Rather than derail the discussion at Best Action Movie 1991-2010 - Nominations! which was started 06-15-2011, 01:40 AM by Justin_Bailey I would like to use this post …
…as the basis for this thread’s query.
Not just your first Action Movie, which I would also like to know about, but the First Action Movie, by whatever standards you use to identify such films.
I’ll join in later with my own attempts.
Maybe Bullitt (1968), for the extended car chase scene?
I was going to say The General but it looks like you have me beat by 23 years.
Wonderful choice! I’m going to have to look further back for a real challenge to that one! However, until Bullitt came along my standard for car chase movies had been Thunder Road (1958) which might still provide entertainment of a sort to anybody who hasn’t seen it yet. But odds are that today’s real Action Movie fans would just laugh at the cheese and corn in TR. (If you want to know more about my own disappointments with watching it again in more recent times, I have commented on it several times in various threads on the general topic, including one of my very first threads at SDMB.)
But for the moment I’m in agreement with you!
Outstanding! You have set the limit on the oldest contender, for sure.
But I suspect the Action Movie fans of the day (including myself) have a few more criteria for what makes such a film. Lack of sound alone would be a drawback to serious consideration of TGTR. Until I clicked your link I was thinking you meant The Great Train Robbery (1979) which has a few more of the ingredients I would assume most fans would require. It’s a terrific movie, no matter what classification.
Westerns were always primarily action movies. In addition, most early silent comedies were action films; Sherlock, Jr., just to name one example, has a couple of action sequences (notably, the motorcycle ride) that have never been topped.
Not to quibble, but I think “Western” overrides “Action” as a descriptor or marketing term. There have been some Westerns with plenty of action involving trains and stagecoaches to rival today’s excellent car chases, and the gunplay in some of the better Westerns eclipses even the major Action Movie gunfights and pyrotechnics displays. Still I suspect the average Action Movie fan would dismiss Westerns in favor of the automobile-centered action scenes.
Another point to inject into the discussion is the distinction between Action Movie and Thriller. The terms are not interchangeable in my usage. Both terms may apply to the same movie, but I would imagine a choice would be made in the Marketing Department about how to promote such a film. Just guessing, though.
North by Northwest was probably the first action film with a contemporary setting ( e.g. not a Western, Pirate, War, or SF film)
Just to feed the discussion, here’s what Wikipedia says: Action film - Wikipedia
How much of that is in line with your own definitions and preferences?
Dr. No
I guess the early Bond movies win.
I also want to add The Dirty Dozen into the mix. It was released in 1967, 1 year before my previous suggestion (Bullitt).
List of action films of the 1960s - Wikipedia would support that, but I can’t help but feel there are even earlier Action Movies that are more that than Western, Pirate, Swordfight, Spy, or other sub-genres already mentioned as rival categories. Possibly one or more of the Film Noir group?
It’s bugging me not to be able to think of a good example, but I sense there is one.
Geezers? Help?
First thing that came to mind. I wouldn’t say the “first,” but it was a major signpost in the evolution of the genre (IMO).
Dr. No isn’t so much about action, but Goldfinger has plenty.
I would have said Goldfinger (1964)
Considering how humor has become a feature of many modern action movies, I think a case might be made for It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963).
Please indulge me on this little jaunt at IMDb:
First:
Next:
Then (by clicking over on the right at “Year”):
Oldest year on that list:
Now, overtyping the 1908 to 1903
Notice no The Great Train Robbery (1903) but also notice
However, go back to 1905:
And notice:
==============
It would appear that even IMDb might have some genre issues. Is this an Action Movie, a Western, or what?
More to the point of this thread, how much can IMDb’s genre lists assist us in locating the oldest legitimate Action Movie?
Is there any action film that can’t be slotted into another genre with ease?
Shichinin no Samurai, a/k/a Seven Samurai, was groundbreaking in so many ways that an argument could be made that’s it’s the first modern action movie.
Oh, like that is it???
The Man With The Movie Camera may predate your pick. Has some great engaging hand held. Imagine " The Bourne Identity " without the color.
