Contemporary Action Cinema

Action cinema is a popular and familiar form which reflects the cultural, industrial and historical landscape from which it emerges. Lisa Purse analyses the genre's pleasures and complexities in the light of both its cinematic history and the latest critical debates. Focussing on action cinema of the 2000s, this book explores issues of visual style, narrative, representation and the various contexts of production through a diverse series of case studies including Avatar (2009), Casino Royale (2006), The Hurt Locker (2008) and Banlieue 13 (2004).

Providing a groundbreaking account of the way that the spectator engages with the action body and the action narrative, and including analyses of areas of representation that have seldom received sustained attention in the past, this comprehensive study is the perfect companion to modern action cinema.

Key Features

• Provides wide-ranging analyses and interpretation of action cinema
• Discusses representations of heroism, gender and ethnicity
• Explores the spectator's embodied engagement with the action film
• Examines the effect of 9/11 and changes in US foreign policy.

Lisa Purse is Lecturer in Film in the Department of Film, Theatre & Television at the University of Reading. She has published a number of essays on action cinema and digital effects in contemporary film