Rambo, Rocky and the Others - The Cinema of the Reagan Years

By: Elisabeth Lequeret Follow

Explosions, chases, muscles and testosterone to spare… Action has always been one of the major forms of American cinema, starting with the first of them, “The Great Train Robbery” ), first American western, released in 1903.

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But it was in the 1980s that action cinema became a genre in itself, with its favorite actors, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone.

To be interested in action film is to look at a poorly known, long-despised decade of American cinema, no doubt remained in the shadow of the flamboyant 1970s, a decade of blockbusters with noisy soundtracks and the simplistic worldview, like Reagan's ideology.

In this program, we will talk about the cult of muscle and violence, frantic individualism, the law of Talion.

With three specialists, historians, teachers and film critics:
- Frédéric Gimello Mesplomb , coordinator of the collective essay "The cinema of the Reagan years" (Éditions du Nouveau Monde)
- Michel Cieutat
-  Jérôme Momcilovic .

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