Blockbuster Performances: How Actors Contribute to Cinema’s Biggest Hits (Palgrave Studies in Screen Industries and Performance)

This book examines performances in the American film industry’s highest-earning and most influential films. Countering decades of discourse and the conventional notion that special effects are the real stars of Hollywood blockbusters, this book finds that the acting performances in these big-budget action movies are actually better, and more genre-appropriate, than reputed. It argues that while blockbusters are often edited for speed, thrills, and simplicity, and performances are sometimes tailored to this style, most major productions feature more scenes of stage-like acting than hyper-kinetic action. Knowing this, producers of the world’s highest-budgeted motion pictures usually cast strong or generically appropriate actors. With chapters offering unique readings of some of cinema’s biggest hits, such as __The Dark Knight__, __Pirates of the Caribbean__, __Star Wars__, __Iron Man__ and __The Hunger Games__, this unprecedented study sheds new light on the importance of performance in the Hollywood blockbuster. Front Matter ....Pages i-xiv Why Do Critics and Scholars Dismiss Blockbuster Performances? (Daniel Smith-Rowsey)....Pages 1-11 Historical Epic Blockbusters: Are You Not Entertained ... By Actors? (Daniel Smith-Rowsey)....Pages 13-39 Magic-Fantasy Blockbusters: One Whimsy to Rule Them All (Daniel Smith-Rowsey)....Pages 41-69 Superhero Blockbusters: Actors Ahead of the Curve (Daniel Smith-Rowsey)....Pages 71-102 Crime Action Blockbusters: Performing Shaken, Not Stirred (Daniel Smith-Rowsey)....Pages 103-129 Male-Led Science Fiction Blockbusters: Performing “Faster, More Intense” (Daniel Smith-Rowsey)....Pages 131-160 Female-Led Science Fiction Blockbusters: Performing “Stop Taking My Hand!” (Daniel Smith-Rowsey)....Pages 161-187 Conclusion: Once More Around the Blockbuster (Daniel Smith-Rowsey)....Pages 189-194 Back Matter ....Pages 195-211