IT isn’t just women who get shoehorned into very cliched and specifically narrow roles, the older they get. It happens to men, too. Films like Red and The Expendables play on that idea, theorising that age is nothing but a number and old guys can be action heroes, too.
It’s great the way the actors remain relevant and endear themselves to a new generation, while remaining in great shape and presumably having a fun old time.
But, it isn’t just that, of course. The Baby Boomers who boosted the careers of Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Pierce Brosnan and Harrison Ford, turning them into action heroes in the ’80s, are still the ones with the disposable income to spend at the cinema.
So, the action genre is changing to accommodate and reflect the market using not only the familiar faces, but also a huge dollop of nostalgia . When Schwarzenegger crashed through the diner door in The Last Stand and the guy behind the counter asked: “How are you?”, he replied: “Old”. True. But, we are also remembering that there was a point at which he would be the one flinging the bad guys through the door and we even remember the movie. Back then he was super-human, now he is just an old human and the audience love him even more for it.
Current blockbusters are predicated on franchises which rely more on spandex and special effects to wow than they do on any actor’s personality to attract. So, sure, Captain America is the ultimate fighter for justice and the one everyone is running to watch at the cinema. But, it is Cap, not Chris Evans, that the young ’uns want to see.
These old-school action movies though, attract an audience who hold thumbs for their favourite action hero actors – we rooted for Denzil Washington’s quiet store clerk in The Equalizer and hope Neeson will survive the mean streets of Run All Night.
This week we get Sean Penn playing an ex-mercenary who becomes a target of a hit squad in The Gunman. Director Pierre Morel was responsible for the first Taken movie as well as From Paris with Love (okay, that didn’t work as well for John Travolta as that first film did for Neeson).
Schwarzenegger reprises his Terminator role in Terminator: Genisys come July, Michael Douglas straddles the divide when he plays Dr Hank Pym in next year’s Ant-Man as does Harrison Ford when he returns to his iconic Star Wars role.
The question has been asked: why are there no new action heroes coming through? The answer seems to be the younger actors playing in action roles are bland and being overshadowed by the special effects. Whereas, the older guys have personality, history and a high recognition factor amongst the potential audience, which is itself now older.
It’s an interesting theory – that studios aren’t settling for older action heroes, but casting for a genre that is itself maturing like the sometimes stinky cheese it can be.
Ultimately, though, as long as the actors can keep on shuffling with credibility, these geri-action flicks will keep on coming because the bottom line is, people do pay to watch.