Catherine Owens

Movie Genres 4

Still from Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008). ©Weinstein Company/Courtesy Everett Collection

I am a typed director. If I made Cinderella, the audience would

immediately be looking for a body in the coach.

—Alfred Hitchcock

Learning Objectives

After reading this chapter, you should be able to do the following:

• Explain the difficulty in defining genre, and contrast the advantages and disadvantages

that genres offer film studios, filmmakers, and audiences.

• Describe the popular film genres of westerns, gangster, mystery, and film noir.

• Describe the popular film genres of horror, fantasy, and science fiction.

• Describe the popular film genres of romantic comedy, musicals, and documentaries.

• Categorize films into genres, recognize when films cross genres, and analyze films

using genres.

• Trace the history of popular sentiments and social issues through the evolution of films

inside genres and recognize various social functions of genres.

Little Big Man is a revisionist western. It

takes the genre's conventions and reverses

them. The Indians are the heroes and

General Custer is the villain.

Courtesy Everett Collection

4.1 What Are Movie Genres?

A genre is a type, or category, and genre films are usually easily recognizable as part of a certain genre.

This is because they tend to use familiar story formulas, character types, settings, and iconography

(visual imagery with symbolic implications), all of which lead viewers to have certain expectations about

what the movie will be like before actually watching it. For various reasons, which we shall note, genre

films are prime candidates for analysis to reveal significance far deeper than the surface stories. Many

genres also have a variety of related subgenres with more narrowly defined formulas and expectations.

For example, any film in the horror genre can be expected to produce fear or anxiety in the viewer; some

of the many subgenres of horror films include the vampire film, the zombie film, the monster movie, the

mad doctor movie, the insane slasher­killer movie, and the psychological horror film, among others.

In Evil Dead II, a freewheeling horror film directed by Sam Raimi, Ash, the protagonist, played by Bruce

Campbell, experiences some genuine terror, including (but not limited to) cutting off his own possessed

hand with a chainsaw. Audiences and critics alike found it intense and scary. They also found it hilarious.

How can a movie that includes the following exchange not be?

Ash (talking to mirror): I'm fine . . . I'm fine . . . (Mirror Ash jumps out of the mirror and

grabs Ash.)

Mirror Ash: I don't think so. We just cut up our girlfriend with a chainsaw. Does that

sound "fine"?

With its violence, gore, and shocks, there is no question that

Evil Dead II, considered a cult classic, is a horror movie. With

lines like the foregoing, there is also no debating that it's a

comedy. So is it a horror film or a comedy? Why can't it be

both? Evil Dead II is an example of a movie that crosses

genres. The word "genre" comes from the Latin genus, which

refers to birth, family, race, or class, and by extension to any

sort of categorization. However, as we will see, there is

much debate over just what the term genre implies and

encompasses, or whether the definition really exists at all

with movies.

There is little debate that American movie studios in

particular often make use of the cultural shorthand that

accompanies various genres—the western, the action­

adventure film, the sex comedy—to market their films, and that audiences use it to decide what movies

they want to see. In this chapter, we will examine various types of genres and examples of each—once

we nail down that pesky definition. For example, is comedy a genre? Could drama be considered a

genre? Is the epic generally thought to be a genre? Some people and video stores like to think so. But

such categories as comedy, drama, and epic are broader than what the term genre typically refers to.

There are western dramas, western comedies, western epics, western romances, western adventures,

western mysteries, western crime melodramas, and more. Comedy and drama might more suitably be

termed modes of storytelling that can be applied to any of the more specific genres. An epic is a story

that is large in scale and scope (covering many years and numerous characters) and can be found within

multiple genres.

What Else Do Genre Labels Mean?

A word first, however, about what a genre is not: It is not a preordained measure of quality, despite the

way some film theorists and critics might dismiss a "genre" movie as too formulaic for serious dramatic

analysis. If one wished to argue the point, one might include Citizen Kane, according to some critics the

greatest movie ever made, in the genre category of newspaper movie. There it would find happy

company with All the President's Men and His Girl Friday. These, too, are considered by most critics

among the greatest films in history. Yet they are also genre films, or films that fit neatly into a standard

formula, in some regard. It is far too easy to dismiss a genre film out of hand. Certainly, there are enough

by­the­numbers knock­offs of Die Hard and Lethal Weapon (including some of their own sequels) to give

the action­adventure genre a bad name. Likewise with the horror genre, from the original Frankenstein

and Dracula to Halloween, among others, and all their countless sequels and rip­offs. But there are also

plenty of other entries in these categories, even many of the sequels and remakes, to prevent them from

being looked down upon simply by definition.

So are genres important? Yes, they are extremely important, because they are, in varying degrees, how

studios categorize the films they make—and how audiences categorize the films they want to see.

Labeling a film with any given genre immediately creates certain expectations in viewers, making them

more or less likely to want to see that film. This is behavior ingrained over more than a century of

filmmaking. Genres also offer a convenient way to examine films—what makes them good, what makes

them great (and what makes them fall short). Not only that, many genre films can be analyzed far

beyond their surface formulas and stereotypes. As noted in Chapter 3's section on "Metaphor and

Allegory," genre films can be the vehicle for contemporary social­political commentary disguised within

the context of a popular plot formula. These may often be set in the distant past or future (such as

westerns, historical war films, or science fiction) or may be present­day stories with familiar generic

elements (like horror, action­adventure, disaster films, or romantic comedies). Even when intended

primarily as escapist entertainment, genre films tend to treat any number of themes and issues that are

topical, and whatever the genre, the films' attitudes reflect common public sentiment and concerns at

the time they're created. Genres, in some respects, tell the story of movies and of the audiences that

watch them.

The Impact of Genres on Audiences

Even though some films cross genres, and may even fit into three or four different genres, most can be

filed into categories that are easily recognizable to audiences. This is important because, in addition to

their artistic side, movies are a business as well. There is a segment of the audience that is, for instance,

interested in any romantic comedy that is released. This type of interest extends to individual actors and

actresses as well; for some, just knowing that Adam Sandler is starring in a movie is enough to justify the

cost of a ticket. Sandler and other "personality actors" such as Charlie Chaplin, Clint Eastwood, John

Wayne, or Sylvester Stallone have such a consistently recognizable screen character in similar plots that

their names alone might almost be considered film genres, or at least subgenres.

Breaking films down into genres is far more than an academic exercise. It is a way of looking at

movies—and a way that movies look at us, their audience. John Truby, founder of a studio that offers

information and tools to screenwriters, is blunt when describing the importance of genre. He claims that

the entire Hollywood entertainment industry is based upon the concepts of genre and formula, as it

finds formulaic films more reliably profitable than the less predictable artistic visions, which tend to be

valued more highly in other countries. He says:

Hollywood realized a long time ago that it is not in the business of selling original artistic

vision (though it sometimes happens anyway). It is in the business of buying and selling

story forms. Genres tell the audience up front what to expect from the product they are

buying. If they like a particular kind of story, chances are they will like this particular film,

especially if the writer and director give the expectations a little twist. (Truby, 2010)

Films like Evil Dead II and other films that combine two or more genres such as, say, Westworld or

Cowboys and Aliens, provide that twist. And a film such as Snow White and the Huntsman expands its

traditional fairy tale genre into a more elaborate medieval action­adventure. What's interesting about

this cross­pollination of genres is that it assumes knowledge on the part of the audience, who must

recognize what is expected of the horror film and the comedy, the western and the science fiction, or the

romantic fantasy and historical­action film, so that when such combinations are presented, there is no

confusion. No shortcuts are needed. The audience, trained in genre over decades of immersing itself in it

(knowingly or not), is comfortable with the mix.

However, some theorists debate even the existence of genres, believing the pool of categories is too

muddied to the point that the definitions are fluid at best, meaningless at worst. New York University

film professor and author Robert Stam writes,

While some genres are based on story content (the war film), others are borrowed from

literature (comedy, melodrama) or from other media (the musical). Some are performer­

based (the Astaire­Rogers films) or budget­based (blockbusters), while others are based

on artistic status (the art film), racial identity (Black cinema), location (the Western) or

sexual orientation (Queer cinema). (Stam, 2000)

Stam makes a good point, but his designations could also easily fall into the category of subgenres, or

genres within genres. One could break things down even further, but eventually such division becomes

distracting and pointless. The fact remains that people tend to like convenient categories for things, and

that's exactly what genres are, even if the criteria for defining different genres may be unrelated and

many films blend several genres.

Popular Genres

Instead of focusing on theoretical debates that may surround the categorization of genres in film, it is far

easier, and also more instructive, to simply divide genres into more traditional categories. While doing

this, it is important to recognize that there is plenty of crossover between them, and many of them may

contain subcategories within them. A look at some of the major genres (see Table 4.1) will also reveal

much about how the making of movies has evolved over the last century, even as the genres have stayed

largely the same. Entire books could be (and have been) devoted to film genre in general and to

individual genres themselves, examining specific visual tropes or iconography, character types, and plot

conventions, as well as variations and subversions of genre expectations explored by certain films. We

can't possibly go into the same detailed analysis here, but in the next three sections, we will briefly

discuss the most popular and lasting film genres. Students intrigued by the topic of genres (or who may

be fans of specific genres) are certainly encouraged to seek out any number of more thorough genre

studies for deeper analysis and insight into the wealth of information and meaning communicated by

"genre films."

Table 4.1 Film genres

Westerns Films set in the American West,

usually between 1850 and 1900,

and typically depicting the settling

of the frontier, with its conflicts

between the freedoms of a lawless

adventurism and the safer

restrictions of encroaching

civilization; often allegories for

modern issues

Hell's Hinges, The Covered Wagon, The Big

Trail, Stagecoach, Jesse James, Dodge City,

High Noon, The Searchers, Rio Bravo, The

Magnificent Seven, A Fistful of Dollars, The

Wild Bunch, Little Big Man, The Shootist,

Blazing Saddles, Dances With Wolves,

Unforgiven, Brokeback Mountain, Terribly

Happy, Appaloosa, 3:10 to Yuma, Django

Unchained

Gangster Films that deal with organized

crime, often with mob families;

originally timely topical crime

dramas inspired by recent

headlines, now almost as often

nostalgic recreations of past eras

The Racket, The Lights of New York, The

Public Enemy, Little Caesar, Scarface, The

Godfather trilogy, Goodfellas, Miller's Crossing,

Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Gomorrah, A

History of Violence

Mysteries Films in which characters must

solve a mystery (typically a

murder); may overlap with crime,

horror, noir, or various other

genres

The Cat and the Canary, The Maltese Falcon,

Philo Vance series, The Thin Man series,

Charlie Chan series, Mr. Moto series, The

Lady Vanishes, The Trouble With Harry, North

by Northwest

Film noir Crime drama marked by dark

themes, a cynical outlook, anti­

heroes, often with a scheming

femme fatale, nighttime actions,

expressionistic visual style, and

voice­over narration

Double Indemnity, The Killers, The Big Sleep,

Murder My Sweet, Lady in the Lake, Affair in

Trinidad, Out of the Past, The Big Heat, Touch

of Evil, Chinatown, Body Heat, Last Man

Standing, Red Rock West, U­Turn, Payback, Sin

City

Horror Films designed to elicit fear and

shock in a cathartically

entertaining manner; often the

next step beyond a suspense­

thriller, fantasy, or science­fiction

film with horror elements

Dracula, Mystery of the Wax Museum, Doctor

X, The Mummy, The Wolf Man, The Seventh

Victim, Psycho, Paranoiac, Rosemary's Baby,

The Shining, Halloween, The Evil Dead, The

Blair Witch Project, Cloverfield, Saw, Deadline,

Let Me In, Insidious, The Woman in Black

Fantasy Any film with obviously unreal,

magical, or impossible situations,

characters, or settings, often

overlapping with various other

genres, especially science fiction,

but sometimes historical dramas

The Lost World, King Kong, The Wizard of Oz,

It's a Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street,

Jason and the Argonauts, The Adventures of

Baron Munchausen, What Dreams May Come,

Night at the Museum, Enchanted, Stranger

Than Fiction, Inkheart, Up, Iron Man,

Inglourious Basterds, Watchmen, the Harry

Potter series

Science

fiction

Films dealing with realistically

reasoned speculation about future

events or scientific theories, often

set in outer space or alternative

realities or dealing with time

travel

Metropolis, Woman in the Moon, Just Imagine,

Frankenstein, Things to Come, The Thing From

Another World, The Day the Earth Stood Still,

Godzilla, Mothra, Forbidden Planet, Them!,

The Time Machine, First Men in the Moon,

2001: A Space Odyssey, Planet of the Apes, Star

Wars, Alien, Back to the Future, The Matrix,

Moon, District 9, Avatar, Super 8, Prometheus

Romantic

comedy

Light­hearted, humorous story

involving people in love,

sometimes overlapping with

subgenres such as screwball

comedy, teen comedy, or gross­

out comedy

Young Romance, City Lights, Bringing Up

Baby, The Miracle of Morgan's Creek, Annie

Hall, When Harry Met Sally, While You Were

Sleeping, Knocked Up, Zack and Miri Make a

Porno, The 40­Year­Old­Virgin, Juno, To Rome

With Love, Much Ado About Nothing

Musicals Films that focus on songs as a

major element, whether sung by

characters in a realistic context

such as a nightclub, or sung in lieu

of dialogue to further the plot and

express emotions; there are also

musical documentaries and

concert films

The Jazz Singer, Broadway Melody, The King

of Jazz, 42nd Street, Gold Diggers of 1933, Top

Hat, Yankee Doodle Dandy, Meet Me in St.

Louis, Easter Parade, An American in Paris,

Singin' in the Rain, South Pacific, Gigi, West

Side Story, Mary Poppins, The Sound of Music,

Woodstock, Cabaret, The Little Mermaid, The

Nightmare Before Christmas, Chicago,

Sweeney Todd, Across the Universe, Hairspray,

Dreamgirls, Mamma Mia!, Les Miserables

Scene from The Man Who

Shot Liberty Valance. In

this late John Ford western

(1962), the director

telegraphs his awareness

of the way in which

westerns have shaped our

views. "This is the West,

sir. When the legend

becomes fact, print the

legend."—Journalist

speaking to the man who

shot Liberty Valance.

Courtesy Everett Collection

4.2 Westerns, Gangster Films, Mysteries, and Film

Noir

The popularity of westerns and crime dramas—which include gangster and mystery films—dates back

to the early days of film. While arguably formulaic, their often­traditional presentations of the world as a

conflict between good and evil continue to resonate with silver­screen audiences.

Westerns

At its simplest, a western is a man and his horse, taking on the struggles of nature and his fellow man.

The American Film Institute (AFI) defines it more fully as "a genre of films set in the American West that

embodies the spirit, the struggle, and the demise of the new frontier" (AFI, 2008). Usually, westerns are

set in a time period between the mid­1800s and the early 1900s, but there are a few westerns set in

modern times. Film writer Tim Dirks goes so far as to call the western "the major defining genre of the

American film industry, a nostalgic eulogy to the early days of the expansive, untamed American frontier

(the borderline between civilization and the wilderness). They are one of the oldest, most enduring and

flexible genres and one of the most characteristically American genres in their mythic origins" (Dirks,

2010b).

Studios have been making westerns since the inception of filmmaking, when

oaters, or cheap, quick westerns, were churned out in large numbers. An

immensely popular genre ever since The Great Train Robbery in 1903,

westerns have nevertheless risen and fallen in popularity, especially major

studio efforts at the genre. Low­budget formula westerns always had their

audience. However, "prestige" westerns with major stars became popular

with The Covered Wagon, a 1923 epic of pioneer settlers, and disappeared

after the failure of the similar 1930 sound film The Big Trail. In 1939, the

success of Stagecoach, Jesse James, Dodge City, and others once more revived

serious westerns for the next few decades.

Another factor that likely affected the popularity of westerns was public

sentiment about the treatment of Native Americans in films. In numerous

sound­era westerns, Native Americans were typically depicted as evil

savages. Because of this, traditional "cowboy and Indian" westerns had

largely faded by the late 1960s, as society's thoughts on this topic matured.

By the time of Kevin Costner's Dances With Wolves (1990), Native

Americans would be depicted as enlightened and wise; the U.S. military was

instead shown as savage in its behavior and treatment of native people. This

characterization continues in westerns today, although in 2013 there was

some controversy over having non­Native American actor Johnny Depp play

Western movies were based on dime novels, such as those by

Zane Grey. Thomas Edison was the first to use his new motion

picture technology to channel the Western myth.

Golden Saddles, Silver Spurs: The Western Movie

the character of Tonto in Gore Verbinski's revisionist version of The Lone Ranger. It is important to note

that although westerns (and other films) may be set in the distant past (or future), the films themselves

often closely reflect social attitudes, issues, and concerns dominating public thought at the time they

were created instead of the time period they depict.

Typical westerns deal with maintaining law and order on the frontier, and their conflict derives from

easily defined opposites of good vs. evil. Remember our discussion in the last chapter of white and black

symbolism used to tell the audience which side is good and which side is evil? That is very common in

westerns. There are lawmen vs. bandits and gunslingers, settlers vs. Native Americans, legal procedure

vs. vigilantism, upstanding law­abiding settlers vs. saloon prostitutes and gamblers, refined and civilized

Easterners vs. crude and wild Westerners, and many more. In westerns, as in many films, the hero and

the villain may often be parallel opposites, two sides of the same coin, so to speak, and representative of

the conflicting tendencies within any individual. It may well be the usually clear depiction of good and

evil that caused this distinctly American genre to become very popular overseas, resulting in numerous

westerns being produced in Italy, Spain, and Germany at the same time the genre was fading from

American screens during the 1960s–70s. Some of these, such as A Fistful of Dollars and Once Upon a Time

in the West, even found popularity in the United States. The western formula has become so ingrained in

moviegoers that it is frequently used for non­westerns, especially modern crime stories (with a

detective replacing the sheriff or marshal), and genres from the samurai film to science fiction. The

following films are a few examples of the genre.

My Darling Clementine (1946)

Director John Ford's iconic westerns

include Stagecoach, She Wore a

Yellow Ribbon, Rio Grande, and The

Searchers, in addition to this classic

retelling of the shootout at the OK

Corral. Obviously, My Darling

Clementine contains many of the

classic elements of the

western—good vs. evil, taming the

wild western town, standing bravely

against danger and despair. What

makes the film something more than

just another genre film is what all

this represents, and how Ford brings

it to bear. The Earps represent the

coming civilization that would

eventually overtake the lawless

frontier. The Clantons are the last,

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Critical Thinking Questions

1. What was seen as the literary origin of Western films?

2. How do Western films capitalize on what this textbook

has described as a "black and white symbolism"

formula?

ugly end of an era. Their livelihood

depends on absolute control, so that

nothing stands in the way of their

evil plans. This theme plays out in

countless other westerns, and in

television series such as Deadwood,

which was even more specific in its

representation of the coming law,

order, and civilization. But Ford's

film, aided by the performances of

Henry Fonda and Walter Brennan, is

the definitive expression of the

change that occurred in the United

States by the early 20th century,

when what was once a wilderness in

the United States started to turn into

the civilization we know today.

The Shootist (1976)

The western has produced many

stars, from William S. Hart and Tom

Mix in the silent days to Henry

Fonda, James Stewart, and Clint

Eastwood. But no actor is identified

with the genre as strongly as John Wayne. Though hardly a cowboy in real life, Wayne played one in

numerous films, notably Stagecoach (1939) and The Searchers (1956). The Shootist is a film that depends

heavily on the audience's familiarity with Wayne's career—so much so that it begins with scenes from

his earlier westerns.

In this film, Wayne plays J. B. Books, a legendary gunfighter—a "shootist"—dying of cancer. The West is

changing, as well; it is becoming more civilized. The shootist is something of a throwback, especially to

the widow who rents him a room, but her son idolizes him. Enemies arrive in town with scores to settle

with the famous gunman. Knowing that he is dying, Books arranges for one final shootout, which will

end in violence, death, and betrayal. What places The Shootist beyond routine genre pictures is how

Wayne and director Don Siegel so eagerly play upon the audience's knowledge of and love for Wayne's

career. In this respect, it could be considered a meta-western, in that it is self­referential (actor Jimmy

Stewart also shows up as the grumpy doctor who gives the fatal diagnosis, providing another link to

westerns from days gone by, particularly The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, which starred both actors

and had similar themes). We enjoy it more because we know that Wayne—in his last role—is playing a

Terribly Happy, a story set in peaceful

Denmark, replaces the western shoot­out

with a drinking bout. In genre terms, the

dramatic question is identical: "Who is the

first to go down?"

©Oscilloscope Pictures/courtesy Everett Collection

sort of compilation of many of his previous characters, a sort of actor's greatest hits. It is indeed a

western, but it's more than that—it's a statement on stardom, as well.

A History of Violence (2005) and Terribly Happy (2008)

These films, at first glance, are not westerns at all. They're

set in modern small towns, the second in Denmark. The

characters don't ride horses; they drive cars. The former

film might better fall into the gangster genre, the latter into

the crime thriller genre. However, the ways in which

directors David Cronenberg and Henrik Ruben Genz

construct the films conform very much to the western genre.

In A History of Violence, a former mob hit man has settled in

a small town to start a new life and raise a family. Viggo

Mortensen stars as Tom, who has become a peaceful,

respected citizen running a café with no one suspecting his

past. When he instinctively intervenes in a robbery and kills

the criminals, media coverage of his heroic deed alerts the

mob he's abandoned, which eventually leads to a showdown. The plot has similarities to the classic

western Shane (1953), which has a weary former gunfighter trying to live peacefully among some

settlers until a ruthless cattle baron hires a gunslinger to drive them off their land. In Terribly Happy,

Jakob Cedergren stars as Robert, the new town marshal of a dismal little place lorded over by the town

bully, Jorgen (Kim Bodnia). The townspeople know that Jorgen is a vile person, but they cower in his

presence and do nothing to stop him. Robert alone is willing to stand up to Jorgen, though instead of a

gunfight, the two stage an epic drinking competition.

If we step back, we see all of the elements of the classic western here—the lone ex­gunfighter or lawman

arrives in a remote place controlled by an evil, powerful character. No one else will stand up against him,

so the brave symbol of righteousness will have to handle things himself. It shows just how flexible the

form can be, for the western, like any genre film, can branch out beyond its traditional trappings while

remaining true to the spirit of the genre. With several notable exceptions, the once­ubiquitous movie

western may have virtually disappeared from modern cinema, but most of its formulas have simply been

transferred to other, more contemporary genres, especially the gangster and crime thriller.

Gangster Films

Like the western, the crime drama has been popular almost since film began. It, too, is rooted in the basic

fight between good and evil. However, particularly with later gangster films, the audience is sometimes

asked to identify and sympathize not with the forces of good, but with the forces of evil. The charisma,

material wealth, and power enjoyed by the bad guys make them far more attractive than the good guys,

who are often depicted as plodding, clueless characters with none of the charm of their adversaries.

James Cagney (right) is a notorious

heavy—the unlikeable villain. In The Public

Enemy, he mashes a grapefruit into his

girlfriend's face.

Courtesy Everett Collection

The gangster film is really a subgenre of the broader genre of crime film. Many westerns might also be

classified as crime dramas, including what is sometimes called the first western, 1903's The Great Train

Robbery. Quite a few westerns deal with organized crime and political corruption, just like the gangster

film. Indeed, the American Film Institute defines the gangster­film genre as centering on "organized

crime or maverick criminals in a twentieth­century setting" (AFI, 2008). It is much like the western in

that regard, except that many gangster films have been set during the times they were created, rather

than some historical period. Even Shakespeare's romantic tragedy Romeo and Juliet is a film about

vengeance­obsessed crime families, and adaptations such as Baz Luhrman's Romeo + Juliet (1996) and

Andrej Bartkowiak's Romeo Must Die (2000), not to mention West Side Story (1961), emphasize the

story's gangster elements explicitly. Gangster films are certainly not limited to stories of the Italian,

Jewish, or Irish­American mafia in the 1929s–30s or even the present. There are a large number of

French and Japanese gangster films of the 1950s–1970s, and in recent years any number of British mob

films or films depicting inner­city African­American or Mexican gangs. A variation on the formula of

family­centered violent revenge can be found in Joshua Marson's The Forgiveness of Blood (2011), set in

modern Albania. In general, formulas tend to deal with a character's thirst for and rise to power, a

character's betrayal of gang protocol or another character, and various gang or family rivalries. Unlike

crime films with police protagonists or traditional westerns, in gangster films we often find ourselves

sympathizing with the man in the black hat.

Early on, the gangster film was more traditional in its

depiction of morality. But the height of the original gangster

films occurred in the 1930s, in the wake of the Great

Depression, and things changed considerably. Gangsters had

their own moral codes, and some appeared to be a greater

threat to other gangsters than to law­abiding citizens. The

coming of national Prohibition effectively turned most of the

nation into lawbreakers, with bootlegging gangsters seen as

providing a public service by selling illegal alcohol. And with

all the devastating bank foreclosures after the stock market

crash of 1929, some audience members may well have

cheered for bank­robbing movie gangsters. Many gangster

characters then had a certain mystique that made them

appealing, almost heroic, in their ability to overcome

youthful poverty and oppression to rise in power and wealth—even if it was by criminal means, and

even if the criminal activities were condemned and the criminals ultimately punished. This would prove

to be the case in later films as well, particularly in the Godfather series. The following three films are

illustrative of the gangster genre.

James Cagney plays archetypal gangster Tom Powers, who rises from small­time criminal to powerful

gangster. Violent and hotheaded, Tom mistreats women, with the exception of his mother, to whom he is

devoted. Far from being discreet about his work or his lifestyle, Tom instead flaunts it, to the chagrin of

his brother. Tom is eventually taken down by the end of the film by a rival gang, not by police officers.

Some saw this as unflattering commentary on the deterioration of law enforcement and the government,

so the studio tagged on a printed title at the end: "The end of Tom Powers is the end of every hoodlum.

The Public Enemy is not a man, it is not a character, it is a problem we must all face." Studios were so

concerned that their films were seen by public watchdog groups as glorifying criminals' lifestyles that

they often inserted in the films' credits warnings about how their movies were not meant to glamorize

these hoodlums' lives, sometimes with a biblical quotation such as "those who live by the sword, shall

perish by the sword."

The brief run of outstanding gangster films in the early 1930s wouldn't last. The original Scarface,

released in 1932, was especially violent. This helped lead to greater enforcement of the Motion Picture

Production Code, censorship guidelines that dictated what was and was not acceptable on film.

Filmmakers were no longer able to depict gangster life as realistically (or as romantically), and the genre

faded for a period of time, although organized crime was frequently at the root of the conflict in 1940s

and ‘50s film noir thrillers.

The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather: Part II (1974)

If ever there were films that rose above their genre roots, these are the two clearest examples. They

graphically depict the extreme violence that is routine in the world of organized crime, as well as various

other gang­related criminal activities. However, the Godfather saga is equally an epic family soap opera.

Director Francis Ford Coppola's epic gangster story is told clearly from the point of view of the Mafia

family. They are the ones with whom we relate, whom we watch, whom we even root for. It's the story of

Michael Corleone, played by a then little­known Al Pacino, as he moves from the one son who was meant

for something outside the family business to gradually taking over the mob family, becoming a ruthless,

heartless gangster himself. By the film's end, he is slaying his enemies while serving as godfather to

his nephew.

By the second film, Michael is fully entrenched as a Mafia chieftain. But Coppola goes a step further: He

takes us back in history, to Don Corleone's entry into America, an immigrant who rises from petty thief

to mob boss, giving the story epic stature. Yet Coppola tells the story as if Corleone were any kind of

hard­working immigrant fighting to make his fortune in a new country. A 1990 third installment in the

series completed the epic trilogy with more intrigue leading to the ironic, almost poetic fate of the now­

remorseful Michael, but it was not as successful critically or commercially.

The success of the Godfather films led naturally to other

gangster films in which gangsters' lives were examined and

in some cases glorified. The 1983 remake of Scarface and

1990's Goodfellas are two examples. While both end with

the defeat of the protagonist, they spare nothing in showing

the trappings of wealth that the main characters' illicit work

has secured. This is also true of the popular television show

Martin Scorsese's ironically titled

Goodfellas uses voice­over narration,

encouraging audiences to identify with the

trials and tribulations of an ordinary thug's

life.

Courtesy Everett Collection

The Sopranos, which ran for seven seasons beginning in

1999 and told the story of Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini),

the boss of a mob family who struggles with nuclear family

problems as well. While creator David Chase and Gandolfini

have stressed that Tony is supposed to be a monster, not a

hero, he is nevertheless depicted as a sympathetic character.

This aspect of many modern gangster films, like those in the

early 1930s, once again may be a symptom of widespread

lack of public respect for a legal and political system that

allows organized crime to flourish and may become

corrupted by it. Effective gangster films, like any other,

reflect the attitudes of both their creators and their

audiences. They dramatize a social statement on a need for

change, or demonstrate the destructiveness of a lifestyle in a

way intended to discourage others from imitating it, although some may not recognize that point if the

characters are appealing.

Gomorrah (2008)

Gomorrah, an Italian film directed by Matteo Garrone, takes the opposite approach. It tells the

interrelated, swirling stories of low­level mobsters working for Italy's Camorra, which exists in real life

(the title is a reference to the mob and to the biblical city destroyed by God because of its many sins).

Instead of glorifying the lifestyle, the violence, and the crime, Gomorrah shows us the brutal banality.

Some of these men simply treat their work as a sort of dead­end job. Two young would­be gangsters like

to play­act scenes from the 1983 Scarface—with real guns. They are both pathetic and lethal. Gomorrah,

in ways far more effective than any censorship by the Motion Picture Production Code ever could be,

illustrates the age­old adage that crime doesn't pay—for most people, that is.

Mysteries and Film Noir

A distant cousin to the gangster film and another subgenre of the crime drama, the mystery film

typically involves a detective, private investigator, or regular person trying to solve a crime. Often he or

she must not only figure out who committed the crime but also fight against corrupt or incompetent law

enforcement along the way. Sometimes there may be gangsters involved. Along with the western, the

mystery is a flexible genre, allowing for adaptations in horror, comedy, and science fiction. It also lends

itself to many subgenres that blend with other genres. The "old dark house" subgenre of mystery

(mystery stories that, exactly as the label implies, take place at night in an old house) may often be

equally a horror film.

Other mysteries may be more specifically news reporter

stories, crime thrillers, or detective stories. Perhaps the

Barbara Stanwyck (left) plays the femme

fatale in Billy Wilder's classic film noir,

Double Indemnity.

Courtesy Everett Collection

most notable of these is film noir, in which cynical, hard­

boiled detectives, often tempted or betrayed by a femme

fatale (a desirable but scheming "fatal woman"), solve

crimes in a manner reminiscent of pulp detective novels.

While gangs and organized crime may be involved, unlike

the gangster film the film noir tends to center on individuals

caught up in a dangerous world beyond their control,

instead of the group or individuals who are trying to control

that world. Some noir films, rather than focusing on

detectives investigating a mystery, depict people trying to

plan or commit crimes, or having general underworld

dealings and double­dealings. Film noir literally means

"black film" in French, and it applies to stories treating dark

themes, shady characters, and, more often than not, physically dark settings with much of the action

occurring at night. Low­key, high­contrast lighting and strong use of diagonal, expressionistic patterns

and odd camera angles are common in noir films.

Many critics have interpreted noir genre as reflecting a new sense of alienation, unease, and cynical

world outlook that seemed to be a post–World War II view of the world. The frequent presence of strong

and usually dangerous femme fatale characters was seen by some to reflect the threat to a safer pre

–World War II masculine order, for women had assumed much power and control during the war years

as men left to fight overseas, forcing men to become more aggressive merely to survive and to live

according to their personal code of rules.

Indeed, the noir protagonist can probably best be described as gritty, simply pressing forward in the face

of all manner of obstacles. He (the detective is almost always male in these films) does not solve the

crime for fame or wealth but simply because it is the right thing to do. Yet a noir protagonist himself is

morally flawed and knows it, more of an anti­hero than the typical admirable heroic figure who would

defeat the villains in a more traditional Hollywood mystery. A familiar narrative technique in a film noir

is first­person point of view, often in the form of voice­over narration by the main character. This idea

was taken to the extreme in Robert Montgomery's Lady in the Lake (1947), in which virtually the entire

film is shot through the eyes of detective Philip Marlowe.

Movies now generally termed film noir are a certain style of mystery that critics recognized as starting

to show up during and especially right after World War II; they were popular through the mid­1950s

and faded out around the time of Orson Welles's Touch of Evil (1958). Movies such as Roman Polanski's

Chinatown in 1974 and Lawrence Kasdan's Body Heat in 1981 helped revive the genre so that by the

1990s what is now often called neo­noir has again become a popular if sometimes more self­conscious

genre, as seen, for instance, in Sin City in 2005.

In Pulp Fiction, the briefcase functions as a

MacGuffin. It's the object everyone is after.

© Miramax/courtesy Everett Collection

Part of the satisfaction of a successful mystery movie, much as with a mystery novel, is in solving the

crime along with the on­screen detective. It makes the mystery a more participatory genre than others,

at least when done well. Just as the protagonist attempts to stay a step ahead of the femme fatale or the

crooked cop, so do we, and some directors make this easier for us than others. The following films offer

an instructive look at the genre, how it can blend with other genres, and how it is open to different

interpretations.

The Thin Man (1934)

While this film offers a genuine mystery, it's also a first­rate example of another genre, the 1930s

screwball comedy, which incorporated a strong female character and playful battles between the sexes.

The banter between husband­and­wife amateur detectives Nick and Nora Charles (played by William

Powell and Myrna Loy) would inspire similar back­and­forth rapid­fire conversations for generations.

The Thin Man is an important example of a genre film in another way as well: It inspired five sequels.

Genre films, when financially successful, often spawn more films following the same characters, known

as sequels, though few are as successful as the original (The Godfather: Part II being a notable exception,

critically and commercially).

North by Northwest (1959)

Though he would later venture into horror with such films as Psycho (1960) and The Birds (1963), for

much of his career Alfred Hitchcock was an acknowledged master of the film mystery, though he himself

denied it. "The mystery form has no particular appeal to me because it is merely a fact of mystifying an

audience, which I don't think is enough," Hitchcock says (as cited in Stevens, 2006, p. 258). And indeed, if

that were all his films did, it would not be enough. But through the performances, the direction, and

some iconic set pieces, or stand­alone scenes, North by Northwest transcends the genre. It doesn't just

mystify the audience; it engages them. It contains the classic elements of a mystery—mistaken identity,

an innocent man wrongly accused, a man trying to learn why others are out to kill him, secret agents,

and elaborate charades—but it also rises above its genre trappings.

Cary Grant stars as Roger Thornhill, an advertising

executive who is mistaken for another man and then

kidnapped. Things fall apart from there, with thugs trying to

kill Thornhill, Thornhill being accused of murder (at the

United Nations, no less), a series of double­crosses going

down, and more. In an iconic scene, Thornhill, in the middle

of nowhere, sees a mysterious plane in the distance, as a

man says, "Dusting crops where there ain't no crops." The

plane then begins chasing and shooting at Thornhill,

instantly turning the mystery into a life­and­death suspense

thriller. Another famous scene involves a struggle atop

Mount Rushmore, Hitchcock slyly poking fun at the iconic American monument as his characters try to

kill each other on its face. The film also contains, in the form of the microfilm that everyone is after, a

MacGuffin—any object, Hitchcock has explained, that is vitally important to the characters in the film

but that may be all but meaningless to the viewing audience. In many ways, this is the classic mystery

film, incorporating the many elements of the mystery film genre, yet using them in such a way that it

becomes something more. Typical of Hitchcock, it crosses genres and may be termed both a romantic

comedy and a suspense spy thriller in addition to a mystery.

Chinatown (1974)

Here the genre film is used to tell a larger story, one beyond what is simply there on the screen. It

contains the usual elements of a film mystery—a missing person, disguised identity, and murder—and

adds more: incest and a huge conspiracy. Jack Nicholson plays J. J. Gittes, a private investigator

investigating a case of adultery (or so he thinks). The case leads to much, much more, eventually

enmeshing Gittes in a theft of water rights from citrus farmers that would eventually help establish Los

Angeles as a major American city. He will also uncover secrets about the woman who hired him and her

father, the man behind the water grab. In the classic noir mystery sense, Gittes is a man in way over his

head. Yet like many private investigators in film mysteries, he is also a fighter, someone who plods along,

collecting evidence, sometimes at great risk to himself, until he solves the case.

Screenwriter Robert Towne (who won an Oscar for the film) provides layer after layer of intrigue,

forcing Gittes—and the audience—to burrow deeper into the corruption and immorality that drive the

film. Chinatown serves as a metaphor for the corruption of cities, of the costs of progress, and not just for

Los Angeles. Broken down into its individual parts, Chinatown can be viewed as a noir­inspired mystery

of the classic form. But seen as a whole, it works to become much more. At the end of the movie, a

character utters the famous line "Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown." It is. But we're supposed to see that it's

everywhere else, as well. Again, it is social commentary disguised as a genre film.

Movie Gangsters

Friday the 13th has risen from the dead in

innumerable sequels and spin­offs.

©New Line Cinema/courtesy Everett Collection

4.3 Horror, Fantasy, and Science Fiction

Films in the horror, fantasy, and science fiction categories are among the most likely to cross genres,

both with one another and with other genres. These films may focus on the unreal, but they also often

convey certain social or psychological truths about humanity and society.

Horror

Film critic Tim Dirks describes horror films as

unsettling films designed to frighten and panic, cause dread and alarm, and to invoke our

hidden worst fears, often in a terrifying, shocking finale, while captivating and

entertaining us at the same time in a cathartic experience. Horror films effectively center

on the dark side of life, the forbidden, and strange and alarming events. They deal with our

most primal nature and its fears: our nightmares, our vulnerability, our alienation, our

revulsions, our terror of the unknown, our fear of death and dismemberment, loss of

identity, or fear of sexuality. (2010a)

Alfred Hitchcock explains it more succinctly: "Horror is really an extreme of fear. It's as far as you can

go" (as cited in Stevens, 2006, p. 276). Horror films would eventually go much farther than anything

Hitchcock had in mind, inspired in no small part by Hitchcock's own Psycho (1960). The story of the

horror film evolves from melodramatic to suggestive to explicit, more so than any other genre. It is a

development that in some ways seems inevitable. Filmmakers push for realism and audiences demand

it. In a romantic comedy, that might simply mean more realistic dialogue. In a western, it might mean

shooting on location instead of a soundstage. But in a horror film, it often means the depiction of more

graphic violence on screen, to the extent that a subgenre has been created: torture porn, in which

stomach­wrenching violence and mayhem are shown simply for their own sake, to titillate the audience

and not necessarily to advance the story.

This excessive depiction of graphic violence is by no means

true of every horror film, some of which, like the 2007

Spanish­language film El Orfanato, or The Orphanage, rely

on the suggestion of horror more than the explicit depiction

of it, yet they manage to be scary in their own right. There is

no question, however, that the evolution of horror films has

moved toward more explicit bloodshed. This proves true

even in remakes of horror films, such as the 2009 remake of

The Last House on the Left. The 1972 original is considered

by some as a reaction by writer­director Wes Craven to the

increasing number of soldiers killed in Vietnam:

In a film like Insidious, the horror is created

psychologically rather than by gore.

©FilmDistrict/courtesy Everett Collection

Bram Stoker's Dracula,

directed by Francis

Coppola, is one of more

than two dozen remakes of

Courtesy Everett Collection

It's a very, very old story…and not only is it about delicious irony, it turns out to be about

people who are straight and proper and descend into their own sort of darkness. I just

found that very interesting at the time of Vietnam. (Anderson, 2009)

Whether this was in fact Craven's intention, whatever social commentary existed in the original is

absent completely in the remake, with its scenes of one brutal murder after another. However, the irony

in the increase in gratuitous violence in modern horror movies is that, in many ways, the horror films

that show less and suggest more are actually more frightening, and certainly more satisfying.

Understated classics like the 1940s films produced by Val Lewton (notably The Seventh Victim and The

Curse of the Cat People), and Jack Clayton's The Innocents (1961) or Robert Wise's The Haunting (1963)

can still creep out and thrill viewers today. Productions such as Insidious (2010), The Woman in Black

(2012), and The Conjuring (2013) are recent examples of this approach.

The following three films trace the path of horror films and

the genre's many variations. The numerous subgenres of

horror, including the ghost story, the vampire film, the

monster movie, the slasher­thriller, and the zombie picture,

can each be analyzed for its effectiveness at telling a

gripping story and producing fear, yet also for deeper levels

of significance—psychological or social. Horror films may be

spooky entertainment designed to purge audience emotions,

but below the surface they are particularly revealing about

the inner concerns and attitudes of the people they were

made for.

Dracula (1931)

Dracula was by no means the first horror film—the 1920 film The Cabinet of

Dr. Caligari had already proven hugely influential, not just in horror but in

all of film. It wasn't even the first vampire movie. The 1922 film Nosferatu is

so obviously influenced by Bram Stoker's novel Dracula that Stoker's widow

won a copyright­infringement suit against the studio that produced it. But

Dracula was the first horror blockbuster. Based both on Stoker's novel and a

stage version, the film became both financially successful and hugely

influential, paving the way for Frankenstein later that year and—in what

would become a hallmark of the horror genre—countless sequels, remakes,

and variations. The film tells the story of Count Dracula, a vampire played in

an iconic performance by the Hungarian actor Bela Lugosi (who had

originated the role on stage). To a modern audience, the film may at times

appear slow, almost plodding. Whatever scares it provides today are more

of the atmospheric variety.

this ever­popular vampire

tale. Contemporary audiences, however, were terrified—and thrilled by its

supernatural evil overcome by the powers of good. Most films before

Dracula that included horrifying elements often balanced them with scenes

of broad comedy relief so as not to alienate moviegoers. Dracula proved that audiences were willing to

watch a full­length horror film; in effect, it kick­started a genre that hasn't waned in popularity since.

Rosemary's Baby (1968)

Director Roman Polanski's film is scary both as a horror film and as psychological terror. Although there

are a few frightening scenes, the real horror here is the realization of Rosemary (Mia Farrow) that her

safe, happy life is an illusion, that it is in fact a sham, that she is a tool in a much larger, sinister plan. This

character's realization could in fact serve as a metaphor for the disillusionment many felt with

government, particularly during the 1960s, with the Vietnam War and authority at the time.

Rosemary dreams that she is raped by a demon and later finds out that she is pregnant. Friends learn

that neighbors Minnie and Roman are Satanists, and Rosemary grows alarmed. While the rape scene is

shown, it is filmed in dreamlike fashion (Rosemary has been drugged by Minnie beforehand), and the

audience sees the baby's eyes. However, beyond that, the horror in Rosemary's Baby is much more

psychological—the realization that something you fear is actually true. Later films involving Satan and

demonic possession, including 1973's The Exorcist, would be much more explicit. Yet Rosemary's Baby

remains uncomfortable in part because its lack of special effects prevent a dated look, and because the

acting, writing, and direction combine to make a supernatural story play as realistically as possible,

making it all the more terrifying.

Saw (2004)

Saw is an influential film that helped change the shape of the genre, pushing its boundaries toward

something much less subtle and much more explicit. And while the subgenre of gory horror films goes

back at least to the late 1960s, this film and its sequels have proved wildly popular with a much wider

audience base.

The film opens with two men waking up to learn that they have been kidnapped and chained to the

pipes in a bathroom. Between them is a dead body with a gun and a tape recorder. They also have bags

with hacksaws. They learn that they are part of a game, the object of which is to escape alive, which may

involve murder, self­mutilation, and dismemberment. The story leads to other twists and turns, and

plenty of realistically displayed violence. Ostensibly a lesson in teaching ungrateful people to appreciate

life, Saw might be more accurately termed an endurance exercise.

The focus of the filmmakers in a movie like Saw becomes less about telling a story or creating a

satisfying experience for the audience (something The Exorcist, even with its extreme gore and violence,

accomplishes) and more about topping what came before it, a game of one­upmanship that films such as

the Hostel series have tried to emulate. And yet, for their lack of storytelling finesse and subtlety, the

Alice in Wonderland is a perpetual favorite,

first made into a film in 1903. What could

be more magical than going down the

rabbit hole to discover a fantastic world

where Humpty Dumpty proclaims, "When I

use a word . . . it means just what I choose it

to mean—neither more nor less"?

© Walt Disney Pictures/courtesy Everett Collection

films are enormously popular. Is this an example of simply giving the audience what it wants? Or is it a

matter of filmmakers not trusting the audience to do the work it is asked to do in films such as

Rosemary's Baby, where the horror is not a visceral, physical reaction but a deeper one? This is a

question that the audience alone can answer, but it is worth noting that audiences often prove

themselves capable of much more than what filmmakers give them credit for, particularly in the horror

genre.

The success of films like Saw may nevertheless indicate something about the mindset of contemporary

society—a theme worth exploring critically in a more detailed psychological and sociological analysis.

Other horror films are frequently seen by critics as reflecting fears, subconscious or conscious, in a

metaphoric, often supernatural framework that somehow makes them more palatable and actually less

horrifying than a literal enactment. Vampires are stalkers, sexual predators, who literally suck the life

from their victims. Werewolves, like drug addicts or alcoholics, may normally be very nice people, but

they are unable to control or even remember the violent deeds they commit whenever they're under the

power of their curse. Psychological thrillers might represent widespread mistrust of authority figures or

increasingly dysfunctional families. Gigantic monsters are often inadvertent creations of toxic industrial

waste or atomic experiments, dramatizing in fantasy form a worst­case scenario inspired by the latest

news stories. Still other horror and science­fiction movies depict computers and smart machines that

gain enough intelligence of their own to become threats to the human race. And how many space

invaders are really metaphors for various foreign powers and America's military preparedness? As with

any genre films, careful analysis of horror films in the context of the time in which they were created can

provide the student or film critic much to contemplate, and numerous essay topics.

Fantasy

Fantasy is a fluid genre that allows crossover with horror,

science fiction, comedy, holiday films, and more. The

fantasy film is, on its face, pure escapism, where characters

may live in imaginary settings or experience situations that

break the limitations of the real world. This makes them

particularly popular with younger audiences, and many, like

the Harry Potter and Chronicles of Narnia films, are aimed

specifically at children or adolescents. But the best fantasy

films also speak to larger issues, offering commentary that

adults will recognize as important beyond mere

entertainment. A film like the original King Kong (1933) or

its 2005 remake can reference serious topical issues such as

economic depression, satirize the excesses of the

entertainment industry and moviemaking, and still deliver

first­rate fantasy­adventure with a touch of romance.

Movies like the Lord of the Rings trilogy dramatize

archetypal quests and show off spectacular visual effects. Certainly, when the country has struggled

through turbulent times, fantasy films, among others, have provided the entertainment that, even if it

did not solve problems, at least allowed audiences to forget about them for a time. Yet as often as not,

deeper analysis may reveal a subtext.

The Wizard of Oz (1939)

Surely one of the most famous and best­loved films ever made, The Wizard of Oz tells the story of a

restless teenage girl's desire to escape her dreary world and the apparent fulfillment of that wish when a

storm transports her to a mystical and colorful fantasy land. The film is notable in many respects. It

contains well­loved songs, uses numerous special effects, and, most dramatically, shifts from black and

white to color when the protagonist Dorothy wakes up in Oz and reverts to black and white when she

returns home. Beyond its technical skill, the film also offers viewers an engaging, entertaining life lesson

to learn along with Dorothy during her often­harrowing adventures. It reinforces their own sense of

safety and understanding that they may actually already have what they think they want—that, indeed,

as Dorothy says, with friends and family there really is "no place like home." The Wizard of Oz is a film

ripe for deeper analysis on a variety of levels, as an archetypal quest, a coming­of­age story, a

sociopolitical allegory, and more.

It's a Wonderful Life (1946)

Frank Capra's film It's a Wonderful Life is very much a Christmas film, but it is also more complex, as

even the most cursory viewing proves. On Christmas Eve, George Bailey, a well­loved man in the

community of Bedford Falls, is on the verge of suicide. His finances have crumbled, he has taken out his

troubles on his family, he has drunkenly driven his car into a tree, and he is about to jump off a bridge

into the icy river below, when someone beats him to it. This turns out to be Clarence (Henry Travers),

George's guardian angel. Flashbacks show how selfless George has been throughout his life, always

putting others before himself, but the despondent George eventually wishes he had never been born.

In an extended fantasy sequence, Clarence shows George what life would be like without him. Bedford

Falls is now Pottersville, named after the dictatorial banker who has ruined George's life. His friends and

loved ones are bitter, unhappy criminals or, worse, dead, all because he wasn't there to affect and

influence their lives. George eventually begs for his old life back and gets it. Friends and family arrive at

his home on Christmas Eve, all having pooled their resources to give him the money he needs. Bells on

the Christmas tree ring, a sign that Clarence has earned his wings for redeeming George.

Capra uses the fantasy sequence to brilliant effect, holding nothing back, making Pottersville a truly

miserable place. The film is occasionally criticized for being too sentimental, overlooking the fact that it

begins with a near­suicide attempt and descends into the much darker world. Here fantasy is used not in

the traditional manner—to escape a dismal world for a while—but instead to bring the audience into

such a world. Once again, the film may be analyzed for its insight into universal human nature, and good

and evil, as well as its vivid reflection of the contemporary society at the time it was made.

Cinema reflects the society in which it's made. In the 1950s,

anxiety and fear over the threat of nuclear war permeated

society and film. Science fiction allowed for allegorical

discussions of taboo or frightening realities. Though science

fiction is often dismissed as cheesy, it has the power to explore

deep ideas.

Monsters from the Id: Science Fiction Cinema as

Exploration of Cultural Fears

Inglourious Basterds (2009)

This film, at first glance, seems to be nothing like a fantasy film. It is a gritty war movie, in which a team

of Jewish­American soldiers goes behind enemy lines and kills Nazis in brutal fashion. Meanwhile,

Shoshana (Melanie Laurent), the lone survivor of one of the "Jew hunts" by Nazi Col. Hans Landa

(Christoph Waltz), now runs a movie theater where Hitler and his propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels

will be attending a film. American plans to kill them are thwarted. Shoshana devises a plan to kill

everyone inside (including herself) by burning highly flammable movie film. She even arranges to

appear on screen during the movie that is playing, telling the audience that they are being killed by a

Jew. So far, it plays like a traditional war film, though with Quentin Tarantino as director, it has many of

his signature touches (violence leavened by quick­witted repartee).

Then the film shifts into fantasy. To the shock of the audience—the real audience, not just the one in the

film—Shoshana's plan works. Hitler and Goebbels are killed, and the war is almost assuredly over.

Tarantino has used fantasy in an unconventional yet powerful way—wish fulfillment to actually change

the course of history. What's more, he uses his love of film to make it the weapon that would save the

world from Hitler. The bravado on Tarantino's part blends the war genre with the revenge formula and

"what if?" historical fantasy.

Science Fiction

Of the subgenres of fantasy films,

science fiction is popular and

important enough to merit individual

discussion. Broadly defined as a film

about the future or alternate

realities, often but not always set in

space, and frequently incorporating

horror elements, science­fiction

movies are wildly popular among

fans. The best of these films offer not

just an escape from our

reality—something that any good

film offers—but an examination of

our own world filtered through a

different, sometimes exotic,

perspective. They typically rely

heavily on metaphor to tell the larger

story but should be able to be

enjoyed and understood on their

own terms, as well.

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Science Fiction Cinema as Exploration of Cultural F...

From Title: Monsters from the Id: Anxiety and Optimism in ...

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Critical Thinking Questions

1. In this video, what is meant by the statement that

science fiction films can often be seen as allegories for

things that society may not want to be discussing?

2. Can you think of an example of a science fiction film that

you have seen? What made it effective (or not)? Was the

film used as an allegory in any way?

The 1982 film Blade Runner, for

instance, directed by Ridley Scott, is,

on the surface, the futuristic story of

a police officer named Deckard,

played by Harrison Ford, whose job

is to hunt down "replicants." They

are amazingly lifelike robots that

cannot be distinguished from

humans with the naked eye;

elaborate equipment must be used to

identify them. They are used on "off­

world" colonies (on other planets)

and are illegal on Earth. Officers like

Decker hunt them and "retire" them,

a euphemism for destroying them. He

is called in to find members of a

particularly dangerous group of

replicants running loose in Los

Angeles.

The film includes a lot of action and

adventure, and in many ways is

essentially a film noir detective film

set in the future, but to the careful

observer clear themes emerge. Chief

among these is the idea of identity,

and what it means. Who is real? Who

is not? Is Decker himself a replicant? Scott revisits this question throughout the course of the film, which

also looks at the role technology plays in our lives. Of course, one not need recognize these themes to

enjoy the movie (which divided critics when it was released but has since become recognized as a classic

not just of the genre but of all film), but Scott provides them for those seeking a fuller experience. This is

true of many science­fiction films, including The War of the Worlds, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Alien,

among many, many others.

Nora Ephron's When Harry Met Sally

(1989) is a romantic comedy that captured

the battle of the sexes at the time. As in all

classic romantic comedies, unlikely couples

discover that in fact they are soul mates.

"All's well that ends well."

© Columbia/courtesy Everett Collection

4.4 Romantic Comedy, Musicals, and

Documentaries

A discussion of popular film genres would not be complete without examining romantic comedies,

musicals, and documentaries. While there is perhaps less crossover between these genres, all have

played an important role in the history of film.

Romantic Comedy

Perhaps the least flexible of all the genres, the romantic

comedy is somewhat limited by the scope of what it

attempts to accomplish—bringing two people together.

There are many ways for this to happen, and many comedic

obstacles to be placed before them, but the goal remains the

same. The rest is just window dressing. At its most basic, the

romantic comedy plot involves a romance that leads to

comic situations, although lately the term has come to mean

almost exclusively a film in which a hapless female

protagonist finds love despite all manner of kooky odds

against it. These frequently have initial popularity with

audiences but fade rather quickly and are marketed almost

exclusively toward female audiences. Often these films are

best described as "cute." Modern audiences may think of the

latest Sandra Bullock or Jennifer Aniston film as typical of the romcom, as the genre is often abbreviated,

but there are other examples to sample for study. The romantic comedy has spawned subgenres, such as

the sex comedy (with its own subgenre, the teen sex comedy) and the screwball comedy, popular in the

1930s and 1940s, in which madcap hijinks happen to couples falling in love.

However one describes the genre, it is crucial that the successful film have both parts in equal

measure—romance and comedy. When that is the case, the romantic comedy can be much more than a

lark and become a more satisfying film on a deeper level. As film critic David Denby writes in The New

Yorker:

Romantic comedy civilizes desire, transforms lust into play and ritual—the celebration of

union in marriage. The lovers are fated by temperament and physical attraction to join

together, or stay together, and the audience longs for that ending with an urgency that is

as much moral as sentimental. (Denby, 2007)

Rare indeed is the romantic comedy in which we don't get that ending, that resolution that we so

want—namely that the man and woman live happily ever after. Whether this is realistic is beside the

point. (Some suggest it's not even healthy. A 2009 study found that people who watched romantic

comedies tended to have unrealistic expectations and ideas about romantic relationships [Alleyne,

2008].) The point is to get the couple together and see them ride off into the sunset. There are

exceptions. Woody Allen's Annie Hall is a popular romantic comedy in which the protagonist doesn't

ultimately get the girl, thanks in large part to a mountain of neuroses. However, typically in romantic

comedies audiences expect a happy ending, no matter how it is achieved.

Young Romance (1915)

Like most genres, romantic comedy dates back to the beginnings of cinema, and its roots extend back to

ancient theater. The early feature Young Romance (1915) has a basic plot that is just as appropriate to

life a century later. A young working­class man and woman unknowingly work in different departments

of the same store, splurging their savings on an expensive vacation at the same resort. Of course they

meet and fall in love, each thinking the other is rich. The mistaken identity formula takes a twist when

the girl is kidnapped for ransom and the boy saves her, but both are uncomfortable pursuing their

relationship after their holiday is over because of their perceived differences in social status. Back at

work the next week, they eventually discover they are workmates and all ends happily. In addition to

being a comedy of romance and embarrassment, the film can be viewed as a documentary record of

1915 attitudes about social classes and a timeless observation of human nature.

City Lights (1931)

Charlie Chaplin's City Lights (1931), often regarded by critics and audiences as one of the greatest films

of all time, has many elements of the romantic comedy. Again, it is one based on a case of mistaken

identity. Chaplin's famous Little Tramp character befriends a young blind woman (Virginia Cherrill)

selling flowers in the street. After a variety of comic misadventures, including preventing a drunken

millionaire from committing suicide, the Tramp is able to get money from this newfound friend and pays

for an operation to restore the woman's sight. She of course does not recognize the homeless man as her

benefactor, but when she hands him a flower and coin, their hands touch and she recognizes him. The

final scene, unlike that of many comedies, is not overplayed for laughs. Instead, as the film ends the

audience is unsure whether the woman feels pity for the rumpled tramp or loves him. This shows what

the romantic comedy form is capable of, if done with restraint. And emblematic of its time, the beginning

of the Depression, it is an explicit presentation of the economic gap between rich and poor.

Bringing Up Baby (1938) and The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1944)

These two films are classic examples of the screwball comedy, a genre that had some precedent in the

liberated women of the 1920s but blossomed during the 1930s and 1940s after the coming of sound.

Men and women became equal adversaries, battling out their conflicting romantic feelings verbally and

even physically. Situations were often exaggerated to an extreme that could only result in such comic

byplay, cleverly written to conform to the dictates of the Production Code yet conveying much deeper

sexual implications.

Clerks is the epitome of the

"slacker film"—a portrait

of Gen X.

© Miramax Films/Courtesy Everett

Collection

In Howard Hawks's Bringing Up Baby, Cary Grant, a paleontologist engaged to a humorless woman,

meets a free­spirited woman of opposite personality (Katharine Hepburn), which complicates things.

The story from there involves a dog, a dinosaur bone, a million­dollar donation, arrest, mistaken

identity, a leopard, and more. In Preston Sturges's Miracle of Morgan's Creek, things get even more

outrageous when a vivacious small­town girl (Betty Hutton) discovers she's pregnant but can't

remember who the father is, as she'd spent the night partying with soldiers getting ready to ship

overseas. Her meek boyfriend (Eddie Bracken) agrees to marry her, but things get out of hand before it's

over. These films use classic screwball setups, piling one unlikely situation atop another with no real

attempt to make one situation any more realistic than the last, driven by the wit and banter between the

leads.

Knocked Up (2007) and Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008)

By the 21st century, romantic comedies had taken many turns. Classic screwball comedies would fade

after World War II, but in the latter part of the 20th century wacky lighter fare would again prove

popular. Annie Hall would inspire films such as When Harry Met Sally, in its own way an update of the

classic opposites­attract, screwball formula. With changing audience tastes, sex that was merely hinted

at in years past became a topic to be dealt with more explicitly. Knocked Up (2007) and Zack and Miri

Make a Porno (2008) are in many ways the culmination of that evolution. They also demonstrate

another trend of more recent romantic­comedy storytelling: The schlubby guy gets the pretty girl.

Whether this is wish fulfillment on the part of the writers or the audience, it has proved popular—yet

another example of films capitalizing on common stereotypes while reflecting something their creators

sense is a common social attitude or desire.

In Judd Apatow's Knocked Up, Seth Rogen plays a pot­smoking, aimless man

who spends his days working on a website that indexes nude scenes in

movies. He meets a high­strung, ambitious television producer (Katherine

Heigl) at a nightclub, and after getting drunk, they have sex. She learns she

is pregnant, and they decide to try to establish a relationship together. Due

to their different lifestyles and outlooks, they split up, but they eventually

reunite in time for the birth of their daughter. Kevin Smith's Zack and Miri

Make a Porno also stars Seth Rogen, this time as an aimless man who

decides an ideal way to make money would be to make a pornographic

movie with the help of his best friend (Elizabeth Banks). Although they have

never been a romantic couple, each becomes jealous of the other during the

process, and they wind up together by the end.

Apatow became popular directing and producing a number of like­minded

comedies, including The 40-Year-Old-Virgin, Superbad, and Pineapple

Express, and Smith rose to fame with Clerks, Chasing Amy, and Dogma, among others. All their films share

certain similarities—they are considered raunchy, profane, and hilarious. But they also contain an

Little Shop of Horrors is among those

musicals that address darker subjects—in

this case a plant that thrives on human

blood.

Courtesy Everett Collection

underlying sweetness that makes them more palatable to a mainstream audience. While audiences of

the 1940s would surely be aghast by their discussion of sex and profanity, films like these are well suited

for today's movie audiences; the edgy tone makes them seem more realistic to younger people, at whom

the films are aimed. In this regard, they are as much a depiction of their era as Young Romance, City

Lights, Bringing Up Baby, or Miracle of Morgan's Creek were.

Musicals

Ever since The Jazz Singer (1927), in which Al Jolson performs six songs, vocal music has played an

important part in film—so much so that it spawned its own genre: the musical. From The Jazz Singer to

Mamma Mia!, the musical has been a well­loved type of film. Sometimes musicals touch on darker

material: The Jazz Singer was a backstage ethnic drama about the younger generation abandoning its

traditional religious and cultural values in a materialist and entertainment­driven society, The Sound of

Music includes the rise of the Nazi party among its delightful songs. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of

Fleet Street tells the story of a serial killer, and Les Miserables is a relentless epic story of crime and

punishment encompassing the French Revolution. Typically, however, musicals depict lighter fare, and

indeed, in each case mentioned they make what might have been more difficult material easier for the

audience to relate to.

Numerous subgenres exist within the musical genre, from

musical comedy to musical drama to animated musicals to

music documentaries and concert films like Woodstock and

It Might Get Loud. Famous musicals include Top Hat, Meet

Me in St. Louis, The Sound of Music, Singin' in the Rain, Easter

Parade, West Side Story, The Music Man, and Mary Poppins.

All are films beloved by many. Some produced classic songs

of their own, and others were screen adaptations of

Broadway stage musicals. Perhaps because of their often

stronger focus on entertainment rather than dramatizations

of social issues, musicals sometimes tend not to be taken as

seriously as dramas or even comedies. For example, only

nine musicals have won the Academy Award for Best

Picture; until Chicago won in 2002, the last musical to do so was Oliver! in 1968. Like westerns, horror,

and other genres, musicals have come and gone in terms of popularity. With a few exceptions, until the

success of Chicago, the genre was largely dormant after the 1960s, except in the form of animated

cartoon musicals. In India, on the other hand, the "Bollywood" musical remains a consistent audience

favorite.

What makes the musical a genre in itself is that the songs do not just accompany the action shown on

screen as they do in most other genres but are actually a part of it. Instead of strictly dialogue, the

narrative may from time to time be advanced by characters breaking out into song. In the case of Les

Miserables (2012), virtually the entire story is sung, as in an opera. Early musicals, such as 42nd Street

(1933) and Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933), proved immensely popular with audiences, with lavish

production numbers providing escapist entertainment for a nation struggling through the Great

Depression. Yet both of those backstage stories are heavily rooted in the contemporary economic

difficulties of their era. Their snappy comedy and elaborate musical numbers are mere diversions from

their characters' own struggles to make ends meet in a tough world. Even though both films, as

expected, let audiences see their tangled romantic subplots resolve happily by the end after some

spectacular musical numbers, they remained just as much a reminder of the world outside the movie

house as they were an escape from that world. Despite their association with simple escapism and

entertainment, musicals, like any genre films, lend themselves to analysis that can provide much insight

into the psyche of their times and the personalities of their creators.

The Sound of Music (1965)

The film, directed by Robert Wise, is based on the stage play, with music and lyrics by Richard Rodgers

and Oscar Hammerstein II. The story of the von Trapp family, which in the movie escapes Austria and

the Nazis during World War II, was considered by most critics to be too sweet, too shallow. Yet it won

five Academy Awards, including Best Picture. It follows Maria (Julie Andrews), a young nun who is sent

to work as a governess for a widowed navy captain, Georg von Trapp (Christopher Plummer), to care for

his seven children. A free spirit, she at first rankles the strict von Trapp, but eventually they fall in love

and marry, to the delight of the children. However, when the Nazis annex Austria, the family must flee,

and does so after performing at the Salzburg Music Festival.

It is true that the story is a somewhat glossed­over version of the complexities of the time period.

However, the film is an excellent example of what makes a successful musical, as its songs make up for

its simplistic, rather predictable story. "Edelweiss," "Do­Re­Mi," "Sixteen Going on Seventeen," and "My

Favorite Things" are just some of the songs from the film that have become established in popular

culture. And, for the most part, they fit in the film, doing the job that songs in musicals must: entertain

but also help to advance the plot. ("So Long, Farewell" even helps them escape.) The film made Andrews

a star and still enjoys great popularity. It may not enjoy wide critical acclaim, but it is an example of how

the varied elements of musicals can come together to elevate a movie far above what it might have been

had it not had such strong songs to fall back on.

Across the Universe (2007)

Whereas most musical films are stories (very often adapted

from stage plays) with songs written especially for them,

and some are stories written merely to showcase various

existing songs to be performed by the characters (for

example, Singin' in the Rain or the Beatles' Yellow

Submarine), this film takes an unusual approach. Its story of

social turmoil, political protest, and personal heartbreak

Before Across the Universe, there was the

Beatles­propelled Yellow Submarine, an

animated musical.

Courtesy Everett Collection

during the Vietnam War era was carefully designed around

a selection of songs written by the Beatles, some actually

sung by characters in the film and others merely inspiring

various characters and plot situations. The result is

genuinely operatic historical drama, but utilizing the actual

songs from the era, it depicts the time in a way that makes it

seem as if the songs were written for the plot instead of the

other way around.

The Beatles' songs and the plot are entwined throughout, as

evidenced by the names of the lead characters—Jude (Jim

Sturgess) and Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood), as in "Hey Jude"

and "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds." When a merchant

sailor leaves his girlfriend, we get "All My Loving." When an Uncle Sam recruiting poster becomes

animated, we get "I Want You (She's So Heavy)." Sexy Sadie sings "Helter Skelter." There's also Rita

("Lovely Rita"), Max ("Maxwell's Silver Hammer"), Jo Jo (from "Get Back") and even a Mr. Kite ("Being for

the Benefit of Mr. Kite"). Without the songs, there is no plot, and vice versa.

The film received mixed reviews, but its ambition is never in question. Any time a genre's conventions

can be subverted or overturned, it bears watching. Across the Universe is especially notable because, for

all of the creativity they require, musicals can be especially rigid in form. Across the Universe is as

untraditional as The Sound of Music is traditional; together they give some idea of the breadth possible in

the musical genre.

Documentaries

A documentary is a non­fiction film that typically studies an event, person, trend, or other subject in

depth. While this may sound by definition dry and boring, the best documentaries are anything but.

Skilled filmmakers such as Erroll Morris use the same tools that directors employ in fictional films:

writing (mostly narration in this case), editing, cinematography, and structure. Everyone has heard the

old saying that truth is stranger than fiction. In the case of a good documentary, this is proved true.

Some documentaries are meant to entertain, or to shine a light on a person or subject that has gone

unnoticed. Other documentaries adopt a point of view in an effort to force action, whether it be to free

the wrongly convicted or shine a light on political corruption or human­rights violations. In the hands of

a good documentarian, anything can be made interesting, as the following examples illustrate.

The Thin Blue Line (1988)

On November 29, 1976, police officer Robert W. Wood was killed during a traffic stop. The case went

unsolved until police got a tip from a 16­year­old boy from Vidor, Texas, which led to the arrest of a 28­

year­old man named Randall Dale Adams. In this documentary, Erroll Morris used techniques that would

prove influential in arguing that the case against Adams, who was convicted of the murder, was flawed.

These techniques include staging reenactments of important events leading to the murder and differing

versions of the murder itself. These scenes can be jarring at first, but once the viewer becomes

accustomed to them, they are effective in illustrating the story beyond just the interviews that Morris

conducted.

Morris explained his use of reenactment in a New York Times piece he wrote:

Critics don't like re­enactments in documentary films—perhaps because they think that

documentary images should come from the present, that the director should be hands­off.

But a story in the past has to be re­enacted. Here's my method. I reconstruct the past

through interviews (retrospective accounts), documents and other scraps of evidence. I

tell a story about how the police and the newspapers got it wrong. I try to explain (1) what

I believe is the real story and (2) why they got it wrong. I take the pieces of the false

narrative, rearrange them, emphasize new details, and construct a new narrative. (Morris,

2008)

Morris also used an innovative technique for the interviews: having the subject look directly into the

camera while he or she spoke. The effect is one of greater immediacy; the audience is made to feel as if

the interview subject is talking to them. At times unsettling but ultimately powerful, this technique

would lead Morris to invent a special camera to facilitate these kinds of interviews. The film and the

publicity around it helped lead to Adams's conviction being overturned.

American Movie (1999)

Shooting over a period of several years, director Chris Smith set out to chronicle the efforts of Mark

Borchardt, a passionate but impoverished independent filmmaker from Wisconsin, to make his first

feature­length film, and ultimately his decision instead to complete the short horror film he had

abandoned years before. What emerged from many hundreds of hours of footage was not merely how to

make a low­budget movie, but a portrait of one man's personal obsession against overwhelming odds,

including his own problems with alcohol, gambling, ne'er­do­well friends, and a severely dysfunctional

family. What also became obvious was the intense love and support that came through from his family

and friends, despite their frequent skepticism, disagreements, and opposition. Mark and most of the

people surrounding him have such quirky, off­the­wall personalities and life experiences (especially his

burnt­out former drug addict best friend) that many people seeing American Movie unprepared believe

it must be a scripted "mockumentary," but these are real people in real situations. This mistake is

encouraged somewhat by the film's narrative approach to organization. Although like many

documentaries it uses interviews with its subjects and clips from Mark's previous short movies, it

focuses on cause­effect relationships, personalities, and human confrontations, even building suspense

as to whether or not he will finish this latest project, rather than merely documenting step by step how a

movie is made. By the time it was completed, American Movie had become a documentary in which the

techniques and tribulations of making a film with next to no money are an interesting side story, while

Jean­Xavier de Lestrade describes documentaries as unfolding

before the director's eyes. Errol Morris, Sabiha Sumar, Kim

Longinotto, Scott Hicks, and Peter Wintonick comment on the art

of documentary filmmaking.

Capturing Reality: Piecing Together Reality in an

Emotional Medium

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Piecing Together Reality in an Emotional Medium

From Title: Capturing Reality: The Art of Documentary

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Critical Thinking Questions

1. What does Errol Morris mean when he says that "we

piece together reality . . . reality isn't handed to us

whole"? How is this concept important to the making of

documentaries?

2. How can documentaries be seen as an "emotional

medium"? Do you have a favorite documentary that

illustrates this idea?

the real story is the struggle of the human spirit to accomplish something, and how close a bond the

members of even a dysfunctional family can have.

Jiro Dreams of Sushi (2012)

Director David Gelb's film would

appear on the surface to be simple:

He chronicles the life and work

(which are really the same thing) of

Jiro Ono, who owns a small

restaurant in a Tokyo subway station

that is widely reputed to have the

best sushi in the world. As one would

expect in such a film, we learn much

about Jiro's technique and skill

(though he keeps some secrets to

himself). The film is photographed in

such a way to make the food look

beautiful and delicious (which, by

accounts from the people who eat it,

including food critics, it is). Jiro is

portrayed as a kind of food magician,

a true master of his craft. If this were

as far as Gelb took the film, it would

still be an entertaining look at a man

who is great at what he does.

But Gelb goes deeper, and his film

ultimately becomes a chronicle of

family and obsession. Jiro's sons are

drawn into the family business,

perhaps not completely willingly.

While they are not bitter, Gelb

captures a poignancy when they talk

about what they might have done

had they not been the sons of the

great Jiro. We also learn, simply by

observation, that sushi is Jiro's life.

He detests holidays and days off. He

dreams of creating the perfect sushi (thus the title). By patiently letting the story unfold, Gelb allows the

film to become more complex. In this regard, it could be about anything, about any type of obsession:

cars, chess, stamps, whatever. Gelb makes the story more universal, in other words. One need not be a

fan of sushi to find value in the film.

These are but a few examples of the nearly endless possibilities that documentaries offer filmmakers.

The basic tenet of these non­fiction films remains the same as it does for any other movie: Tell a good

story. The rest will follow. There are indeed cases where a documentary filmmaker is more interested in

telling an entertaining story than in presenting verifiable facts. Some of these are heavily biased

propaganda films passing themselves off as objective truth (from Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will

to the films of Michael Moore), whereas others are "mockumentary" satires that merely use

documentary techniques to tell a scripted or improvised fictional story (such as This Is Spinal Tap, The

Blair Witch Project, or TrollHunter).

Summary and Resources

Chapter Summary

A genre is a type or category of film (or other work of art) that can be easily identified by specific

elements of its plot, setting, mise en scène, character types, or style. Though sometimes derided as

overly formulaic or downright lazy, genre films and film genres actually serve as a useful tool for the

study of movies. While it is a mistake to try to categorize every film, most fit at least somewhat

comfortably into one genre or another, and sometimes they fit more than one. Theorists and critics

argue over classifications and sometimes even the existence of genres, but most audiences can agree

that there are at least loosely defined ones that serve several functions. For one, they offer audiences a

shortcut, a hint of what kind of film they will see and, at least in a general way, what to expect. They also

offer studios an easy way to market a film, taking advantage of the audience's assumed knowledge of

individual genres.

Genres are not stagnant categories. The study of their evolution is nothing short of the study of film and

the filmgoing public itself. When we break down types of film into categories, we can then observe how

they have changed over the years to reflect the tastes of the audience while retaining the elements that

put them into that genre in the first place. Moreover, many directors use genres to explore their pet

themes, disguising social commentary within familiar formulas they know will attract more viewers

than outright "message" films (just look at sci­fi hits such as Avatar and District 9 for recent examples or

classic westerns such as The Oxbow Incident, High Noon, and The Searchers). Because genre films are

such an intimate blend of popular entertainment subjects with pervasive sociopolitical subtext and

documentary­like records of widely held attitudes, genre criticism can be a rich field for film study.

Questions to Ask Yourself About Genre When Viewing a Film

• Which of the genres discussed does the film fit most closely with? (western, gangster, mysteries,

film noir, horror, romantic comedy, fantasy, musical)

• Does the film fall into the category of genre film? Why or why not?

• How can the typical elements of a relevant genre help you understand the film better?

• How does the film deviate from the genre it is most closely related to?

You Try It

1. Think of one film you have seen that could be considered a genre film. How well does the film fit

into the description of the genre in this chapter? Does it rise above the genre, or is it limited to it?

Go to www.movieclips.com (https://www.movieclips.com) and search "The Shining" to view the

following clip from the film, in which Danny sees the ghosts of young girls:

"Trailer #1" (http://movieclips.com/)

(http://www.movieclips.com/)

©Warner Brothers/Courtesy Everett Collection

To view this clip with closed captioning, please visit https://www.youtube.com/user/movieclips

(https://www.youtube.com/user/movieclips) and use the searchbar to search for "Come Play With Us."

2. Think of one film you have seen that you believe crosses genres. What are the genres the film fits in,

and how well does the film fit into each category? For example, Mel Brooks's Young Frankenstein

blends the classic Frankenstein story with humor. Go to www.movieclips.com

(https://www.movieclips.com) and search "Young Frankenstein" to view the trailer for the film:

(http://www.movieclips.com/)

© 20th Century Fox Film Corp. All rights reserved.

To view this clip with closed captioning, please visit https://www.youtube.com

(https://www.youtube.com) and use the searchbar to search for "Young Frankenstein Trailer."

3. What do you see as the advantages of categorizing films into genres or subgenres? What are the

disadvantages?

4. With an eye toward marketing, which is what trailers are used for, search for and view the trailers

for the following films on iTunes (https://www.apple.com/itunes/

(https://www.apple.com/itunes/) ):

Season of the Witch

Let Me In

Due Date

See whether you can tell to which genre each film belongs. Explain why you chose your answer, and

whether the studio properly advertises the film in this way (does it reveal too much, too little?).

5. Choose a genre and list the elements that you expect from a film that fits into it.

Key Terms

Click on each key term to see the definition.

documentary

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A non­fiction film that typically studies an event, person, trend, or other subject in depth; one of the

major genres.

fantasy film

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A film with obviously unreal, imaginative elements; one of the major genres.

film noir

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm#)

A type of mystery thriller marked by dark themes, shady and unsavory characters, an often pessimistic

outlook, and physically dark settings; one of the major genres; French for "black film."

gangster film

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm#)

Technically a subgenre of crime film, the gangster film deals with mobsters and organized criminal

activity.

genre

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm#)

A category or type of something (in this case, film) that is recognizable by shared characteristics with

others of its type.

genre films

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm#)

Films with easily identifiable formulas, character types, and iconography.

horror film

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm#)

A film intended to produce fear or anxiety in the viewer; one of the major genres.

iconography

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm#)

The use of images symbolically in art and film, especially picture composition, props, settings, lighting

styles; an icon is literally an image.

MacGuffin

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm#)

Director Alfred Hitchcock's term for a plot element that is of critical importance to the main characters

in a film but may be all but meaningless to the viewing audience. It simply serves as the catalyst to move

the characters into action (e.g., the secret microfilm they're trying to obtain, the body they're trying to

hide).

musical

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm#)

A film incorporating songs as a primary element; one of the major genres.

mystery film

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm#)

A film in which the viewer typically tries to solve some mystery, often a crime story, along with its

characters; one of the major genres.

oater

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm#)

A slang term for a western film, because westerns typically have horses, which eat oats; usually used for

low­budget, very formulaic westerns. Another slang term for westerns is horse opera.

romantic comedy

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm#)

A film whose primary focus is balanced between the romantic relationship of a couple and the comic

circumstances surrounding it.

sequel

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm#)

A movie or book whose plot follows the same character(s) as another movie or book (usually a very

popular one), but at a later period in time, often employing similar events, actions, and story elements

that had proved successful in the previous installment.

subgenre

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm#)

A more narrowly defined category that also fits within a broader category.

western

(http://content.thuzelearning.com/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm/books/AUENG225.14.1/sections/fm#)

A film set in the American West, typically during the nation's period of expansion from the mid­1800s

through the early 1900s, often dealing with good people's struggles against the lawlessness of the

frontier; one of the major genres.

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ly studies an event, person,

trend, or other subject in

depth; one of the major gen-

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