Adventure film

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The Adventure film is a film genre which has been a popular one in the history of cinema.

Although the genre is not clearly defined, adventure films are usually set in the past or sometimes in a fantasy world, and often involve swordfighting or swashbuckling. Unlike the modern action film, which often takes place in a city, with the hero battling drug cartels or terrorists, there is an element of romanticism attached to the adventure genre. Popular subjects have included: Robin Hood, Zorro, pirates or the novels of Alexandre Dumas.

The genre probably reached the peak of its popularity in Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s, when films like Captain Blood, The Adventures of Robin Hood and The Mark of Zorro were regularly being made and a number of the biggest stars, notably Errol Flynn and Tyrone Power, become closely associated with it. At the same time, lower down the scale, Saturday morning serials were often using many of the same thematic elements as adventure films.

The genre has undergone periodic revivals since the 1950s, with figures like Robin Hood often being re-cast for a new generation. Some of these revivals have been successful, as with Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991), and some less so, as with Swashbuckler (1976). In the 1980s the success of Steven Spielberg's Saturday Morning serial-style adventure Raiders of the Lost Ark spawned a host of imitators, most of which were unsuccessful.

There is often a degree of overlap between the adventure film and other genres. For example, Star Wars (1977) contains many adventure film as well as science fiction elements, while The Mummy (1999) combines the adventure and horror genres.

Popular adventure film concepts include:

• An outlaw figure fighting for justice or battling a tyrant (as in Robin Hood or Zorro)
• Pirates (as in Captain Blood or Pirates of the Caribbean)
• A search for a lost city or for hidden treasure (as in King Solomon's Mines or Indiana Jones)

[edit] Popular adventure films

• The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
• The African Queen (1951)
• The Black Swan (1942)
• Captain Blood (1935)
• The Crimson Pirate (1952)
• The Goonies (1985)
• Hero (2002)
• The Incredibles (2004)
• The Indiana Jones films (1981-89)
• King Solomon's Mines (1937), (1950), (1985)
• The Lord of the Rings films (2001-2003)
• The Mummy (1999)
• The Pirates of the Caribbean films (2003-2007)
• The Princess Bride (1987)
• The Prisoner of Zenda (1937) and (1952)
• Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991)
• The Rocketeer (1991)
• Romancing the Stone (1984)
• Sahara (2005)
• Scaramouche (1952)
• The Sea Hawk (1940)
• Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004)
• The Star Wars films (1977-2005)
• The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
• The Zorro films
• various verisions of the novels of Alexandre Dumas, père, including The Count of Monte Cristo, The Three Musketeers and The Man in the Iron Mask

[edit] Popular adventure film filmmakers

• Michael Curtiz
• John Huston
• George Lucas
• Steven Spielberg
• Raoul Walsh