key elements of those fights. Chairs, steps, an umbrella, a gun or a long stick in a mall emerging from ceiling to floor, a useful shortcut when you slide down a bunch of rope lighting fixtures as you go. )
No one had done what Chan had done before. His action sequences have animated thousands of films since, but rarely have they lived up to such an exclusive combination of physical dynamism, grueling fights, and antics.
SEE ALSO: Jackie Chan’s must-see movies
Yes, Die Hard has had as much influence on its genre as any film ever made. It was not the first film to pit a lone hero against a gang of terrorists, however, the good luck and quality of Die Hard popularized a total new subgenre, “Die Hard in a. . . [insert location].
John McTiernan’s deft combination of intense action, rising odds, underdog heroism, and humor seemed ingrained in the theaters of Stallone, Schwarzenegger, and Chuck Norris at the time. Bruce Willis was a sardonic guy with a slight angst that made him different from almost everyone. and every action hero before him.
The film also never forgets its number one project to entertain. Die Hard, like a magnificent cocktail of ingredients, remains arguably one of the most successful action films ever made.
SEE ALSO: Dying Hard at 35: The Tale of the Action Film Classic
James Cameron knows what he’s doing. Terminator 2 set a benchmark for successful sci-fi action. The fashionable era of action movies, so dependent on CGI and large sets, dates back to T2.
We had noticed Die Hard, but what Cameron did think was, “How far can we go?It’s a mindset that’s now common business practice for the MCU or top-budget studio photography. “
Cameron’s film features large-scale action scenarios, impressive stunts and pyrotechnics. It’s bigger than anything we’ve noticed so far, but more importantly (where many imitators fail) it also managed to have dramatic weight and engaging characters.
To this we must add the revolutionary CGI, intelligently composed in practical decorative elements. Since then, there have only been enough blockbuster action videos to rely on one hand, which correspond to Terminator 2. They have influenced countless films, such as The Matrix.
The Bourne trilogy, a general counterpoint to James Bond, proved to be a highly influential action and espionage series.
It began with Doug Liman’s first before the series dubbed by Paul Greengrass. Matt Damon played the role of an amnesiac hero and, as is not unusual today, an unlikely action hero.
The fight sequences were kinetic and frantic, while our talented hero was able to mix body and intellect, whether it was hand-to-hand fighting or participating in an intense car chase. For a clever decade after the OG trilogy, countless films seemed to mimic Bourne’s taste and style. brutal intensity.
SEE ALSO: An Adventure in Chaos: Bringing Bourne’s Identity to the Screen
John Wick is perhaps one of the most influential films of recent years. The fusion of frenetic combat scenes of combined martial arts and close-up shooters with a neon-infused black aesthetic now has popular action in copied videos and TV shows. Everyone aspires to make action videos like John Wick, usurping at most completely the clones of Bourne and Taken (the latter especially).
Wick brilliantly fused a multitude of recognizable tropes. We have the Western-style stoic hero, the almost indestructible martial arts hero who couldn’t possibly let a spinning top stop him, as well as the Hong Kong-style shooters of the 90s.
However, Chad Stahelski has done a remarkable job through the four films by creating a brilliant and engaging story. This point of global construction, almost bordering on the fantastic, is rare in what is, otherwise, a cinema of natural revenge. It’s rare to see the dazzling cinematic skill in the designs and amazing cinematography.
SEE ALSO: Is John Wick the Action Franchise of All Time?
What is the most influential action movie ever made?Let us know on our social networks @FlickeringMyth. . .
Tom Jolliffe is an award-winning screenwriter and passionate cinephile. He has directed several films around the world, including When Darkness Falls, Renegades (Lee Majors and Danny Trejo) and War of The Worlds: The Attack (Vincent Regan). and more will soon be available, adding Cinderella’s Revenge (Natasha Henstridge) and The Baby in the Basket (Maryam d’Abo and Paul Barber). Find out more about the most productive private audience you’ve ever seen here.