Action is a popular genre among all audiences. Action films have many cliches which make an action film, and they wouldn't be the same without them. They are often predictable but that's what the fans of this genre expect.
Action films have cliche characters. The hero is almost always male, and the male will be masculine and will at some point in the film sweep in and save an un suspecting woman. This character normally appeals to both audiences as the woman will be attracted to him, whilst the men will wish they could do things like that. The villain is mostly always foreign, Germans and Russians are popular. The villain is normally a smaller man who dresses in suits and is commonly homosexual. The villain rarely takes part in any fights and has his masculine body guards to do his dirty work for him. This is a character that the audience will naturally despise and await his death with anticipation. Both the hero and the villain will both have sidekicks. The sidekicks can sometimes be useless or very useful. The heroes sidekick is often amusing and a character which the audience will like, whereas the villains sidekick can sometimes be amusing as he is normally useless which makes the audience laugh at the fact that the villain has no chance with him. There will always result in a fight between the sidekicks and a fight between the hero and villain.
One cliche of action is fighting scenes. There will always be a fighting scene between the hero and the villain. This is what the audience expects as the outcome usually determines the ending of the film. These scenes make the audience excited as to what is happening, but it is also quite suspense as they are hoping the hero won't lose, which he never does. Another cliche is there is always a chase scene. Car chases are commonly used and these scenes are usually fast paced and create excitement amongst the audience.
Huge explosions are commonly used in action films, where building are blown to pieces. This is when we see the hero dive out of the way just in time. Another common technique is when the hero disappears when the explosion takes place. There are a few seconds of tension where the audience worries if the hero has made it, but he always appears unscathed. There is normally often some self surgery at some point in the film, where the hero has to patch himself up halfway through an important scene. These scenes can often make the audience flinch at the reality of what they are doing to themselves.
A main cliche of action films is that the villains seem to have an incapability to shoot their target. No matter how easy the hero may be to hit, the villain will always miss. Also, if the hero is running and the villains are following with their machine guns, the villains will always miss even though the hero would be easy to shoot down. These moments do still build tension amongst the audience as they are watching and waiting to see if the hero will survive.
Die Hard
Die hard is a cliche action film. The hero in this film, John McLane (Bruce Willis) is a typical masculine hero, who runs around in his white vest to emphasise his muscles. His sidekick is not so cliche, he is a typical policeman who eats doughnuts, however he doesn't strike the audience as a particular heroic character. The villain in this film is a typical smart foreigner, with a camp edge. He has his big, muscly sidekicks to do his violent work for him. In this film there is a cliche explosion, which blows half the building apart, predictably, John Mclane reappears unharmed. However, he does have to perform some self surgery, which involves him picking the glass out of his feet whilst blood oozes into the sink. There is also a typical chase fight, which involves Bruce Willis in a room of 12 armed terrorists, however he remains unharmed as their guns fortunately seem unable to hit their target. 
No comments:
Post a Comment