10. The General (1927)
Buster Keaton's "The General" may seem like an odd choice, but it IS in fact, an action movie, far more than it is a comedy or slapstick. It's an incredibly suspenseful action thriller, and one of Keaton's best films.
9. Seven Samurai (1954)
Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai" raised the bar for action epics, creating a standard that would hardly be dented until Sergio Leone's Westerns of the late 60's.
8. Die Hard
"Die Hard" is the quintessential American action movie: a single tough guy against a legion of dangerous bad guys. "Die Hard" rises above the crop by making the tough guy so human and real, as played by Bruce Willis, and by making the bad guy so clever and resourceful, and well-played by Alan Rickman. It's sharp, solid action filmmaking at its best.
7. Hard-Boiled
Chow Yun-Fat stars in John Woo's "Hard-Boiled", which features more violence and a higher body count in its opening ten or fifteen minutes than most American action movies do in their full running time--and still manages to up the ante throughout, until its mind-blowing hospital shootout finale. It is absolutely the most beautifully-crafted gunplay film ever made.
6. Come Drink With Me
Cheng Pei-Pei in King Hu's "Come Drink With Me" stands as an icon of 1960's Hong Kong warrior women. She's tough and cool and the movie itself is a beautiful adaptation of many of the concepts of Chinese martial arts novels and legends into rich, vibrant color. Setting a new standard for quality in martial arts and action films, "Come Drink With Me" changed Hong Kong moviemaking forever, and that influence would be felt for decades to come around the world.
5. Drunken Master
Yuen Wo-Ping directed Jackie Chan in "Drunken Master", his second big success, which solidified his reputation as the successor for Bruce Lee and as one of Asia and the world's biggest stars. It's a perfect showcase for Jackie's slapstick comedy martial arts style, influenced by Buster Keaton as much as by the Peking Opera training he had as a child.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Aaman
No Shogun Assassin? No Sholay? May the Fist of Fury strike your criticism!:)
2 - El Bicho
Jeff, you are sepnding to much time in the Asian section. You left off Peckinpah's "The Wild Bunch" for starters.
3 - Jeff Coleman
I'm not familiar with Sholay, but those are all great picks, "The Wild Bunch" especially. I should have put it on the honorable mention for my list.
Jeff
4 - Dave Nalle
Why doesn't the title have the word 'asian' in it?
Because the list is seriously flawed if it isn't just about asian cinema.
Where is Straw Dogs? How about Bullitt? Of for that matter, where's Thief of Baghdad, Captain Blood and Robin Hood.
Sorry, the list is seriously flawed.
Dave
5 - Rodney Welch
What about The French Connection? What about the Westerns of John Ford and Raoul Walsh? What about the thrillers and film noir classics of the 1940s? Very, very erratic last.
6 - Salton Seas
Here are my top ten:
1. M
2. The Plague Dogs
3. Rolling Thunder
4. Get Carter ( original version)
5. Death To Smoochy ( Asian Version)
6. Milo and Otis ( action packed working with animals)
7. Taboo 1 - ?? ( Porn is always thrilling, well usually, ok ok not always)
8. The Don Johnson "Lookin' for a Heartbreak" "music" sessions
9. Fast Times at Ridgemont High
10. Yojimbo
7 - Victor Lana
Jeff,
I think Die Hard should be numero uno here. Yes there were action films before that, but it is just the definitive one for the last 17 years. If you watch lots of these things (and it seems you do) so many films try (mostly in vain) to deliver what that film did. Part of it is Bruce and it is Rickman and lots of credit to John McTiernan who really handles it all so well.
8 - gonzo marx
gotta mention the Zatoichi films from 60-68 out of Japan...IMO these films are the birth of the modern "anti-hero" not to mention rollicking good fun centered around a blind yakuza wtih his "lightning sword"
glad to see "5 Deadly Venoms" get a mention..great flick with more plot than you usually see
Gordon Liu getting a mention for the 36th chamber is good...but the "master Killer" series with the same Actor and crew are much better "action flicks"
both Bullitt and Dirty Harry are far more Important to the genre than the simpering pap of "Die Hard"
and i agree with an earlier Commentor ...no Errol Flynn? for shame
on and on
but the Post is a good read, and a fun topic
Excelsior!
9 - Victor Lana
Bullit has a definitive car chase (all films tried to have car chases like that one afterwards) and Dirty Harry has the iconic hero (to whom John McClane certainly owes homage).
I totally disagree that Die Hard is "simpering pap" as described above. It spawned many copy cats (all inferior) and it made the anti-heroic cop a standard character as well.
10 - gonzo marx
well Victor..as i said, i think that Zatoichi was the first of the "anti-hero"s in film...
and it was the Dirty Harry films that made the concept a standard long before Bruce Willis was even in "Moonlighting" much less in films
just my own opinion
your mileage may vary
Excelsior!
11 - Jeff Coleman
Thanks again for the comments, everyone. It's definitely a personal subject and there are a lot of great suggestions here.
By the way, the Gordon Liu in the "36th Chamber" IS the "Master Killer" series. At least in the bootleg English dub that I originally saw, the movie was called "Master Killer" and it also gave Gordon Liu that nickname. Either way it's a definitive kung fu picture for sure.
Jeff
12 - El Bicho
"Lethal Weapon" the movie shouldn't be blamed for all the bad movies it spawned.
If you're going to name silent films, how about "Wings" the first movie to use flying stunts.
Die Hard was enjoyable, but how is Willis anti-heroic?
13 - JELIEL³
Matrix indeed should have been included for it's innovative blending of genres that WORKED. It, like T2 and Aliens, is a movie that raised the bar on action so high that what was considred a good action movie is now direct to DVD crap. These movies are like the internet. You wonder how you lived wihtout it before you got it =)
Great list by the way. Nice work. I was happy to see Die Hard up there. It took a near-dead genre and gave it an adrenaline injection straight to the heart.
But my all-time favorite action movie (That isn't a sci-fi movie) is True Lies (The american version) it just doesn't get any better than that one IMHO. The Fun Factor is way to high on this puppy. Long Live James Cameron.
14 - Bliffle
I liked "Bullit". The action has a gritty familiar feel, and I recognize the SF sites, altho there are some continuity howlers in the cutting.
Are we talking 'action' or 'menace'? "2001" has some nice scenes of real slow action menace. Reminds me of when I worked as a deckhand on the river, the tows were so big and slow you could see an accident coming a half hour before it happened. "The big Blue Marble" has a scene like that where a cop chases a bad guy through a kennel, slowly climbing over one fence after another to go 3 feet each time.
15 - Jeff Coleman
Bliffie--This particular list is specific to action, but I think you're right about "2001".
One of the things I love about 2001 is that the HAL part of the film works almost just like a slasher movie, where instead of Michael Myers or Jason, the killer is the computer.
JELIEL--I definitely think Cameron is a master of action but I didn't care for "True Lies" myself.
Jeff
16 - Victor Lana
El Bicho, in my way of thinking, "anti-heroic" means a flawed hero. John McClane is not John Wayne (he has faults; he loses sometimes; he's not infallible; he disagrees with his captain on how to do the job, etc.) That's my idea of it; he's not the invincible Superman or the guy in the old western. McClane even chides Gruber about being Roy Rogers, but the difference is McClane wouldn't ever wear a white hat.
Gonzo, I really appreciate this genre and I think Clint and Steve McQueen really came along and added something new to the old game. I just like Willis and that movie, and I respect what you're saying.
17 - El Bicho
Ethan Edwards from "The Searchers" is flawed. So is Harry Callahan and Popeye Doyle and most every hero in film from the late '60s onward except maybe Superman.
While "Die Hard" was successful and copied numerous times, that doesn't translate into "revolutionary". It didn't change cinema or the way people looked at it as far as I remember. "Bonnie & Clyde" is more revolutionary than "Die Hard."
18 - Baronius
"Die Hard" never impressed me.
Bruce Willis played a generic cop with a failed marriage, still in love with his wife like every cinema cop. The smaller characters were better written, but got little screen time.
What the movie did originally, many of the follow-ups did better. "Under Seige" was a better action movie, and while the plot was identical, the twists caught my interest more. I loved the fight scene at the end.
While "Die Hard" was original in some ways, it was also derivative of "Lethal Weapon". For example, the use of Christmas music and imagery to play up the despair of the lead character, and to accent the violence. Also the last scene was the same in both movies: hero defeats villian, villian taken away by cops, villian breaks free, black sidekick cop kills villian.
19 - RJ Elliott
I'll probably be stoned to death for mentioning these, but what about:
- SPEED (the original, obviously)
- The Hunt For Red October (perhaps not really in the "action" genre?)
- Air Force One
- Clear And Present Danger
- Face/Off
20 - RJ Elliott
Or "Rocky II" ???
21 - Dave Nalle
Let me throw out even more overlooked films which are more influential than those in the article:
The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3
Night Hawks
First Blood
Red Dawn
Little Caesar
The Incident
Targets
Assault on Precinct 13
Maybe the whole approach to this post is misconceived - action films needs to be defined. Is is martial arts only? Does it include cop films? Does it include horror or suspence? War movies? Historical movies?
Dave
22 - RJ Elliott
Yeah, "Red Dawn" is pretty much a classic...
23 - JELIEL³
RJ #19 and #22
All those titles are solid action movie worth of mention. Speed was wacked out fun. Face/Off was a ballet but with a shitload of violence.
24 - JELIEL³
Holy crap. I should redouble my spellcheking when Im so tired
25 - Eric Berlin
I agree that Die Hard should be on the list not just because of the action -- which is exciting -- but because of the strong storytelling and writing and performances. It's a total package film, which is why it's still fresh (as opposed to 10,000 other stale attempts) when it catches your eye of an evening on TNT.
Aliens is more of a horror-sci fi film in my book.
There is a heavy Asian influence here but a list like this can only be immensely subjective.
Personally, I'd put Enter the Dragon near the top, but perhaps that's too cliche nowadays?