In the late 2010’s, the AV Club gave us probably the most engrossing review series I’m ever read. Reaching beyond the usual AV Club staffers, they brought in Tom Breihan, best known today as the music critic who writes “The Number Ones” column on Stereogum, a review of every song to ever hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100. But before Breihan got that gig, the AV Club had them apply the same review-series-as-a-history-of-the-artform approach to a different medium.
With A History of Violence, Breihan provides both a summary and a celebration of over fifty years of action movie history. Reaching back to 1968 and going up until 2021, Breihan reviews what they judge to be the most important action movie of each year, placing them within their historical context, explaining how they would shape the future of the genre, and showing how they stack up against other action flicks of the same year.
Reading the column, there can be no question that Breihan is an action movie super-fan. They write about car chases and roundhouse kicks the way other people write about meeting their true love. But Breihan backs up this fanboy passion with a truly impressive knowledge of the genre. Not only can they write at length about the history of action movies and the making of each film, they reach beyond the usual stable of American blockbusters and Hong Kong classics, spotlighting films from Thailand and France and South Korea, and even dig up gems from the direct-to-video market that can go toe-to-toe with the big boys.
I don’t always agree with Breihan’s takes, and their attempts to define what is and is not an action movie are a bit suspect. Like saying that nothing before 1968 is a true action movie, or that Star Wars and superhero movies don’t count because their fights lack visceral realism, yet somehow Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon still qualifies.
But it’s impossible to read these reviews without getting swept up in Breihan’s love for the genre. They give you new appreciation for all the action films you’ve seen, and make you want to rush out and watch all the ones you haven’t seen – and as each year gets a longer and longer list of “Other Noteworthy Films”, there’s plenty there to keep any action junkie happy.
With the format changes the AV Club has undergone over the years, you can no longer find the History of Violence series all under one tab – even doing a search for “History of Violence” doesn’t help, as the name of the series doesn’t actually appear in the titles of individual articles. So, below I’ve provided links to all of the History of Violence reviews, both the original series that ran from 2016 to 2018, and Breihan’s occasional return to the feature as each passing year provided new opportunities to crown one action film as the year’s most important.
(Though, with Breihan no longer having the benefit of hindsight, those later picks can get wonky. Mandy as the most important action movie of 2018 is certainly a take.)
1968: Bullitt
1969: The Wild Bunch
1970: The Chinese Boxer
1971: Dirty Harry
1972: The Way of the Dragon
1973: Enter the Dragon
1974: Death Wish
1975: Dolemite
1976: Assault on Precinct 13
1977: Rolling Thunder
1978: The Driver
1979: The Warriors
1980: The Octagon
1981: Raiders of the Lost Ark
1982: First Blood
1983: Project A
1984: The Terminator
1985: Rambo: First Blood Part II
1986: Aliens
1987: Lethal Weapon
1988: Die Hard
1989: The Killer
1990: Total Recall
1991: Terminator 2: Judgment Day
1992: Hard Boiled
1993: The Fugitive
1994: Speed
1995: Bad Boys
1996: The Rock
1997: Face/Off
1998: Blade
1999: The Matrix
2000: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
2001: The Fast and the Furious
2002: The Bourne Identity
2003: Kill Bill: Vol. 1
2004: The Bourne Supremacy
2005: Kill Zone
2006: Casino Royale
2007: 300
2008: Taken
2009: Universal Soldier: Regeneration
2010: The Man From Nowhere
2011: Fast Five
2012: The Raid: Redemption
2013: Snowpiercer
2014: John Wick
2015: Mad Max: Fury Road
2016: Kill Zone 2
2017: Wolf Warrior II
2018: Mandy
2019: John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum
2020: Extraction
2021: F9: The Fast Saga