The action film is a film genre that predominantly features chase sequences, fights, shootouts, explosions, and stunt work. The specifics of what constitutes an action film has been in scholarly debate since the 1980s. While some scholars such as David Bordwell suggested they were films that favor spectacle to storytelling, others such as Geoff King stated they allow the scenes of spectacle to be attuned to storytelling. Action films are often hybrid with other genres, mixing into various forms such as comedies , science fiction films , and horror films .
172-432: Karan Ravi Malhotra is an Indian film director and screenwriter, best known for directing the action crime drama film Agneepath (2012), Brothers (2015), Shamshera (2022) and the upcoming movie Shahenshah (2026). Malhotra’s father was a very close friend of Rishi Kapoor . He is married to screenwriter Ekta Pathak, with whom he has a child. Malhotra and his wife Ekta Pathak Malhotra began collaborating on
344-410: A second unit director and the film's executive producer, along with his acquaintance Howard Kazanjian , whom Lucas believed would be a disciplined influence and not indulge the filmmakers' larger ambitions. He also brought in his long-time collaborator Robert Watts as associate producer and production manager. Paramount mandated a filming schedule of 85 days; Lucas, Spielberg, and Marshall agreed on
516-505: A Global release status of Chinese-language martial arts films, most notably Zhang Yimou 's Hero (2002) and House of Flying Daggers (2004), Stephen Chow 's Kung Fu Hustle (2004) and Chen Kaige 's The Promise (2005). Most Hong Kong action films in the first quarter of the 21st century, such as those in Cold War (2012), Cold War 2 (2016) and The White Storm film series have their violence toned down, especially compared to
688-431: A different movie. Kasdan named Marion after his grandmother-in-law, and took Ravenwood from a Los Angeles street. Belloq was intended to be a sophisticated villain to counter the "beer-drinking" hero. Spielberg cast Freeman after seeing him in the docudrama Death of a Princess (1980); Freeman's piercing eyes had captivated him. Giancarlo Giannini and singer Jacques Dutronc were also considered. Danny DeVito
860-436: A fight sequence. In the 1980s, American martial arts films reflected the national move towards conservatism, reflected in films of Chuck Norris and other actors such as Sho Kosugi . The genre would shift from theatrical releases towards the end of the decade with the rise of home video, the lower box-office of American martial arts productions, and a significant portion of direct-to-video action films that first were made in
1032-467: A fight, and it had more dialogue; this was deemed unnecessary and removed for a tighter paced sequence. The cave's exterior was considered a perfect location, though a nearby pool was a mosquito breeding ground; even with anti-mosquito equipment the crew was bitten. The donkeys used for the trek suffered lameness . It was difficult to find replacements, and eventually, a pair of gray donkeys were painted brown with colored hairspray and flown by helicopter to
1204-477: A film adaptation of Amish Tripathi's " The Immortals of Meluha ", this was later proven false. In September 2013, Karan Johar announced that Malhotra would direct The Immortals of Meluha , but only after the theatrical release of Shuddhi . However, in May 2017, Amish Tripathi revealed that Dharma Productions had dropped the film rights to his books due to the contract expiring, with filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali buying
1376-601: A final exterior sequence on the steps of San Francisco City Hall showing Jones and Marion together. Other changes included the addition of a scene where the Ark makes a humming noise in the Bantu Wind hold and the removal of a scene showing Jones holding on to the U-boat periscope to follow the Nazis; Spielberg thought it looked poor and hoped the audiences would not care how Jones accomplished
1548-515: A fun project and agreed to the deal. He negotiated a seven-figure salary, a percentage of the gross profits, and the option to re-write his dialogue. Ford undertook extensive exercise to enhance his physique and trained for several weeks under stunt coordinator Glenn Randall to use a bullwhip , becoming proficient enough to disarm the Monkey Man (Vic Tablian); his wrist had to be rehabilitated to compensate for an old injury. Ford's interpretation of
1720-493: A global audience of these films in the United States and Europe, but was cut short on Lee's death in 1973 leading the phases popularity to decline. Following a period of stagnation, Chang Cheh and Lau Kar-leung revitalized the genre with shaolin kung fu films and Chor Yuen 's series of darker swordplay films based on the novels of Gu Long . Kung Fu comedies appeared featuring Jackie Chan as martial arts films flourished into
1892-402: A greater depth of field; Spielberg preferred his changes. Slocombe often employed natural light, using solar position predictions to plot a scene's layout. Spielberg liked the beams of sunlight glimpsed through scenery and tasked special effects artist Kit West with using a smoke machine to create artificial sunlight shards. For the bar fight, Spielberg wanted pitch-black shadows on the wall, but
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#17330846832772064-798: A lack of anti-venom, and Stanley Kubrick 's daughter Vivian —who was visiting Kubrick on the set of The Shining —called the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) about the treatment of the snakes. The interior of Jones' school was filmed at The Royal Masonic School for Girls in Rickmansworth , in Hertfordshire; the exterior was the University of the Pacific in California. Tunisia
2236-543: A propensity for violent action, identified with the films of Chang Cheh . Violent female characters have been part of cinema since its early inception, with characters such as Kate Kelly brandishing a shotgun in The Story of the Kelly Gang (1906). Women traditionally appear in action films as romantic interests, tomboys , or sidekicks to male protagonists. Violent white women would appear in other genres as well such as
2408-530: A screenplay by Lawrence Kasdan , based on a story by George Lucas and Philip Kaufman . Set in 1936, the film stars Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones , a globetrotting archaeologist vying with Nazi German forces to recover the long-lost Ark of the Covenant which is said to make an army invincible. Teaming up with his tough former romantic interest Marion Ravenwood ( Karen Allen ), Jones races to stop rival archaeologist René Belloq ( Paul Freeman ) from guiding
2580-519: A self-imposed 73-day schedule. Spielberg was determined to avoid criticism for another schedule overrun. Six months of pre-production began in December 1979. Spielberg preferred to spend a year in pre-production, but worked at a faster pace to keep the budget low. Spielberg and Lucas were both simultaneously working on other projects. Artists Ed Verreaux, Dave Negron, Michael Lloyd , and Joe Johnston provided extensive storyboarding , with over 80% of
2752-403: A share of the gross profits. Producer Frank Marshall, who had experience on smaller independent films, was hired because Spielberg believed he would keep the film on schedule and budget. Spielberg also hired cinematographer Douglas Slocombe and production designer Norman Reynolds because he liked their previous works, and his long-time collaborator Michael Kahn as editor. Lucas served as
2924-725: A significant portion. These films include Taxi 2 (2000), Kiss of the Dragon (2001), District 13 (2004) and Unleashed (2005). Whan asked about the Americanization of these French films, Christophe Gans , director of Brotherhood of the Wolf (2001) stated that "Hollywood ownership of certain elements [...] must be challenged, in order to show that these elements have also long been present in European culture." The most significant producers of French action films with international ambitions
3096-653: A similar level of popularity to that of the Western in the United States. The most internationally known films of this era were the films Kurosawa with Seven Samurai (1954), The Hidden Fortress (1958), and Yojimbo (1961). By at least the 1950s, Japanese films were looked upon as a model to be emulated by Hong Kong film production, and Hong Kong film companies began actively enlisting professionals from Japan, such as cinematographer Tadashi Nishimoto to contribute to color and widescreen cinematography. New literary sources also developed in martial arts films of this period, with
3268-406: A single genre and that streaming services such as Amazon Prime and Netflix similarly dilutes what is marketed and received as action. In transnational cinema, there are two major trends in action films: Hollywood action films and their style being imitated around the globe and the other being Chinese-language martial arts films. The roots of action films extend into the beginning of film but it
3440-536: A source of danger from its propellers. The plane was abandoned in Tunisia and slowly dismantled over the following decade by souvenir hunters before being demolished. The fight between Jones and the German underneath the plane was mainly improvised; Spielberg had to restrain himself from making it too long as each new idea led to another. During the fight, the moving vehicle rolled over Ford's foot and towards his knee before it
3612-460: A story for two weeks. Lucas imagined his character as a college professor and archaeologist adventurer, based on his own appreciation for archaeology and famous archaeologists like Hiram Bingham III , Roy Chapman Andrews , and Leonard Woolley . Kaufman removed Lucas' vision of Smith as a nightclub patron and womanizer, and suggested the Ark of the Covenant as the film's central goal; he learned of
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#17330846832773784-471: A stuntman concealing his face. Ford performed as many of his stunts as was allowed throughout Raiders , suffering various injuries. The tarantulas on Molina's body would not move because they were male and non-aggressive. A female spider was put on his chest to encourage movement. Abandoned ideas for the temple included a crushing wall trap and a pit concealed by spider-webs. The golden idol also had mechanically operated eyes that could follow Jones. For
3956-402: A supporting cast with their own unique characteristics and believed it was important these characters had a memorable impact. He described how the hardest part of writing was explaining how Jones would fall into successive dangerous events and survive, and how he traveled between locations. In August 1978, after approximately five months, Kasdan completed his first draft. Spielberg described
4128-484: A thin-plaster skull filled with blood bags and detritus. It was blown up using explosives, shotguns, and an air cannon. It took three attempts to get the desired effect. Belloq's death was considered so extreme the Motion Picture Association of America initially classified the film with an R rating restricting it to those over the age of 17 without an adult. Flames were superimposed over the scene to conceal
4300-451: A three-act structure centered on survival, resistance and revenge with narratives where the physical body of the hero is tested, traumatized and ultimately triumphant. The third shift in action cinema, the postclassical, was defined by the predominance of Eastern cinema and its aesthetics, primarily the wire-work of Hong Kong action cinema from the classical era, through the convention of the increasingly computer generated effects. This saw
4472-594: A tough police officer protects society by upholding the law against systematic corruption. This extended into films which O'Brien described as "knee-jerk responses" to perceived threats with rogue cop and vigilante films such as Dirty Harry (1971) and Death Wish (1974) where the restoration of order is only possible by force and antisocial characters prepared to act when society does not. The vigilantism reappears in other films that were exploitative of southern society such as Billy Jack (1971) and White Lightning (1973) and "good ol' boy" comedies like Smokey and
4644-434: A trilogy of films, to play Indiana Jones. Those considered for the role included Bill Murray , Nick Nolte , Steve Martin , Chevy Chase , Tim Matheson , Nick Mancuso , Peter Coyote , Jack Nicholson , Jeff Bridges , John Shea , Sam Elliott , Harry Hamlin , and David Hasselhoff . Casting director Mike Fenton favored Bridges but Lucas' wife and frequent collaborator Marcia Lucas preferred Tom Selleck . Selleck
4816-472: A while to adapt to his working style. Filming concluded in September 1980, after 73 days. Lucas described it as the film he had the fewest problems with because of the lack of studio interference. Post-production lasted about two months and focused mainly on special effects and pick-up shots. Spielberg's first cut was close to three hours long before he and Kahn re-edited it to just under two hours. Lucas
4988-416: A wider historical and cultural field. In their book Action Cinema Since 2000 (2024), Tasker, Lisa Purse, and Chris Holmlund stated that thinking of action as a mode is more helpful than thinking of it as a genre. The three authors suggested that action frames a certain manner of filmmaking and viewing exceed genre without eclipsing it stating that websites such as IMDb and Misplaced Pages rarely label films by
5160-456: Is Luc Besson 's France-based EuropaCorp , who released films like Taxi (1998) and From Paris with Love (2010). EuropaCorp produced Transporter franchise starred British actor Jason Statham and made him an action film star, which led him to feature in The Expendables series by the end of the 2010s. The action film genre has been a staple of Bollywood cinema . In the 1970s,
5332-717: Is "honest and true and trusting." Both men felt it was important Jones be fallible, vulnerable, and as capable of comedic moments as well as serious ones. They intended him to be someone the audience could relate to and idolize. Lucas suggested Marion would have a romantic past, at the age of 11, with the much older Jones; Spielberg replied, "she had better be older". While Spielberg directed 1941 (1979), Kasdan used his office to write Raiders , taking inspiration from early 20th-century serials and adventure films like Red River (1948), Seven Samurai (1954), and The Magnificent Seven (1960). He wrote Jones as an antihero , an archaeologist reduced to grave-robbing. Kasdan wanted
Karan Malhotra - Misplaced Pages Continue
5504-569: Is a generic term to refer to several types of films containing martial arts. The wuxia film is the oldest genre in Chinese cinema. Stephen Teo wrote in his book on Wuxia that there is no satisfactory English translation of the term, with it often being identified as "the swordplay film" in critical studies. It is derived from the Chinese words wu denoting militarist or martial qualities and xia denoting chivalry, gallantry, and qualities of knighthood. The term wuxia entered into popular culture in
5676-702: Is based on Twin Dragons (1992). Other films such as the martial arts film Bhadrachlam (2001), borrows from American cinema with the Jean-Claude Van Damme film Kickboxer (1989). SS Rajamouli 's RRR (2022) was among the highest budgeted films made in India, and became a rare hit film outside of Indian diaspora, where it broke box office records in Japan and performed exceptionally well in American box office. Japan
5848-444: Is dead. The bar is set ablaze during a scuffle with Gestapo agent Arnold Toht , who arrives to take a medallion from Marion. Toht attempts to recover the medallion from the flames, but only burns its image into his hand. Jones and Marion safely take the medallion and escape. Traveling to Cairo , the pair meet Jones's friend Sallah . Sallah reveals Belloq is assisting the Nazis, who have fashioned an incomplete replica medallion from
6020-442: Is itself empowering and, if not, whether a hypersexualized female character can still represent strength and autonomy. Hypersexualized female action leads had tight fitting or revealing costumes that Tasker identified as "exaggerated statements of sexuality" and in the tradition of "fetishistic figure of fantasy" derives from comic books and soft pornography . This originated in television with characters like Buffy Summers ( Buffy
6192-568: The femme fatales in film noir and horror films of the 1970s. Violent women were common in action films since the 1960s. These films featured working-class women exacting revenge. Films of the 1970s featured black women such as Pam Grier in films like Foxy Brown (1974). In the 1980s, a new symbolically transgressive character emerged in the form of Ellen Ripley in Aliens (1986) and Sarah Connor in Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) and
6364-618: The Bantu Wind tramp steamer, and Fred Sorenson portrays Jones' pilot Jock. Producer Frank Marshall appears as the Flying Wing pilot. Pat Roach appears as the Nazi who brawls with Jones by the Flying Wing and one of Toht's Nepalese Sherpas . Vic Tablian plays Jones's treacherous Peruvian guide Barranca and the Monkey Man in Cairo. The film features the first theatrical appearance of Alfred Molina as Jones' guide Satipo. Terry Richards portrays
6536-540: The Bollywood action film consolidated with two films starring Amitabh Bachchan : Prakash Mehra 's Zanjeer (1973) and Yash Chopra 's Deewaar (1975). The box office success of these films made Bachchan a star and spawned the "angry young man" film in Bollywood cinema. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the action genre film declined considerably with new films predominantly featuring former bodybuilders failing to reach
6708-537: The Cairo swordsman shot by Jones. George Lucas conceived Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1973, shortly after finishing the comedy drama American Graffiti (1973). An old movie poster of a heroic character leaping from a horse to a truck reminded Lucas of the early 20th-century serial films he enjoyed as a youth, such as Buck Rogers (1939), Zorro's Fighting Legion (1939), Spy Smasher (1942), and Don Winslow of
6880-508: The Hong Kong action cinema , such melodramatic male bonding and marginalized women characters, while the Korean films also have greater elements of tragedy and romance emphasized. Most martial arts films made before the mid-1960s were Cantonese-language productions. In comparison, Mandarin-language films were an integral part of Hong Kong cinema due to the influx of Shanghai film talent in
7052-456: The James Bond character , were the basis of Jones' own. Lucas wanted Jones to be a kung fu practitioner and a playboy , funding his lifestyle with the spoils of his adventures, but Spielberg and Kasdan felt the character was complicated enough being an adventurer and archaeologist. Spielberg suggested making Jones an avid gambler or an alcoholic, but Lucas wanted Jones to be a role model who
Karan Malhotra - Misplaced Pages Continue
7224-476: The Nā Pali Coast State Park to finish the scene. The loosely detailed script led to much improvisation; where the script described three people talking in a room, in the film it took place in a quarry alongside 500 extras. Scenes like a student of Jones's flashing the "Love You" message written across her eyelids and Marion putting on a dress to conceal a weapon were also improvised. Allen believed
7396-554: The September 11 attacks in 2001, which suggested an end to fantastical elements that defined the action hero and genre. Following the release of Quentin Tarantino 's Kill Bill: Volume 1 (2003) and Kill Bill: Volume 2 (2004) revisited the tropes of 1970s action films leading a renaissance of vengeance narratives in films like The Brave One (2007) and Taken (2008). O'Brien found that Tarantino's films were post-modern takes on
7568-552: The September 11 attacks , a return to the early forms of the genre appeared in the wake of Kill Bill and The Expendables films. Scott Higgins wrote in 2008 in Cinema Journal that action films are both one of the most popular and popularly derided of contemporary cinema genres, stating that "in mainstream discourse, the genre is regularly lambasted for favoring spectacle over finely tuned narrative." Bordwell echoed this in his book, The Way Hollywood Tells It , writing that
7740-635: The United States , Jones is briefed by two Army Intelligence agents that Nazi German forces are excavating at Tanis , Egypt , and one of their telegrams mentions Jones' former mentor Abner Ravenwood. Jones deduces that the Nazis are seeking the Ark of the Covenant , which Adolf Hitler believes will make their army invincible. The agents recruit Jones to recover the Ark first. At a bar in Nepal , Jones reunites with Abner's daughter Marion , with whom Jones once had an illicit relationship, and learns that Abner
7912-501: The xinpai wuxia xiaoshuo (or "new school martial arts fiction") coming into prominence with the success of Liang Yusheng 's Longhu Dou Jinghua (1954) and Jin Yong 's Shujian enchou lu (1956) which showed influence of the Shanghai martial arts films but also circulated from Hong Kong to Taiwan and Chinese communities overseas. This led to a growing demand in both local and regional markets in
8084-428: The 1960s with films like The Born Losers (1967) which was predominantly a drama, interspersed with martial arts scenes. American martial arts films predominantly came into production following the release of Enter the Dragon (1973), with the only higher-budgeted American film to follow in its wake being The Yakuza (1974). Lott noted the two films would lead to the two subsequent styles of martial arts films in
8256-593: The 1970s. James Monaco wrote in 1979 in American Film Now: The People, The Power, The Money, the Movies that "the lines that separate on genre from another have continued to disintegrate." Tasker said that most post-classical action films are hybrids, drawing from genres as varied as war films, science fiction , horror , crime, martial arts , and comedy films . In Chinese-language films, both wuxia and kung fu are genre-specific terms, while martial arts
8428-768: The 1980s. Other films again modernized the form with gangster films of John Woo ( A Better Tomorrow (1986), The Killer (1989)) and the Wong Fei Hung saga returning in Tsui Hark 's Once Upon a Time in China featuring Jet Li which again revitalized the swordplay styled films. By the turn of the century Hollywood action films would look towards Hong Kong cinema and bringing some of their major actors and directors over to apply their style to their films, such as Chan, Woo, Li, Michelle Yeoh and Yuen Woo-Ping . The release of Ang Lee 's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) led to
8600-702: The 21st century have been comic book adaptations, which commenced with the X-Men and is seen in other series such as Spider-Man , and Iron Man series. Tasker wrote that despite the central characters in superhero cinema being extraordinary, occasionally even God-like, they often followed the traces of the central character becoming powerful of which is fundamental to action films, often dealt with origin stories in superhero films. Action films often interface with other genres. Tasker wrote that films are often labelled action thrillers, action-fantasy and action-adventure films with different nuances. Tasker later discussed that
8772-570: The Ark from his hematologist. The Ark provided a source of conflict for the hero and the Nazis , playing off Nazi leader Adolf Hitler 's historical fascination with the occult . Lucas wanted Kaufman to direct the film, but because he was already committed to working on the western The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), Lucas paused the idea again and resumed working on Star Wars . In May 1977, Lucas vacationed in Hawaii to avoid any potential negative news about
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#17330846832778944-730: The Ark is later stored, the latter painted by Michael Pangrazio . Spielberg disliked the painting of the China Clipper plane (by Alan Maley ) as he did not think it looked real against the water they had filmed. Jones' attire—a leather jacket and khaki pants—was based on Humphrey Bogart 's in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) and Charlton Heston in Secret of the Incas (1954). Costume designer Deborah Nadoolman Landis dumped boxes of hats on
9116-567: The Ark to London aboard a tramp steamer . A German U-boat intercepts the steamer and seizes the Ark and Marion; Jones covertly boards the U-boat. The vessel travels to an island in the Aegean Sea , where Belloq intends to test the power of the Ark before presenting it to Hitler. On the island, Jones ambushes the Nazi group and threatens to destroy the Ark but surrenders after Belloq deduces that Jones would never destroy something so historically significant, also surmising that Jones wants to know if
9288-452: The Ark's power is real. The Nazis restrain Jones and Marion at the testing site as Belloq ceremonially opens the Ark but finds only sand inside. At Jones' instruction, he and Marion close their eyes to avoid looking at the opened Ark, as it releases spirits, flames, and bolts of energy that kill Belloq, Toht, and the assembled Nazis before sealing itself shut. Jones and Marion open their eyes to find
9460-513: The Bandit (1977). This era also emphasizes the car chase scenes as moments of spectacle in films like Bullitt and The French Connection (1971). O'Brien described these films as emphasizing "the fusion of man and machine" with the drivers and vehicles acting as one, concluding with what he described as "the ultimate in apocalyptic modernity and social erasure" in Mad Max 2 (1981). O'Brien described
9632-746: The Bollywood press who reported on him in the headlines of Bollywood magazines for his public brawls and affairs with leading actresses. In Dabangg (2010), Khan continued with this public persona, which was repeated in several of his later films such as Ready (2011), Bodyguard (2011), Ek Tha Tiger (2012) and Dabangg 2 (2012). From the 1980s, generations of actors in Telugu cinema have invoked Hong Kong action films, such as Srihari who stated he wanted to become an actor after watching his first Bruce Lee film. Several films in Telugu cinema were remakes of Hong Kong films, such as Hello Brother (1994) which
9804-458: The Crystal Skull (2008), and Dial of Destiny (2023)—a television series , video games , comic books , novels , theme park attractions, and toys. In 1936, American archaeologist Indiana Jones recovers a Golden Idol from a booby-trapped Peruvian temple. Rival archaeologist René Belloq corners him and steals the idol; Jones escapes in a waiting float plane . After returning to
9976-593: The Dragon briefly allowed an influx of Hong Kong films to Japan, but the trend did not last, with 28 Hong Kong films, mostly kung fu films, being released in 1974, and the number decreasing to five in 1975, four in 1977 and only two in 1978. Ryuhei Kitamura , director of Versus (2000), said in 2004 that he grew frustrated with the Japanese film industry as producers felt they couldn't make action films in competition with Hong Kong or American productions. Versus grew to become popular outside of Japan, and Kitamura said he
10148-597: The Hong Kong film industry after the handover in 1997. Anglophone action film scholarship has tended to emphasize bigger budget American action films, with academics tending to find films that fall out of Hollywood productions as not quite fitting definitions of the genre. By 2024, many national and regional industries were known for action films. These include international films such as Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam , South Korean, Japanese, Thai , Brazilian , Chinese , South African , French and Italian action titles. At
10320-523: The Indiana Jones theme, more commonly known as "The Raiders March" that plays during the main character's heroic scenes. Two separate pieces were played for Spielberg, who wanted to use both. These pieces became the main theme and musical bridge of "The Raiders March". For the romantic theme, Williams took inspiration from older films like the drama Now, Voyager (1942) to create something more emotionally monumental that he felt would contrast well with
10492-469: The Lost Ark and the dark fantasy Dragonslayer (1981). He felt special effects were a financially economical method of delivering a good film; as long as they were emotionally involved in the story, he said audiences would buy into even a poor special effect. Spielberg liked practical effects because he could regularly check the raw footage during filming, rather than waiting months for the completed composite effects . Freeman said he had no idea what
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#173308468327710664-615: The Lost Ark is considered one of the greatest films ever made and has had a lasting impact on popular culture , spawning a host of imitators across several media and inspiring other filmmakers. The United States Library of Congress selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry in 1999. Raiders of the Lost Ark is the first entry in what became the Indiana Jones franchise , which includes four more films— Temple of Doom (1984), Last Crusade (1989), Kingdom of
10836-644: The Navy (1942). He wanted to make a B movie modeled on those serials and conceived The Adventures of Indiana Smith , featuring a daring archaeologist named after his Alaskan Malamute dog. Around the same time, Lucas was trying to adapt the space opera serial Flash Gordon (1936), but could not obtain the rights. He shelved the Indiana Smith project to focus on creating his own space opera, Star Wars (1977). In 1975, Lucas discussed his serial film idea with his friend Philip Kaufman . The pair worked on
11008-478: The Nazi dig site, and use the medallion and the correctly sized staff of Ra to locate the Well of Souls, the Ark's resting place. They recover the Ark, a golden, intricately decorated chest, but Belloq and the Nazis discover them and seize it. Jones and Marion, whom Belloq has held captive, are sealed inside the well, but the pair escape and Jones captures a truck carrying the Ark. Alongside Marion, Jones arranges to transport
11180-430: The Nazis to the Ark and its power. Lucas conceived Raiders of the Lost Ark in the early 1970s. Seeking to modernize the serial films of the early 20th century, he developed the idea further with Kaufman, who suggested the Ark as the film's goal. Lucas eventually focused on developing his 1977 film Star Wars . Development on Raiders of the Lost Ark resumed that year when he shared the idea with Spielberg, who joined
11352-727: The RSPCA about the perceived poor treatment of the snakes required production to cease while safeguards were added. Reynolds and production artist Ron Cobb created the BV-38 flying wing based on the Horten Ho 229 , the Northrop N-1M and the Vought V-173 . Constructed by the British engineering firm Vickers , it was dismantled and shipped to Tunisia. It was not designed to be flight-worthy, only to serve as
11524-802: The Red Lotus (1965) and King Hu 's Come Drink with Me (1966). In the 1970s, the Hong Kong martial arts films began to grow under the format of yanggang ("staunch masculinity") mostly through the films of Chang Cheh which were popular. This transition led to the kung fu film sub-genre at beginning of the decade and moved beyond the swordplay films with contemporary settings of late Qing or early Republican periods and had more hand-to-hand combat over supernatural swordplay and special effects. A new studio, Golden Harvest quickly became one of independent filmmakers to grant creative freedom and pay and attracted new directors and actors, including Bruce Lee . The popularity of kung fu films and Bruce Lee led to attract
11696-497: The U-boat dock. An original coal-fired tramp steamer boat could not be found for filming, so an Egyptian boat found in an Irish port was decorated appropriately and sailed to France. The production moved to Elstree Studios by June 30. Interiors included the scene featuring an imam deciphering the staff headpiece and the Peruvian temple. There were repeated delays while filming the Well of Souls scene: there were too few snakes,
11868-480: The United States, Europe and Japan had during this period. Yip described Japanese cinema as the most advanced in Asia at the time. This was showcased by the international breakthrough of Akira Kurosawa 's films like Rashomon (1950). The film genre known as the chanbara was at its height in Japan. The style was a sub-genre to the jidai-geki , or period drama with an emphasis on sword fighting and action. It had
12040-406: The United States, with films like Enter the Dragon about people who reveled in combat, often in a tournament setting, and The Yakuza which had several genres attached to it, but featured several martial arts sequences. By the end of the 1970s, the style was an established genre in American cinema, often featuring tough heroic characters who would fight and not think about their actions until after
12212-584: The Vampire Slayer (1997–2003)) and Xena ( Xena: Warrior Princess (1995–2001)). These series popularity demonstrated a growing market for female action film heroes, in films of the 2000s like Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001), Charlie's Angels (2000), Ultraviolet (2006), Salt (2010) and series like Underworld and Resident Evil . These series like their television series earlier, had their leads eroticized as active and physically capable while also being scantily-clad, hyper-feminized similar to
12384-470: The Well of Souls, the Tanis dig site, and the Cairo marketplace. They contained 1-inch tall figurines to suggest how many extras would be required. Among changes made at this stage, Spielberg abandoned his idea for Toht to have a mechanical arm that could be replaced with a machine gun or flamethrower. Lucas said it put the film into a different genre. Lucas wanted a relatively unknown actor, willing to commit to
12556-471: The World, Part I , the latest James Bond film For Your Eyes Only , and The Great Muppet Caper , were also expected to perform well. Conversely, audience polling by CinemaScore showed little awareness or anticipation for Raiders until nationwide previews a week before its release. The New York Times reported Paramount had provided theater owners with a more beneficial deal than usual to ensure Raiders
12728-553: The action heroine's dual status of an active subject and sexual object was overturning the traditional gender binary because the films "assume that women are powerful" without resorting to justify her physical aggression through narratives involving maternal drive, mental instability or trauma. Purse found that female leads in films like Elektra (2005), Kill Bill , Underworld , Charlie's Angels and Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005) did showcase women having expensive cars, clothing, travel, homes and often high-paying jobs, but that this
12900-400: The air was removed to make the head shrivel. Special effects artist Chris Walas sculpted Lacey's melting face using different colored layers of gelatin placed over a carved, heat-resistant stone skull. Propane heaters were used to melt the gelatin and filmed using a slower-than-normal camera so the effect appears to take place rapidly when played at normal speed. Belloq's head mold contained
13072-756: The area cleared of bodies and their bindings removed. Back in Washington, D.C. , the United States government rewards Jones for securing the Ark. Despite Jones' insistence, the agents state only that the Ark has been moved to an undisclosed location for "top men" to study. In a vast warehouse, the Ark is crated up and stored among countless other crates. Raiders of the Lost Ark also features Wolf Kahler as Nazi officer Colonel Dietrich and Anthony Higgins as Major Gobler, Dietrich's right-hand man. Don Fellows and William Hootkins appear as United States Army Intelligence agents Colonel Musgrove and Major Eaton, respectively. George Harris plays Simon Katanga, captain of
13244-521: The backstreets of Cairo. British author and academic Yvonne Tasker expanded on this topic, stating that action films have no clear and constant iconography or settings. In her book The Hollywood Action and Adventure Film (2015), she found that the most broadly consistent themes tend to be a characters quest from freedom from oppression such as a hero overcoming enemies or obstacles and physical conflicts or challenge, usually battling other humans or alien opponents. By late 2010s studies of genre analysis,
13416-435: The book Australian Genre Film , Amanda Howell suggested that this label was used to help distance Australian cinema from Hollywood films as it would be suggesting commerce over culture and that it would be "quite unacceptable to make Australian movies using conventions established in the U.S.A." Howell stated this to be the case with action films of the 1970s and 1980s with Brian Trenchard-Smith 's Turkey Shoot (1982) being
13588-570: The boulder trap, the monkey in Cairo, Toht burning the medallion's imprint into his hand, and government agents locking the Ark away. Kasdan realized Spielberg and Lucas had several set pieces in mind, but they were looking for someone else to do the hard work of piecing them together. Spielberg hated the name Indiana Smith, believing it would remind audiences of the Steve McQueen character Nevada Smith . All three men agreed to use "Jones" instead. Actors Clint Eastwood and Toshiro Mifune , and
13760-429: The burns on Toht's hand. Nazi soldiers and mercenaries attack Jones, and Marion is seemingly killed, leaving Jones despondent. An imam deciphers the medallion for Jones, revealing that one side bears a warning against disturbing the Ark, and the other bears the complete measurements for the "staff of Ra ", an item used to locate the Ark. Jones and Sallah realize that the Nazis are digging in the wrong location, infiltrate
13932-606: The character John Falstaff . Ronald Lacey was cast as Toht because he reminded Spielberg of actor Peter Lorre . Klaus Kinski was offered the role but chose to appear in the horror film Venom (1981) because it offered more money. Principal photography began on June 23, 1980. Filming took place on location in La Rochelle in France, Tunisia in North Africa, and Hawaii, and on sets at Elstree Studios , England. Elstree
14104-499: The character was as an academic first and an adventurer second. For Jones' love interest Marion, Spielberg wanted someone akin to early 20th-century leading female icons like Irene Dunne , Barbara Stanwyck , and Ann Sheridan , who equaled their male counterparts. Lucas wanted Debra Winger , but she was not interested, and Spielberg wanted his girlfriend Amy Irving , but she was unavailable. They also considered Stephanie Zimbalist , Barbara Hershey and Sean Young . Spielberg
14276-550: The classical form of action cinema to be the 1980s. The decade continued the trends of formative period with heroes as avengers ( Lethal Weapon (1987)), rogue police officers ( Die Hard (1988)) and mercenary warriors ( Commando (1985)). Following the continuity of the car and man hybrid of the previous decade, the 1980s featured weaponized men with who were either also carrying weapons such as Sudden Impact (1983), trained to be weapons ( American Ninja (1985)) or imbued with technology ( RoboCop (1987)). O'Brien noted that
14448-459: The decline of overt masculinity in the action film which corresponded with the end of the Cold War in 1991, while the rise of self-referential and parodies of this era grew in films like Last Action Hero (1993). O'Brien described this era as being soft where the hard bodies of the classical era were replaced with computer generated imagery such as that of Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). This
14620-535: The difference between Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) and Die Hard (1988), that while both were mainstream Hollywood blockbusters with hero asserting masculinity and overcoming obstacles to a personal and social solution, John McClane in Die Hard repeatedly firing his automatic pistol while swinging from a high rise was not congruent with the image of Indiana Jones in Raiders swinging his whip to fend off villains in
14792-546: The direct-to-video field, or in similarly low-budget theatrical releases such as Bulletproof Monk (2003). While the American styled-films were predominantly made in the United States, productions were also made in Australia, Canada, Hong Kong and South Africa, and were predominantly shot in the English-language. Heroic Bloodshed is a that originates with English-language Hong Kong action and crime film fan communities in
14964-534: The draft as good but too long; Kasdan and Lucas collaborated to trim and refine it. The script was a globe-spanning tale set in the United States, Egypt, Greece, and Nepal. Several elements were cut, including a journey to Shanghai that would lead to a minecart chase and Jones using a gong to shield himself from gunfire, ideas later used in the prequel Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984). To his frustration, much of Kasdan's love story between Jones and Marion
15136-487: The earlier work of directors like Woo and Johnnie To . Antong Chen, in his study on the Hong Kong action film, wrote that the influence of China and the amount of Chinese co-productions made with Hong Kong created a shift in these films, particularly following the release of Infernal Affairs (2002). Harvey O'Brien wrote in 2012 that the contemporary action film emerged through other genres, primarily Westerns , crime and war films and can be separated into four forms:
15308-432: The early 1960s and saw a surge in production of Hong Kong martial arts films that went beyond the stories about Wong Fei-hung which were declining in popularity. These new martial arts films featured magical swordplay and higher production values and more sophisticated special effects than the previous films with Shaw Brothers a campaign of "new school" ( xinpai ) martial arts swordplay films such as Xu Zenghong's Temple of
15480-427: The effect. Kasdan scripted detailed montages during the transition between locations, but Spielberg saved money by showing a map and an animated line traveling between destinations. Skulls and rotting bodies made by chief make-up artist Tom Smith filled the Well of Souls catacombs. To get the monkey to perform a Nazi salute , the trainer hit it on the head to make it touch the affected area. When this did not work,
15652-484: The end of the 1990s. Films such as Chunhang (2000) and Memento Mori (2000) and action films Shiri (1999) and Nowhere to Hide (1999) received commercial releases in North America, Asia, and Europe. The success of the latter two films was unprecedented, and was followed by other South Korean action films in the early 2000s reaching the top of the local box office. These South Korean films mimic some traits of
15824-500: The feat. Lucas removed a scene of a man fainting at the sight of Jones and Marion emerging from the Well of Souls because he thought the joke did not fit with the tone of the film. Shots of the Douglas DC-3 Jones and Marion use to fly out of Nepal were repurposed from the adventure film Lost Horizon (1973), and an establishing shot of the streets of Washington, D.C. was taken from The Hindenburg (1975). Spielberg justified
15996-527: The female leads in implausible elements, such as in Charlie's Angels , Fantastic Four (2005) and My Super Ex-Girlfriend (2006). The fighting styles of women also tend towards more traditionally feminine fluid movements of martial arts, over using guns or directly punching. Purse wrote that the contemporary female action film lead's sexualized brand had her in close proximity of post-feminism discourse about choice, power and sexuality. Marc O'Day interprets
16168-519: The film leading up to its June 12, 1981 release date, especially compared to Superman II . Despite this, Raiders of the Lost Ark became the highest-grossing film of the year , earning approximately $ 354 million worldwide, and played in some theaters for over a year. It was also a critical success, receiving praise for its set pieces, humor, and action. The film was nominated for several awards, and won five Academy Awards , seven Saturn Awards , and one BAFTA , among other accolades. Raiders of
16340-576: The film's Peruvian opening. The Paramount logo dissolving into a natural mountain was an improvisation by Spielberg based on his own childhood habit of doing the same while making films; the mountain is Kalalea Mountain on the island of Kauaʻi . Though the scene appears to be a single location, it was shot across 10 areas in Hawaii, including the Huleia National Wildlife Refuge . It was originally more elaborate and longer, featuring an added betrayal by one of Jones' guides, resulting in
16512-513: The film's humor and lighter moments. Williams used "dark" orchestral pieces to represent the actions of the Nazis, using the "seventh degree on the scale of the bottom". He said this signified a militaristic evil. To create something suitably biblical for the Ark of the Covenant, he used a mix of chorus and orchestra. The Peruvian temple interiors used in the film were life-sized sets. The giant boulder—made of fiberglass, plaster and wood—was designed to be 65 ft (20 m) wide, but this
16684-400: The film's many sounds. The snake slithering is a mix of Burtt running his hands through cheese casserole and wet sponges being dragged across grip tape; the rolling boulder is a Honda Civic driving down a gravel hill; and the Ark lid opening is the sound of a toilet cistern being opened. The Ark spirits are the cries of sea lions and dolphins filtered through a vocoder . Jones' revolver is
16856-399: The filmmakers hung a grape over its head to encourage it to reach up; it took 50 takes to capture. A partially deaf rat was used for the scene of the ark humming in the hold of the Bantu Wind , giving it a unique and unnatural head movement. Matte paintings were used to create more elaborate backgrounds: these included the establishing shot of Marion's Nepalese bar and the warehouse where
17028-547: The floor for Ford to try on. After picking the right style, she purchased an Australian model she aged with Fuller's earth and mineral oil , and then scrunched beneath a bed. The hat allowed them to create a recognizable image even in silhouette. Designer Ralph McQuarrie was responsible for the Ark decorations. Spielberg wanted a moodier film noir lighting style like in The Informer (1935). In contrast, Slocombe wanted to make things brighter and used backlighting to create
17200-414: The following films were voted the top ten best action films of all time. In Hong Kong, the "new school" of martial arts films that Shaw Brothers brought in 1965 featured what featured what Yip described as "strong, active female characters as protagonists." These female-centered films were challenged with the rise of a new male heroic prototype marked by a strong sense of youthful energy and defiance and by
17372-448: The formative trends at this point had become "identifiably generic" as film industries began to reproduced these films during the decade producers like Joel Silver and production companies like The Cannon Group, Inc. began to formulate production of these films with both high and low budgets. The action films of this era have roots in classical story telling, specifically rooted from martial arts films and Westerns, and are built around
17544-598: The formative, the classical, the post-classical and neoclassical phases. Yvonne Tasker reiterated this in her book on action and adventure films , saying that action films became a distinct genre during the New Hollywood period of the 1970s. The formative films would be from the 1960s to the early 1980s where the Anti-hero appears in cinema, featuring characters who act and transcend the law and social conventions. This appears initially in films like Bullitt (1968) where
17716-540: The former was one of the highest-grossing movies of the year in Japan. Following LoveDeath , Kitamura's next directing work was in the United States. The action cinema of South Korea mostly existed on the margins of the film industry in South Korea. The genre was initially called the Hwalkuk ("living theatre") was a term that indicated plays and films driven by action scenes, while this term has not been used regularly since
17888-517: The genre. David Bordwell in The Way Hollywood Tells It wrote that audiences are "told that spectacle overrides narrative" in action cinema while Wheeler Winston Dixon echoed that these films were typified by "excessive spectacle" as a "desperate attempt to mask the lack of content." Geoff King argued that the spectacle can also be a vehicle for narrative, opposed to interfering with it. Soberson stated that Harvey O'Brien had "perhaps
18060-430: The ground. While heroes in kung fu films often display chivalry, they generally hail from different fighting schools, namely wudang and shaolin . American martial arts films feature what author M. Ray Lott described as a more realistic style of violence over the Hong Kong wuxia films with more realism and are often low-budget productions. Martial arts began routinely appearing in fight scenes in American films in
18232-435: The last part of the scene where Jones flees by plane, the first take ended in near-disaster when the plane crashed from a height of 20 ft (6.1 m) because Ford's dangling leg was blocking the aircraft's right flap. Filming of the Well of Souls scene was delayed initially by a lack of snakes. There were 500–600 snakes to use for close shots and some mechanical snakes for wider shots, but Spielberg wanted more. A request
18404-520: The late 1920s. These films were popular during the period, which comprised almost 60% of the total Chinese films. Man-Fung Yip stated that these film were "rather tame" by contemporary standards. He wrote that they lacked the kind of dazzling action choreography as expected today and had crude and rudimentary special effects. These films came under increasing attack by both government officials and cultural elites for their allegedly superstitious and anarchistic tendencies, leading them to be banned in 1932. It
18576-564: The late 1970s, with "action movie" becoming the more familiar term. The Korean action films came from Japanese cinema, James Bond series , and Hong Kong action cinema. As North Korea borders China, it block access to the continent from a South Korean perspective, the Cold War allowed South Koreans to substitute deferred travel beyond the border through films with locations shot in Hong Kong. While melodrama and comedy were staples in South Korean cinema, most action films were sporadic and tied to
18748-501: The late 1980s and early 1990s. In the Chinese language, the term used for these films is jinghungpin , literally meaning "hero films". Academic Laikwan Pang asserts that these gangster films appeared at a time when Hong Kong citizens felt particularly powerless with the handover of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to China set for 1997. The key directors of the genre were John Woo and Ringo Lam , and producer Tsui Hark , with
18920-458: The late 1980s and early 1990s. Author Bey Logan stated that the term was coined by Rick Baker, in the British fanzine Eastern Heroes . The term is used broadly. Baker described the style as Hong Kong action films which feature gangsters and gunplay and martial arts that were more violent than kung fu films and academic Kristof Van Den Troost described it a term used to distinguish Hong Kong gun-heavy action films from period martial arts films from
19092-431: The late 1980s in the United States were martial arts films. Towards the end of the 1990s, production of low-budget martial arts films declined as no new stars in the genre developed and older actors such as Cynthia Rothrock and Steven Seagal started showing up in less and less films. Even internationally popular films like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) had negligible effects in American productions in either
19264-415: The latter scene focused on her character seducing Belloq, undermining her loyalty and love for Jones. She and Freeman collaborated to develop the idea of Marion getting Belloq drunk instead. Allen, Lacey, Freeman, and Rhys-Davies often spent time together between filming to talk and discuss their characters. Allen described Ford as a private person who would not discuss his character in detail, and it took her
19436-560: The lighting required to achieve this would have shrouded the actors' eyes; he settled for subtler shadings. He also wanted to illuminate the Well of Souls with a lighting effect through the ceiling opening, but once this was sealed it no longer made sense. The flaming torches used in the scene did not provide enough light, so he opted to use an artificial light source. Spielberg noted Allen always looked beautiful in her scenes because Slocombe spent twice as long setting up her lighting as he did Ford's. Sound effects supervisor Ben Burtt recorded
19608-425: The most convincing understanding of the genre", stating that the action film was "best understood as a fusion of form and content. It represents the idea and ethic of action through a form in which action, agitation and movement are paramount." O'Brien wrote further in his book Action Movies: The Cinema of Striking Back to suggest action films being unique and not just a series of action sequences, stating that that
19780-617: The most notorious. Smith had previously released films like Deathcheaters (1976) and Stunt Rock (1979) when financial incentives were available for overtly commercial projects. She commented that action films did tell identifiably Australian stories such as the Sandy Harbutt 's biker film Stone (1974) and Miller's post-apocalyptic film Mad Max (1979) derived from Australia's social and cultural realities, as well as how George Miller 's later Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) derived from Australia's long-standing cinematic fascination with
19952-604: The notion that traditional marks of masculinity are not exclusive to men and that musculature was not natural, but something to be achieved. Accusations of these muscular women of the era were levelled at that them by 1993 were that they were "men in drag" and that the films generally have to "explain" why their female leads displayed physical aggression and why they were "driven to do it." As the 1990s went on, Hollywood films began having more conventional looking women in their action films such as The Long Kiss Goodnight (1996). A vibrant debate exists about whether hypersexualization
20124-435: The physical effort required to completing a task and the abilities and skills acquired over time. Films from the period reflected on the cultural and social climate from the period, as seen in invoking Japanese or Western imperialist forces as foils. The kung fu film came out of the wuxia films. In comparison to the wuxia , film, the focus on the kung fu film is on the martial arts over chivalry, The martial arts films
20296-567: The popularity Bachan had. These films predominantly earned their revenue through longer runs at B-grade theatres. A cycle of action films came from these films in the 1980s and 1990s called the Avenging Woman film, where female protagonists seek justice for a rape victim, where the protagonist seeks revenge through violence. In 2009, the action genre was re-popularized with the box office success of Wanted (2009) starring Salman Khan . Khan reinvented his screen persona with that of his image in
20468-543: The postwar period. These films were targeted at the more educated and more refined middle-class audiences who saw themselves as above the contemporary martial arts films. Scott Higgins wrote in 2008 in Cinema Journal that Hollywood action films are both one of the most popular and popularly derided of contemporary cinema genres, stating that "in mainstream discourse, the genre is regularly lambasted for favoring spectacle over finely tuned narrative." Bordwell echoed this in his book, The Way Hollywood Tells It , writing that
20640-418: The previous year. Over 60 films were scheduled for release—more than the previous year—by studios eager to make the next blockbuster film. This increased competition to attract audiences, mainly those aged 12 to 24, at the most profitable time of the year. The superhero film Superman II was expected to dominate the season, and based on industry experts and audience polling, films including History of
20812-497: The project several months later. While the pair had ideas for set pieces and stunts for the film, they hired Kasdan to fill in the narrative gaps between them. Principal photography began in June 1980 on a $ 20 million budget, and concluded that September. Filming took place on sets at Elstree Studios , England, and on location mainly in La Rochelle , France, Tunisia, and Hawaii. Pre-release polling showed little audience interest in
20984-468: The project was offered to Paramount Pictures , president Michael Eisner compromised with Lucas, accepting his deal in exchange for exclusive rights to any sequels and severe penalties for exceeding the schedule or budget. Lucas reportedly negotiated a salary between $ 1 million and $ 4 million plus a share of the gross profits, though a separate report stated he received only net profits. Spielberg received up to $ 1.5 million as director and
21156-471: The reception to the genre as being "the emblem of what Hollywood does worst." In the Journal of Film and Video , Lennart Soberson stated that the action film genre has been a subject of scholarly debate since the 1980s. Soberson wrote that repeated traits of the genre include chase sequences, fights, shootouts, explosions, and stunt work while other scholars asserted there were more underlying traits that define
21328-402: The reception to the genre as being "the emblem of what Hollywood does worst." Tasker wrote that when action and adventure films secured awards, it is often in categories such as visual effects and sound editing. Time Out magazine conducted a poll with fifty experts in the field of action cinema, including actors, critics, filmmakers and stuntmen. Out of the 101 films ranked in the poll,
21500-431: The rights. It was later bought by Shekhar Kapur and Roy Price who are set to adapt the book into a web series , marking the debut production venture for Roy Price's International Art Machine in India. Action film While the term "action film" or "action adventure film" has been used as early as the 1910s, the contemporary definition usually refers to a film that came with the arrival of New Hollywood and
21672-417: The rise of anti-heroes appearing in American films of the late 1960s and 1970s drawing from war films , crime films and Westerns . These genres were followed by what is referred to as the "classical period" in the 1980s. This was followed by the post-classical era where American action films were influenced by Hong Kong action cinema and the growing using of computer generated imagery in film. Following
21844-441: The road and cars and a history of cultural anxiety towards a bleak and forbidding outback landscape opposed to the optimism of American action films. France is a major European country for film production and has made co-production commitments with 44 countries around the world. Around beginning of the 21st century, France began producing a series of films explicitly intended for international markets, with action films representing
22016-408: The screenplay for Shuddhi , which was slated for a Diwali 2016 release under Dharma Productions . While working on the script they both made several research-based trips to Hrishikesh , one of the planned shooting locations for the film. In March 2013, producer Karan Johar officially announced that Dharma Productions had begun pre-production on this new film venture. Though initially rumored to be
22188-506: The script represented, equaling approximately 6,000 images. This helped Spielberg pre-visualize scenes and limit the time taken to set up shots. The script described the opening of the ark only as "all hell breaks loose", and the artists were tasked with envisioning what should happen. Each offered different aspects: spirits, flames, and weird light effects; Johnston was tasked with combining all three. Spielberg also had miniature sets of larger scenes built to plan layouts and lighting, including
22360-516: The serialization of Jinaghu qixia zhuan (1922) ( transl. Legend of the Strange Swordsmen ). In wuxia , the emphasis is on chivalry and righteousness and allows for phantasmagoric actions over the kung fu film 's more ground-based combat. The Kung fu film emerged in the 1970s from the swordplay films. Its name is derived from the Cantonese term gong fu which has two meanings:
22532-546: The show on hiatus for three months, which would have allowed Selleck to star as Jones. Spielberg said Ford was perfect for the role after seeing him in The Empire Strikes Back ; Kanzanjian said Ford had always been considered but not cast because he was already a well-known actor. Lucas was concerned about seeming reliant on Ford by casting him in another film after Star Wars , and he also did not think he would commit to three films. However, Ford thought it would be
22704-453: The snakes were legless lizards . The stage doors were kept open during filming for quick access to a waiting ambulance. Spielberg recounted that Allen was so scared she could not scream on cue. He dropped a dead serpent on her to elicit a genuine reaction. Allen said she got used to the creatures after 3–4 days. Animal handler Steve Edge donned a dress and shaved his legs to stand in for Allen at specific points. Vivian Kubrick's complaint to
22876-407: The sound of a Winchester rifle firing, while his whip-crack was made by recording Ford using the whip. By the summer of 1981 (June–September), the film industry had been in decline for over a year. This was the result of few box office successes, rising film production costs, diminishing audiences, and increasing ticket prices. The season was predicted to be down 10% or $ 250 million against
23048-479: The starting point of the genre being traced to Woo's A Better Tomorrow (1986) make a record-breaking HK$ 34.7 million at the Hong Kong box office. The style of these films would influence American productions, such as Michael Bay 's Bad Boys II (2003) and the Wachowskis ' The Matrix (1999). Korean media recognized the more fatalistic and pessimistic tone of these films, leading to Korean journalists to label
23220-431: The studio to provide the budget, have no creative input and allow him to retain control of the licensing rights and any sequels. The studios considered this deal unacceptable. They were also hesitant because Spielberg had delivered a succession of films over-schedule and over-budget; his recent effort, 1941 , was both over-budget and a critical failure. However, Lucas refused to do the project without Spielberg. When
23392-433: The style as "Hong Kong noir ". The influence of these films was evident in early Korean films such as Im Kwon-taek 's General's Son (1990) and later films such Song Hae-sung 's A Better Tomorrow (2010), Cold Eyes (2013) and New World (2013). Postcolonial Hong Kong cinema has struggled to maintain its international identity as a provider of these types action films because the talents involved had abandoned
23564-434: The term "genre" itself is often replaced or supplemented with the words "mode" and "narrative form" with all three terms often being used interchangeably. Johan Höglund and Agnieszka Soltysik Monnet said that the difference between these concepts are elusive, but stated that genre could be defined as belonging to specific historical and cultural moments while "mode" and "form" can refer to a larger pattern that operates across
23736-450: The term action film genre and adventure are often used in hybrid, and are even used interchangeably. Along with Holmund and Purse, Tasker wrote that the action films expansiveness complicates easy categorization and though the genre is often spoken of as singular genre, it is rarely discussed as singular style. Screenwriter and academic Jule Selbo expanded on this, describing a film as " crime /action" or an "action/crime" or other hybrids
23908-559: The theatrical debut of Star Wars . He invited Steven Spielberg to join him and his wife. On a beach near the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel , Lucas and Spielberg discussed their next projects. Spielberg wanted to direct a James Bond film , but Lucas pitched him The Adventures of Indiana Smith . Lucas still hoped Kaufman would direct it, but a few months later it was clear he could not participate and Lucas asked Spielberg to replace him. Lawrence Kasdan , Spielberg's recent discovery,
24080-445: The themes that rescinded irony to restore " cinephile re-actualization of the genre's conventions." The genre went into full circle resurrecting films from the classical period with Live Free or Die Hard (2007) and Rambo (2008) finding the characters navigating a contemporary world while also acknowledging their age, culminating into The Expendables (2010) film. The most commercially successful action films and franchise of
24252-490: The tight schedule, Spielberg said he "...didn't do 30 or 40 takes; usually only four... Had I had more time and money, it would have turned out a pretentious movie." Filming began in La Rochelle, depicting the capture of the Bantu Wind by a Nazi U-boat. Watts borrowed a submarine from the war film Das Boot (1981) on condition it not be taken into deep waters. World War II German U-boat pens in La Rochelle represented
24424-525: The title character in China O'Brien (1990) who were physically muscular and or enacted more extreme violence that was usually reserve for male action leads. In her book Contemporary Action Cinema (2011), Lisa Purse described the media response to female leads in action films reveal a discomfort about their presence and are often described with hesitant terms of women moving into territories that are perceived as masculine. Revealing woman in this form deconstructs
24596-409: The truck chase. Spielberg had not used a second director before but agreed to it as the scene would take a long time to film being set in multiple locations. Moore completed wider shots where stuntmen stood in for Ford. He closely followed Spielberg's storyboarding but innovated a few shots Spielberg considered improvements. Stuntman Glenn Randall suggested the scene of Jones traversing the underside of
24768-431: The truck. Ford sat in a concealed bicycle seat attached to the truck underside when clinging to its front. One of the convoy cars going over a cliff was a combination of matte painting background and stop motion animation of miniature figures falling out of the car. Lucas' Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) handled the film's special effects, under the supervision of Richard Edlund. The team worked on both Raiders of
24940-533: The turn of the millennium, Australian genre films have gained increasing acceptance in the Australian feature film industry, while the action genre represented a small percentage of its output in the 21st century. Scholars of Australian genre film generally used the term "action-adventure" which allows them to apply it to various forms of narratives such as tongue in cheek heroic posturing stories like Crocodile Dundee (1986), road movies or bush/outback films. In
25112-422: The use of locations such as Hong Kong. These films often featured one-legged or otherwise handicapped action characters similar to those of Japanese films ( Zatoichi ) and Hong Kong films ( The One-Armed Swordsmen ). These included Im Kwon-taek's Returned Left-Handed Man (1968), Aekkunun Bak's One-Eyd Park (1970) and Lee Doo-yong's Returned One-Legged Man (1974). In the 1990s, the country's national cinema
25284-409: The use of stock footage as cost-effective, and reasoned that only sharp-eyed viewers would notice. Special effects supervisor Richard Edlund claimed that the street scene was done with miniatures. John Williams composed the score for Raiders of the Lost Ark . He said the music did not have to be serious for the film and was instead theatrical and excessive. Williams spent a few weeks working on
25456-468: The woman of exploitation films of the 1970s such as Caged Heat (1974) and Big Bad Mama (1974). While characters like Frank in The Transporter series are permitted to visibly sweat, strain and be bloodied, Purse found a reluctance for filmmakers to have their female leads have any appearance warping injuries to ensure a perfectly made-up face. Comedy is often used in films of this period to place
25628-448: Was "only a semantic exercise" as both genres are important in the construction phase of the narrative. Mark Bould in A Companion to Film Noir (2013) said that categorization of multiple generic genre labels was common in film reviews who are rarely concerned with succinct descriptions that evoke elements of the film's form, content and make no claims beyond on how these elements combine. Film Studies began to engage generic hybridity in
25800-408: Was a difficult market for Hong Kong action cinema to break into. Prompted by the success of Enter the Dragon and the popularity of Bruce Lee, Toei made their own Bruce Lee-style martial arts films, with The Street Fighter and its two sequels starring Sonny Chiba as well as a spin-off with a female lead similar to Hong Kong's Angela Mao called Sister Street Fighter . The success of Enter
25972-466: Was aiming for the foreign audience, as he was disappointed with the current state of Japanese films. Kitamura's characters have been described as "a careful combination of the maverick independence of 1980s Hollywood action heroes and the calmness and acceptance of Japanese samurai, a consistent criticism of Japanese people today." Kitamura followed up Versus with two manga-inspired big-budget action films, Azumi and Sky High . Both released in 2003,
26144-475: Was approached to portray Sallah, described as a skinny, 5 ft (1.5 m) tall Egyptian like Gunga Din in Gunga Din (1939). DeVito could not participate because of scheduling conflicts with his sitcom Taxi and because his agent wanted too much money. Rhys-Davies was cast based on his performance in the 1980 miniseries Shōgun . Spielberg asked him to play the character as a mix of his Shōgun role and
26316-485: Was aware of Karen Allen from her performance in Animal House (1978), portraying an independent female character, and she impressed him with her professionalism during auditions for Raiders . One of the first things Spielberg asked Allen was "how well do you spit?". Allen developed a backstory for Marion that included her mother's death and her relationship with Jones when she was 15–16, but Spielberg said it belonged in
26488-408: Was chosen because it was well-staffed with artists and technicians who had worked on Star Wars . On-location shooting cost around $ 100,000 a day in addition to crew salaries; sets cost an additional $ 4 million. The production could afford certain equipment only for a limited time, including a Panaglide camera stabilizer for smoother shots, and a camera crane for higher angles. To maintain
26660-488: Was chosen to write the script. Kasdan had been working as a professional screenwriter for only a month but Lucas agreed to hire him after reading his script for Continental Divide (1981). In January 1978, Lucas, Kasdan, and Spielberg spent about nine hours a day over three to five days at Lucas' assistant's house in Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles , developing Lucas' outline. Several ideas came from these discussions, including
26832-419: Was contractually obligated to filming the television series Magnum, P.I. if it were to be made into a full series. Lucas and Spielberg asked the show's network, CBS , to release him ten days early from his contract. Realizing Selleck was in demand, CBS greenlit Magnum P.I. , forcing him to drop out and leaving the production with no lead actor only weeks before filming. The 1980 actors strike later put
27004-417: Was displayed in corresponding with corresponded with millennial angst and apocalypticism showcased in films like Independence Day (1996) and Armageddon (1998). Action films of mass destruction began requiring more overtly super heroic characters with further comic book adaptations being made with increased non-realistic settings with films like The Matrix (1999). The fourth phase arrived following
27176-411: Was filmed in the city of Kairouan . A day of filming was lost there because over 300 TV antennas had to be removed from the surrounding houses. Budget constraints affected Spielberg's desire to have 2,000 extras as diggers; he had to settle for 600. Stuntman Terry Richards, who portrayed the swordsman nonchalantly dispatched by Jones, spent weeks practicing sword skills for an extended fight scene. Ford
27348-401: Was happening when he opened the Ark. He was told to imagine something coming towards him and to scream. Special effects artist Steve Gawley created the Ark's spirits by suspending small robed puppets in a clouded water tank in front of a blue screen . They were shaken to create a natural movement that was composited into the live footage. A Lucasfilm receptionist, dressed in a long white robe,
27520-423: Was happy with this edit, but later asked if he could shorten the ending. He and Kahn collaborated on the edit; Spielberg said he was happy with their changes. The final cut of the film runs for 115 minutes. Marcia Lucas opined there was no emotional closure for Jones and Marion because she was absent following the closure of the Ark. Marcia is not credited in the film, but her suggestion led Spielberg to shoot
27692-464: Was in decline by the mid-1970s in Hong Kong in relation to the stock market crash which went from over 150 films in 1972 to just over 80 in 1975, which led to a downfall in martial arts films produced. When the economy became to rebound, a new trend of martial arts films, the Shaolin kung fu films emerged and sparked a revival of the genre. Unlike the wuxia , the kung fu film primarily focuses on fighting on
27864-509: Was in decline leading to Hong Kong gangster films filled in this void leading to large commercial success at the national box office. Early Korean heirs to Hong Kong action films include Rules of The Game (1994), Beat (1997), and Green Fish (1997) involving men who gain confidence and achieve personal growth as they embark on journeys to protect national state and meet devastating ends. South Korean cinema only received international attention in both art film and blockbuster formats towards
28036-416: Was made to snake handlers from around London and Europe who produced between 6,000 and 10,000 snakes in a few days. Afterward, they struggled to obtain anti-venom; with local supplies having expired, it had to be imported from India. Many of the snakes were harmless grass snakes or non-venomous pythons , but the cobras were positioned behind plexiglas to protect the cast and crew. Also present among
28208-599: Was not until the base of Chinese commercial filmmaking was relocated from Shanghai to Hong Kong in the late 1940s that martial arts cinema was revived. These films contained much of the characteristics of the previous era. During this period, over 100 films were based on the adventures of real life Cantonese folk hero Wong Fei-hung who first appeared in film in 1949. These films primarily on circuited within Hong Kong and Cantonese-speaking areas with Chinese diaspora . Yip continued that these Hong Kong films were still lagging behind in aesthetic and technical standards that films from
28380-504: Was only in the mid-20th century when action films developed into their own recognizable genre instead of being a collection of other types of films such as Westerns, swashbucklers or adventure films. Films have been described "action films" or "action-adventure film" as early as the 1910s. Only by the 1980s was the term action as its own unique genre used routinely in terms of promotion and reviewing practices. The first Chinese-language martial arts films can be traced to Shanghai cinema of
28552-604: Was only shown as being applicable to white middle-class women. Purse found that these women were empowered at the price of women of other ethnicities. This is seen in Aeon Flux (2005) where Sithandra dies protecting Aeon and Rain's death to make way for Alice in Resident Evil (2002). Raiders of the Lost Ark Raiders of the Lost Ark is a 1981 American action-adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg from
28724-444: Was reduced to 22 ft (6.7 m), with the resulting prop weighing 300 lb (140 kg). Spielberg liked the effect and had its ramp extended to give it more screen time. The boulder was controlled by a steel rod concealed in the wall by rubber rock outcroppings. Ford performed the stunt ten times for the different camera angles. Spielberg said he was an idiot for letting Ford do it, but it would not have looked as good with
28896-492: Was stopped. It took 40 crew members to move it off of him. He avoided injury through a combination of the extreme Tunisian heat making the tire soft and the ground being covered in sand. Dysentery had left the production with a lack of stuntmen, and Spielberg had Marshall stand in as the flying wing pilot. The three-day shoot was one of Spielberg's more difficult scenes to film, and he was reported saying he wanted to go home. Second unit director Michael D. Moore filmed most of
29068-460: Was suspended in the air in front of a blue screen for the close-up of the ghost. She was filmed moving away from the camera and the footage was reversed to create an inhuman movement. Her visage was composited with a skeletal model for the monstrous transformation. Freeman, Lacey, and Kahler's death scenes were created using different models. A mold was made of Kahler's face; it was lined with bladders filled with air. Controlled by up to ten people,
29240-414: Was trimmed, as were scenes showing the mutual attraction between Marion and Belloq. The screenplay was completed by December 1979. Lucas wanted to fund Raiders of the Lost Ark himself, but lacked the money. Lucasfilm offered the project to several Hollywood studios. They rejected it, in part because of the proposed $ 20 million budget, but also because of the deal Lucas offered. He wanted
29412-633: Was unable to perform for long periods while suffering from dysentery, and it was decided to shorten the fight scene significantly. The Sidi Bouhlel canyon near the city of Tozeur is where a rocket launcher-equipped Jones confronts the Nazis for the Ark. Lucas had used the canyon in Star Wars to portray the planet Tatooine . During the scene, a fly crawled onto Freeman's lip during his dialogue, but he continued to deliver his lines. Although it appeared to be eaten, Freeman clarified it flew away. In late September, filming moved to Hawaii for exterior shots for
29584-422: Was used to portray Egypt. Spielberg described this phase as one of his worst filming experiences: the temperature was often over 130 °F (54 °C), and over 150 crew members became sick with amoebic dysentery from the local food. Spielberg was one of the few to remain healthy because he ate food and water he brought from England. Lucas also suffered a severe sunburn and facial swelling. The Cairo village
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