MW, 5:45 PM-8:00 PM, WH 002
Required film screenings: Tu, 5:30 PM-8:00 PM, WH 008

Class meets during the second eight weeks of the semester
Fulfills COLL A&H Requirement

Action films have consistently ranked amongst Hollywood's most
popular and pleasing profit-makers. Their figures and phrases
provide some of American culture's most recognizable references,
cited by Presidents and covered by news media. From Reagan's "Make
my day," to the self-citing "Governator" of the present moment, the
genre's signature influence is often apparent to a degree that
verges on both the comic as well as the tragic. The messages that
circulate through these texts often seem straightforward. However,
their spectacular performance relies on complex negotiations of a
wide range of social, political and aesthetic currents. This course
will attempt to identify and pursue issues that intersect through
action films from the post-Vietnam era to the present. We will
examine approaches that focus on genre, mode of production,
aesthetics, technology, stardom and performance. Our critical
concern will be to question how ideological dynamics of race, class,
gender and state politics pervade these categories of analysis.