Jake Horsley

Jake Horsley is the author of a two—part volume on film criticism entitled The Blood Poets: A Cinema of Savagery, 1958-1999. In this excerpt from the second part of that work, Millennial Blues: From Apocalypse Now to The Matrix, Horsley examines the "actionrevenge" genre of films, using the 1988 film Die Hard as an example. Horsley maintains that Die Hard and movies like it, such as the Dirty Harry films of the 1970s, send a message that killing the "bad guys" is morally just. Moreover, action movies deliberately build up in the audience a desire to see the villains punished. As Horsley writes, the action film "both fosters and answers a lust for blood." Finally, since the heroes in action movies are typically portrayed as loving husbands and fathers, action films present violence as wholesome family entertainment.

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