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This lively study unpacks the intersecting racial, sexual, and gender politics underlying the representations of racialized bodies, masculinities, and femininities in early 1970s black action films, with particular focus on the representation of black femininity. Stephane Dunn explores the typical, sexualized, subordinate positioning of women in low-budget blaxploitation action narratives as well as more seriously radical films like Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song and The Spook Who Sat by the Door, in which black women are typically portrayed as trifling \"bitches\" compared to the supermacho black male heroes. The terms \"baad bitches\" and \"sassy supermamas\" signal the reversal of this positioning with the emergence of supermama heroines in the few black action films in the early 1970s that featured self-assured, empowered, and tough (or \"baad\") black women as protagonists: Cleopatra Jones, Coffy, and Foxy Brown._x000B__x000B_Dunn offers close examination of a distinct moment in the history of African American representation in popular cinema, tracing its emergence out of a radical political era, influenced especially by the Black Power movement and feminism. \"Baad Bitches\" and Sassy Supermamas also engages blaxploitation's impact and lingering aura in contemporary hip-hop culture as suggested by its disturbing gender politics and the \"baad bitch daughters\" of Foxy Brown and Cleopatra Jones, rappers Foxy Brown and Lil' Kim.

Imperial Affectsis the first sustained account of American action-based cinema as melodrama. From the earliest war films through the Hollywood Western and the late-century action cinema, imperialist violence and mobility have been produced as sites of both visceral pleasure and moral virtue. Suffering and omnipotence operate as twinned affects in this context, inviting identification with an American national subject constituted as both victimized and invincible-a powerful and persistent conjunction traced here across a century of cinema.

Each John Wick film has earned more money and recognition than its predecessor, defying the conventional wisdom about the box office's action movie landscape, normally dominated by superhero movies and science fiction epics. As The Worlds of John Wick explores, the worldbuilding of John Wick offers thrills that you simply can't find anywhere else. The franchise's plot combines familiar elements of the revenge thriller and crime film with seamlessly coordinated action. One of its most distinctive appeals, however, is the detailed and multifaceted fictional world-or rather, worlds-it constructs. The contributors to this volume consider everything from fight sequences, action aesthetics, and stunts to grief, cinematic space and time, and gender performance to map these worlds and explore how their range and depth make John Wick a hit. A deep dive into this popular neo-noir franchise, The Worlds of John Wick celebrates and complicates the cult phenomenon that is John Wick.

Since the 1960s, Hong Kong cinema has helped to shape one of the world's most popular cultural genres: action cinema. Hong Kong action films have proved popular over the decades with audiences worldwide, and they have seized the imaginations of filmmakers

Daring to seek Earth's history contained in glaciers atop the tallest mountains in the world, Doctor Lonnie Thompson's life's work evolves into a salvage mission to recover priceless historical records before they disappear forever.

Action cinema is a popular and familiar form which reflects the cultural, industrial and historical landscape from which it emerges. Lisa Purse analyses the genre's pleasures and complexities in the light of both its cinematic history and the latest critical debates. Focussing on action cinema of the 2000s, this book explores issues of visual style, narrative, representation and the various contexts of production through a diverse series of case studies including Avatar (2009), Casino Royale (2006), The Hurt Locker (2008) and Banlieue 13 (2004).Providing a groundbreaking account of the way that the spectator engages with the action body and the action narrative, and including analyses of areas of representation that have seldom received sustained attention in the past, this comprehensive study is the perfect companion to modern action cinema.Key Features* Provides wide-ranging analyses and interpretation of action cinema* Discusses representations of heroism, gender and ethnicity* Explores the spectator's embodied engagement with the action film* Examines the effect of 9/11 and changes in US foreign policy

Nurses at St. Vincent Hospital in Worcester, Massachusetts, were on strike in 2021 for more than 300 days. At the center of the strike was a concern about working conditions and staffing, specifically the high patient-to-nurse ratios that nurses argue make it difficult to provide safe care to every patient. According to the Massachusetts Nurses Association, negotiated proposals from Tenet Healthcare, the Dallas-based, investor-owned healthcare giant that owns St. Vincent, have failed to address the central staffing issue. Now, after union members rejected the latest contract offer, the hospital has announced that it is hiring permanent replacements. In this short documentary, we hear from nurses about their experiences on the picket line.

What accounts for the massive global popularity of action films and adventure literature? How do men and women respond to iconic screen stars such as Jackie Chan, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Steve McQueen, and Charlton Heston? Action genres have been Hollywood's most profitable global exports for most of its history, their male heroes the subject of much fascination and derision. Bestselling literary thrillers, from The Hunt for Red October to Into Thin Air, have also contributed markedly to popular understandings of male activity. Action Figures takes stock of action narratives' many appeals and recognizes how contemporary crises of gender identity manifest themselves in popular commercial texts.

With GRIMM, van Warmerdam travels from the cold, misty northern woods of his native country to the sunnier, yet still dark, vistas of Spain in telling a post-modern fairy tale of Hansel and Gretel gone awry. One winter's day, Jacob and his sister Marie are left behind in the woods by their unemployed Dutch father. In his coat Jacob finds a note from his Spanish mother urging them to go to their uncle in Spain: 'He'll be able to help you.' They arrive in Spain only to find that their uncle has died. Marie meets Diego, a rich surgeon, and falls in love with him. Diego lives with his domineering sister Theresa. Marie marries Diego - yet Jacob keeps jealously trying to tear his sister away from him. His efforts are in vain and Jacob starts provoking Diego. It soon becomes clear that Jacob's defiance won't go unpunished.