Abstract

Conjoining ethnographic and psychoanalytic approaches, this essay analyzes audience reception of Rambo: First Blood (Ted Kotcheff, 1982) and the more recent Bourne films (Doug Liman, 2002; Paul Greengrass, 2004; Greengrass, 2007). Respondents attest to the ongoing importance of the cinematic experience in the digital era; in particular, they suggest that they sympathize with the action hero's precarious and melodramatic situation of "fighting injustice." The results suggest a need to broaden our understanding of the action genre and, more broadly, of audience investment in cinema narrative.

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