Gender and Action Films 1980-2000: Beauty in Motion(Emerald Studies in Popular Culture and Gender)

Sylvester Stallone’s action thriller, First Blood, hit cinema screens in 1982, leading to the cementing of what can be called the Action Movie Canon. With films like Die Hard, Under Siege and Total Recall pioneering post-millennial Action Movies such as Tomb Raider, The Bourne Identity and Atomic Blonde, there is a clear trajectorial line showing that the Action Movie has radically altered to incorporate much more complex portrayals of both ‘hero’ and ‘heroine’: the Action Movie Hero. Examining the changing face of Action Movies and their representations of gender since the release of First Blood, Gender and Action Films 1980-2000 examines masculinity and anxiety through subjects ranging from gender spaces in action films to the buddy cop film. From transformative femininity, motherhood and machoism, action women in contemporary Colombian cinema, reconsidering gender in Jurassic Park, to gender, politics and 80s action – the chapters dive into everything from sword-playing and gun-shooting women and rainbow-coloured riots on Hollywood boulevard. Gender and Action Films 1980-2000 offers a comprehensive insight into the intertwined concepts of gender and action, and how their portrayal developed in the Action Movie genre during the final two decades of the twentieth century. A necessity for academics, students and lovers of film and media and those interested in gender studies.

Table of Contents:
Introduction; Steven Gerrard and Renée Middlemost Part 1. Masculinity and Anxiety Chapter 1. From Total Recall to Last Action Hero(ine): Sex, Violence and Sharon Stone in the 1990s; Susan Hopkins Chapter 2. Gender Spaces in Action Films: The Mad Max Franchise; Eduardo Barros-Grela Chapter 3. “I’ll be no man’s slave and no man’s whore, and if I can’t kill them all, by the gods they’ll know I’ve tried.” Swords, Sorcery and Barbarian Queens; Steven Gerrard Chapter 4. Masculinity and the Buddy Cop Film; Racheal Harris Chapter 5. Riding the Waves of Crisis: Point Break and Masculinity in 1990s American Action Cinema; Kate Bowen Part 2. Transformative Femininity Chapter 6. Motherhood and Machoism: The Multi-Dimensional Ellen Ripley of James Cameron’s Aliens; Brennan Thomas Chapter 7. Babes on Bikes: Shame, Rape Revenge, and a Woman on a Motorcycle as an Action Heroine; Rebecca Johinke Chapter 8. Action Women in Contemporary Colombian Cinema: Female Warriors and Emancipations Within Illegal Armed Organisations; Karol Valderrama-Burgos Chapter 9. ‘Sexism in Survival Situations’: Reconsidering Gender in Jurassic Park; Travis Holland and Lisa Watt Part 3. Gender/Politics and 80s Action Chapter 10. Sword-Wielding and Gun-Shooting Women: Gender and Post-Colonial Hong Kong in Wong Kar-wai’s Films; Chin-Pang Lei Chapter 11. Gender, Ideational Populism, and the Eighties Action Cinema; John Quinn Chapter 12. A Rainbow-Coloured Riot on Hollywood Boulevard: Even an Avenging Angel Needs a Little Help From Her Elderly and LGBTQ Friends Sometimes; Lee Broughton Part 4. Gender and Action Stars Chapter 13. Arnold’s Anima: Gender Subversion in Schwarzenegger’s Commando; Tim Butler Garrett Chapter 14. From The One to John Wick: Keanu Reeves and the Action Genre; Rebecca Feasey Conclusion; Steven Gerrard and Renée Middlemost

About the Author :
Steven Gerrard is Reader of Film at the Northern Film School, Leeds Beckett University. Renée Middlemost is Lecturer in Communication and Media at the University of Wollongong, Australia. She is the co-founder of FSN Australasia, and a co-editor of Participations.