New Book Announcement: A Companion to the Action Film Edited by James Kendrick As the first major anthology on the action film in more than a decade, A Companion to the Action Film offers insights into the genre’s historical development, explores its production techniques and visual poetics, and provides reflections on the numerous social, cultural, and political issues it has and continues to embody. It offers original research and critical analysis that examines the iconic characteristics of the genre, its visual aesthetics, and its narrative traits; considers the impact of major directors and stars on the genre’s evolution; puts the action film in dialogue with various technologies and other forms of media such as graphic novels and television; and maps out new avenues of critical study for the future. Written for scholars, teachers and students in film studies, film theory, film history, genre studies, and popular culture, A Companion to the Action Film is an essential guide to one of international cinema’s most important, popular, and influential genres. For more information, see https://www.wiley.com/en-us/A+Companion+to+the+Action+Film-p-9781119100492 ABOUT THE AUTHOR James Kendrick is Professor of Film & Digital Media at Baylor University. He is the author of several books on cinema, including Darkness in the Bliss-Out: A Reconsideration of the Films of Steven Spielberg(2014); Film Violence: History, Ideology, Genre (2009); and Hollywood Bloodshed: Violence in 1980s American Cinema (2009). TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction: The Action Film: “Over Familiar and Understudied” James Kendrick Part I History 1 Origins of the Action Film: Types, Tropes, and Techniques in Early Film History Kyle Barrowman 2 A Genre of Its Own: From Westerns, to Vigilantes, to Pure Action James Kendrick 3 The New Dominance: Action‐Fantasy Hybrids and the New Superhero in 2000s Action Cinema Lisa Purse 4 Around the World in Action Mark Gallagher Part II Form and Aesthetics 5 The Perpetual Motion Aesthetic of Action Cinema Nick Jones 6 Asian Action Cinema and Its Influence on Hollywood Barna William Donovan 7 Comedy in Action Cynthia M. King 8 The Composite Body: Action Stars and Embodiment in the Digital Age Drew Ayers 9 Translating the Panel: Remediating a Comics Aesthetic in Contemporary Action Cinema Joshua Wucher Part III Auteurs: Directors, Stars, Choreographers 10 Akira Kurosawa, Sam Peckinpah, and the Action Concept of Eastern Westerns Stephen Teo 11 The Martial Arts Supremacy: Action Film and Fight Choreography Paul Bowman 12 All Guts and No Glory: Stuntwork and Stunt Performers in Hollywood History Lauren Steimer 13 Hollywood’s Hard Bodies: The Stars Who Made the Action Films Famous Susan Jeffords 14 The Strange Case of Carlos Ray Norris: Reactionary Masculinity and Its Imaginary Discontents Tony Williams 15 New Action Realism: Claustrophobia, Immediacy, and Mediation in the Films of Kathryn Bigelow, Paul Greengrass, and Michael Mann Vincent M. Gaine Part IV Social and Cultural Issues 16 Postmodernism in Action Movies Micheal McAlexander 17 The 1980s Action Film and the Politics of Urban Expulsions Jon Kraszewski 18 Infinite Crisis: Intertextuality and Watchmen Matt Yockey 19 Blowing Up the War Film: Powerlessness and the Crisis of the Action‐Image in The Hurt Locker and Inglourious Basterds Paul Gormley 20 X‐Men/Action Men: Performing Masculinities in Superhero and Science‐Fiction Cinema Yvonne Tasker 21 Unlikely Action Heroine: Melissa McCarthy Challenges Bodily Ideals in Modern Action Film Jeffrey A. Brown 22 “I Am Become Death”: Managing Massacres and Constructing the Female Teen Leader in The 100 Rikke Schubart 23 A Digital Nature: Lucy Takes Technology for a Ride Lorrie Palmer 24 “I Feel the Need, the Need for Speed”: Prosthetics, Agency Panic, and the High‐Tech Action Film Steffen Hantke _________________ James Kendrick, Ph.D. Professor and Undergraduate Program Director Department of Film & Digital Media Baylor University [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> http://blogs.baylor.edu/james_kendrick ---- Screen-L is sponsored by the Telecommunication & Film Dept., the University of Alabama: http://www.tcf.ua.edu