Saturday, July 6, 2013

Sure as Shootin'--Summer Films are Here

American Action films, which usually arrive in a clump in the Summer, have always relied upon two conventions: THE CHASE ( endless Westerns and then Bullitt, The French Connection and so many more even until our day..I mean, what is a Hollywood film , even a comedy, without a Chase Sequence?)-- And of course, THE SHOOT OUT --which can be played straight or with all sorts of twists and turns going back to High Noon and Bonnie and Clyde and now its latest BIG SHOOT OUT scenes of White House Down).

Even older stories have been reinterpreted with these themes in mind, and by directors other than Americans...like here

About the only American films I can think of that did not have shoot outs in them were comedies such as Laurel and Hardy and of course most Rom-coms....though even there there have been films like Fatal  Attraction which promised plenty of thrills which had started out as romance.

Westerns are not around except on Cable TV sometimes (Deadwood was a great one) and of course Cop Shows and Gangster Dramas keep resurfacing.

Shoot outs are as important to American films as Happy Endings...

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