Introduction: action as mode

Holmlund, C., Purse, L. and Tasker, Y. (2024) Introduction: action as mode. In: Holmlund, C., Purse, L. and Tasker, Y. (eds.) Action Cinema Since 2000:. The British Film Institute / Bloomsbury Publishing, London, pp. 1-18. ISBN 9781839022784 doi: 10.5040/9781839022814.0006

Abstract/Summary

In this introduction to the Action Cinema Since 2000 anthology, the anthology editors argue that in an era of streaming platforms, and the predominance of action as an element of a wide range of films, it is no longer sufficient to describe action film as a genre, but as a mode of filmmaking and viewer that exceeds without eclipsing genre. The introduction notes that despite the well documented socio-political shifts, economic changes, and contested public discourse around media representations that have occurred since 2000, film scholarship lacks a comprehensive academic appraisal of 2000s action cinema, particular those made after 2010. The essay expands accepted notions of the scope and character of action, its heterogeneity and its history, and argues that any study of action must foreground it as a site of representation and reflection on socio-political, geopolitical, creative, and industrial developments.