ABSTRACT
TH E B I G - B U D G E T H O L L Y W O O D action movie has been viewed bycritics as the fiercely guarded preserve of the white male. For example, Richard Dyer argues that the genre is primarily concerned with legitimising the ‘thrills’ of ‘straight white men’.2 Such a claim is certainly not without foundation given that female characters (and indeed non-white and non-heterosexual characters) have been under-represented in these films and, more importantly for this article, few women have directed them. Despite this there is, as Dyer himself acknowledges, evidence that the Hollywood action movie is beginning to admit ‘others’. This cinematic enclave is no longer exclusively inhabited by, to borrow Susan Jeffords’ phrase, the 1980s ‘hard bodies’ of John McClane (Bruce Willis in the Die Hard series) and John Rambo (Sylvester Stallone in the Rambo series). They have been joined by the protagonists of Thelma and Louise (1991), Sarah Connor (Terminator 2 (1991)), Clarice Starling (The Silence of the Lambs (1991) and Hannibal (2001)) and Evelyn Carnahan (The Mummy (1999) and The Mummy Returns (2001)) to name but a few. However as directors of Hollywood action movies, women remain suspiciously absent.
