Eric Lichtenfeld, Enter the Fists: The Body as the Weapon

(In Action Speaks Louder)

This chapter, hilariously, is almost entirely about Chuck Norris and Steven Segal, and really demonstrates how in spite of subsequent ridicule and extensive satire, they and others, such as Jean-Claude Van Damme, were very much a part of the popular action film landscape in the 1980s. Indeed, many of Norris' films are carbon-copy of what Stallone was doing in the period.

One thing that I think causes this shift in popularity is the emphasis on martial arts, which I suspect eventually was seen as inauthentic compared to "genuine" Asian martial arts films. Indeed, later in his career Chuck Norris essentially abandoned martial arts in favour of guns as his primary method of dispatchment, and the Rambo/Terminator style of action hero became the accepted version. In any case, these films are very different from their Asian counterparts, and fit very closely within the American Action film genre I have discussed previously.

One structural/formal technique that Lichtenfeld describes very effectively is the "victory without agency," in which an action hero is pummeled mercilessly until the very end of a fight scene, when he suddenly finds the hidden strength to instantly destroy his opponent with some kind of single super-move. His pointing it out made me chuckle, because in my youth the various action sequences I wrote, drew and acted out with toys almost invariably ended this way. These moments are especially common in Chuck Norris films, apparently, and was largely superceded by the Die Hard formula, in which the hero sustains and deals significant damage before finally, just barely, gaining the upper hand.

Lichtenfeld suggests that Van Damme, for his part, represents a sort of middle-of-the-road between the hard-bodied Rambo aesthetic and the body-as-a-weapon style of action demonstrated by Segal and early Norris, much in the same way that Norris' later films combine the martial artist body aesthetic with gun-oriented action.

Lethal Weapon is also discussed, which could have been an interesting additional film for my thesis if not for the franchise's fairly regular and consistent pattern of release. The character of Riggs especially, who is recast after the first film as a much more light-hearted (rather than suicidally apathetic) character, and the increased emphasis on buddy comedy in each subsequent film. The franchise can also be seen as part of the transition from more self-serious films such as the Rambo franchise towards self-deprecating heroes like John McClane.