I Recommend: Action Cinema Books!

I know what you're thinking: books about movies? Can't I just read about all of that stuff on the internet? While that is somewhat true, books on action cinema tend to dive deep into information that is otherwise difficult to find on the internet or offer up theories and ideas that you normally would have never thought of. Therefore, you need to avoid the generic books out there and find the ones written by true die hard fans of cinema and action. I don't have a lot of books on action cinema (I would love to write one myself one day) but here are a few I highly highly recommend.

Clint: A Retrospective - This book gives Richard Schickel's brief opinion about every single film that Clint every starred in or directed. While Clint made a wide array of films, he is mostly known for his badass portrayals in films like the Dirty Harry series and The Man With No Name Trilogy (two of the most essential series in all of action cinema). Clint appeared in far more action films and dramas as well, so don't limit your understanding of the man to just those two series. While the discussions in the book are light, a good amount of its pages are used for large and colorful photographs. Therefore, if you want a honest, loving, and brief discussion about every single Clint Eastwood film, than I highly recommend this book. You get some text and some nice pictures so you'll never be bored. You'll be making a list after you flip through this book of all of the Clint Eastwood films that you need to catch up on.

Bronson's Loose! The Making of the Death Wish Films - If you read my blog back when I first started or saw my list for my 100 favorite action films, than you can tell that I enjoy the heck out of the Death Wish films. I have even reviewed all five of the films in my reviews section if you are curious. One of my complaints when watching all of the DVD's though is that there are absolutely no bonus features for any of these films. I decided to try this book out and hope that it would inform me about all of the films. And you know what, it most definitely did. Paul Talbot covers everything you need to know from the screenplay, to the production, to the legacy of the legend that is Charles Bronson and his Death Wish film series. I learned a lot in this book about Charles Bronson himself (he was a loner who liked being left alone on set), the importance of film to T.V. back in the pre-VHS days (when Death Wish made its way to T.V. it was a highly anticipated event), and how crappy Cannon Group's production company was (they would come up with titles of action films that would star Bronson and sell them at the Cannes film festival and than write the screenplay after!). A great read.

Any Gun Can Play: The Essential Guide to Euro-Westerns - Quite possibly the most expansive book I have ever found on a single cinematic genre. Its an extremely overwhelming read! Filled with black and white photos as well as several pages of awesome color photographs, this is the most informative action book I have ever read. It analyzes a ton of films and taught me that the genre is broken up into several sub-sets (early Euro-Westerns, Zappata Westerns, Favoli Westerns, Twlight Westerns, etc). It's incredible to see that such an influential and important sub-genre of cinema only lasted a short amount of time but it did. I can't even tell you everything about this book because I don't know if I will ever finish reading it it is that expansive!

Stray Dogs and Lone Wolves: The Samurai Film Handbook - I bought this book for a mere $20 in a bookstore in San Francisco several years ago and fell in love with it right away. I just checked to see if you can buy it online and the book's prices range from $80 to $200! That's a shame because this is one of the best books I have ever read. Patrick Galloway explains the entire history of the samurai in real life Japan and the terms that one needs to understand while watching samurai films. He than covers many of the most essential films (starting from the 50's and working his way up). Now obviously samurai cinema goes back far before 1950 and has continued into today. Galloway seems to focus on the most important films though and only discusses the best entries of such lengthy series as the Zatoichi films and the Lone Wolf and Cub series. He also only covers Japanese films and does not touch on other world cinema with heavy samurai themes (Kill Bill, Red Sun, etc). The book gives you a great summary of the best that Japanese samurai cinema has to offer from 1950 (Rashomon) until 2003 (Twilight Samurai). 

John Woo's A Better Tomorrow - This great book covers my favorite action film of all time! It's broken up into a few chapters. The author critically analyzes the film and than discusses its international success and importance. It also gives you a lot of information on the careers of many involved in the film as it mentions other films made by them. I loved this book and think that Karen Fang should write more in this series of hers. It's a short read but I think that it's worth checking out.

Seagalogy: A Study of the Ass Kicking Films of Steven Seagal (Updated) - This is my current read and I love the heck out of it! Critic and comedian Vern set out to watch every single Seagal film and has written down how each film is connected to one another. He explains his badass auteor theory and how it relates to actual auteor theory. Seagal brings many themes and similarities to each film of his. I loved this book. It covers absolutely every single action film that Seagal has ever appeared in from Above the Law up until A Dangerous Man. It even covers the two television series that Seagal has worked on: Steve Seagal Lawman and True Justice. It even has whole chapters on Seagal's own energy drink, his musical albums, and his live concerts. While I don't personally love Seagal the way that Vern does, I love his die hard dedication to study the heck out of the man that is Seagal.