Crime in American style: Polish action movies in the 1980s

Abstract

The article presents an analysis of Polish action movies of the 1980s in the context of social changes. The fact that Polish society was opening up to the west had a significant impact on the films produced in that period. It influenced both the plot and the general understanding of the convention (by both the filmmakers and the audience). Directors were increasingly aware of the genre and high-brow critics were ceasing to demand a mimetic recreation of external reality from the works they engaged with. On the other hand, the preoccupation with consumption, obsessive acquisition of expensive gadgets and the mythologization of the dollar that all permeated these films proved that their protagonists were already living in the West. Even if only in an imagined one.