Action Film Cliches and Conventions

Die Hard Review

Die Hard is a love able film for those who enjoy the action film genre, it incorporates many famous cliches and some were even introduced by this film! Die Hard is about a man called John McClaine. It's Christmas time in Los Angles, and there's an employee party in progress on the 30th floor of the Nakatomi Corporation building. The party comes to a violent end when the party goers are taken hostage by a group of terrorists headed by Hans Gruber a small but smart looking foreign villain, who plan to steal the 600 million dollars locked in Nakatomi's high-tech safe. Gruber and his henchmen say to the hostages and to the authorities that it is a political grudge, but they are only pretending to be politically motivated to throw the authorities off track. The story follows John as he slowly picks off the henchmen one by one to help save his wife who is one of the hostages, as shown below.

The film ends with a standoff between Hans and John, where Johns wife is used body shield for Hans. But John manages to shoot Hans making him fall out of a window. Many cliches are used in this film, even the characters are cliche, John for example is a butch policeman who knows how to use a gun, not only that but he happens to slip away from the terrorists when they gather up the hostages. He is pictured below

Not only is John a cliche character but so is Hans Gruber and his henchmen. They are all foreign, most probably from Russia, all of them are not very muscly except from the lead henchman, all the henchmen seem to be quite feminine in ways such as the long hair, making the viewers at home or in the cinema side with John and not the villains. This is very stereotypical of action films as the villains are usually from foreign countries such as Russia or Iran. Usually the head of the terrorists which in this case is Hans seems to be less powerful than the other characters and henchmen and doesn't seem to get involved with the fighting, he usually wheres a suit to show his power, he is pictured below

Not only the characters are cliche but so is the story line, one part is the villain is trying to steal something ,which in the case of Die Hard is the 600 million dollars. And also there is a damsel in distress, Johns wife has been seized as a hostage, and he needs to rescue her. Another is the self-surgery scene, where John McClaine has glass stuck in his foot and needs to pull it out and apply a bandage, he uses part of his clothing to bandage it up, this is yet another cliche, were the characters apply a clever use of objects such as rappelling using a shirt and gun, which is done in Die Hard. One of the extremely obvious cliches in Die Hard is that John is never hit by one of the henchmen's bullets, they always seem to completely miss him, or fire just after where he has been. This is a very famous cliche used in action films as it helps build tension within the scene, and gives the viewer an adrenaline rush. Not only do the henchmen always seem miss but they never seem to run out of ammo, they fire many rounds at John and keep going for quite a long time. Slow motion is also shown in Die Hard where Hans is shot and falls out of a window and he falls in slow motion, in many films there is a slow motion shot and a fall where you look down on the person falling. Some of the other cliches and conventions in this film include a rooftop gunfight, a ventilation crawl, the police not helping the hero quickly, John getting captured then escaping and a fight for the only gun in the room. 

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Research and planning 14/20: A really promising start to your blog and from some of your analysis I feel you should be heading towards the top band. Try to comment on horror and explain if this is a suitable genre for your production task - then post on the other genres we have explored. Analyse even more film openings to be aiming towards the top band. Brillaint analysis and use of ICT - more of it is needed!

Jeepers Creepers Review

 Jeepers Creepers is a classic horror film in which a monster goes on a killing spree every 23 years for 23 days. The film starts off with the introduction of the 2 main characters, a brother and sister called Darryl and Trish, they are driving back from college. This part of the film is set on a desolate highway with no other drivers on, this is very steriotypical of horror movies as the are usually set in the middle of no-where were 'no-one can hear you scream'. Another visable cliche is the screeching black crows, which in horror movies usually shows the sign that something bad is going to happen. This is when a rusty truck is seen, it is driving eratically towards the siblings, Darryl tries to let him past but he just seems to stay behind them, driving crazily, this builds tension as you think that something is abouut to happen. But it doesn't and the truck drives into the distance.

The siblings drive on until a spooky wooded area is seen by them with a creepy house in it. As the drive past they see the rusty truck parked up with the driver by it. They cannot see what the driver looks like though as he is covered by a long leather trench coat and is face is covered by a hat. Not only is he a creepy character but he is carrying a large bundle of something wrapped up in a blood stained blanket. This scares the audience as you believe that this is going to be the killer of the story and as he sees the siblings you think he will hunt them down and kill them.

The siblings drive on, and as expected the rusty van pulls into view, the siblings try to get away from it but it easily catches up to the car, again tension is built here as you think the truck driver will try to kill the siblings but he just rams them off the road and drives off. Another classic horror cliche used in the film is that once they have been rammed off the road they try to start the car but it wont work, and they try to call for help but the phone is out of battery, these are both commonly used in horror films by the film makers to build tension. The car starts working and they decide to drive back to the suspected lair of the bad guy, this is yet again another cliche of horror movies, the main characters always seem to somehow make there way back to the killer/monsters lair. Again the film makers use this to create even more tension as Darryl slips down the entrance into it to find dead bodies with at least one body part removed. They drive away and get to a local diner, inside are a few creepy locals, this is cliche as a motel, diner, or abandoned house is almost always visited. Later on the villain is revealed to be a flesh eating winged predator that comes out to steal body parts to use for itself. It then goes on to kill a few people as expected. The movie very cleverly builds tension by not even seeing the killer for a long while after the movie has started.

This film incorporates many famous horror cliches such as phones not working when they are needed most, the desolate setting of the empty highway. The main characters are also very cliche, they are two teenagers which is easy to relate to for the target audience, but the siblings are very arrogant which is another cliche, this trait makes the viewer want the character to die as they will dislike them. Another cliche used in Jeepers Creepers is when they are driving and you can see the rusty truck come into view, and the viewer can see it but the characters do not. This is when the audience know the danger before the characters do. All of the cliches used are the easiest way to make a good horror film, as it draws in the attention of the viewer, and makes them want to watch as they want to know what happens.

Types of Horror movies and there conventions