Cop Action Films

The cop action film, as a genre, first appeared in the 1970s, though police officers and detectives had emerged as heroes in the detective films of the 1940s and 1950s. This era was preceded by primarily negative portrayals of law enforcement in Depression-era films that celebrated the outlaw. In films, the cop went from being an average figure in the 1940s to a vengeful loner in the 1970s and a wisecracking action hero in the [Page 111]1980s. The cop remains the most common hero in the detective genre, offering an opportunity to evaluate issues of class, gender, and race in American culture, as well as the idealization of law enforcement and masculine heroism,.

In the midst of the professionalization of crime detection in the 1940s and Cold War concerns for national security, the cop emerged as the hero of the detective genre. The police procedural (a term that refers to the official set of actions performed by police officers often highlighted in both crime literature and films) presented an idealized image of masculinity as domesticated, organized, methodical, scientific, stable, and willing to put professional duty above personal concerns. The genre thus denied the disillusionment and Cold War paranoia that plagued American society following World War II, and instead offered a hero that reflected effectiveness in the face of America's enemies. The procedural, in its pure form, continued after the 1950s only in specific instances— most notably television's Columbo—but the cop hero became firmly established in the nation's popular culture.

The procedural and its conservative representation of masculinity and law enforcement gave way to the vigilante cop film in the late 1960s and 1970s as the abolition of film censorship allowed for more violent and controversial narratives and characters. Bullitt (1968), Coogan's Bluff (1968), The French Connection (1971), and Dirty Harry (1971) established the tone for the vigilante cop film with a violent lone hero who possesses integrity and a commitment to law enforcement to the extent of employing unethical tactics to preserve American values and society. A reflection both of President Richard M. Nixon's aggressive approach to crime and U.S. society's loss of confidence in law-enforcement agencies, these films offered an independent cop who could deal with crime effectively through toughness and violence.

In the 1980s many of the privileges that men had taken for granted in American society were viewed as unearned advantages. The dominance of white, middle-class, middle-age masculinity, which had been called into question in the 1970s following the civil rights movement and second-wave feminism, was challenged on many fronts, and hegemonic masculinity began to lose ground. The cop action film became a dominant genre in the 1980s and 1990s as a result of this concern. In response to the growing opportunities for African Americans and the apparent loss of white dominance, the biracial buddy/cop film negated the threat of this empowerment by placing an African American in the role of the hero's sidekick.

The emerging equality of women, and the resulting perceived threat to male power, also generated a definition of manliness that emphasized the body, and the hero of the cop action film now typically possessed a muscular physique that symbolized sexual difference and physical power. Similarly, the dominance of middle-class, middle-age masculinity was challenged by the action hero who embodied a working-class heroism dependent on strength and bravery, though this type of hero was most often reintegrated into socially prescribed roles according to middle-class models of work and family. These two trends were evident in the 1980s, when cop films saw an emphasis on action, including fistfights, kickboxing, car chases, and gunplay, with the male body pumped up and ready for action. Exemplified by John McClane (played by Bruce Willis) in the Die Hard films and Martin Riggs (played by Mel Gibson) in the Lethal Weapon films, the cop action hero continued the tradition of the vigilante cop. He represented an idealized image of American heroism and working-class masculinity—violent, independent, white, muscular, and victorious. A personal crisis was expressed not through emotion, but through direct talk and action. The hero's body, therefore, became a site where masculine crisis was inscribed, and the spectacle of his body in action (or injured) became paramount.

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