12 Chapter 12: Genre Films
What Is Genre?
Genre in film refers to categories of movies that possess a common–and expected–set of traits. While directors of genre films don’t employ an official rulebook or formula, they still are very aware of their genre’s conventions: its archetypal plots, stock characters, standard themes, typical visual styles, and the like. Even if a director chooses to deviate from the norm, that deviation presupposes audience knowledge of the usual “moves.”
If directors stick too closely to convention, audiences are likely to view such films as clichéd, but if they move too far afield from the typical, spectators will often reject such movies as not being “true” to the genre. Genres do, however, evolve by incorporating new elements, dropping others, and updating still more.
A subgenre is a narrower category that shares some traits with the broader one. For instance, while “horror” is an overarching film genre, slasher, zombie apocalypse, paranormal, and techno are some of its many subgenres.
Sound and Screen on film genre
Genre categorizes movies.[1] Categorizing movies makes it easier for viewers to discover what they likes and will want to see. Putting a movie into a particular genre or category does not diminish the quality of the movie by assuming that if it can be put into a genre, the movie is ordinary and lacks originality and creativity.
Genre consists of four elements or parts: character, story, plot and setting. An equation for remembering the genre is: Story (Action) + Plot + Character + Setting = Genre. This becomes an easy way to remember the elements of a genre.
The above elements of story, plot, setting, and character equal a specific category of movie. These elements are discussed regarding how their variations create a different category of movie.
Some genres include crime, war, Westerns, spy, adventure, science fiction, horror, fantasy, biography, and mystery. Movies often have genres that overlap, such as adventure in a spy movie, or crime in a science fiction movie. Usually, however, one genre is predominant.
Other movie labels cannot be considered genres. Film noir, thrillers, and action movies are not actually genres but styles that writers and directors may apply across film categories. They are considered styles because their characteristics include cinematography and editing, which are not among the four elements that make up a genre. These labels reflect or accentuate the movie genre rather than define the genre.
Likewise, musicals and animation are not considered genres but rather “treatments” as to how a particular movie genre is told, even though people may loosely refer to these types of movies as genres.[2]
The contract between producers and audience around genre is a dynamic one, and a couple of key points are worth underscoring:[3]
- Audiences expect key conventions to be followed in the film, but they do not want a rigid paint-by-numbers version of the genre. They expect some variation or even breaking of the rules. That is, they want both to have expectations met and to be surprised.
- When these variations or rules-breaking prove especially effective or popular, the former exception to the rule can itself become a new rule. That is, genre conventions can and do change over time. For example, while a film of the 1930s might be recognizable by modern audiences as a gangster film, it will not fill all the expectations a contemporary fan of the genre would anticipate.
- When producers break genre conventions too much at once, fans of the genre often reject the film and box office may plummet. When producers rigidly follow all the conventions of the genre without variation, audiences will eventually grow weary of the genre and it will decline in popularity.
Genres change, rise and fall in popularity, and today often come together in unions as surprising as the couple in the beginning of a romantic comedy (e.g., horror-comedy; space-western). Even as genres become more modular and dynamic, the basic principle remains as it was at the beginning of the modern film industry a century ago. Genre is a mode of classifying films implicitly agreed upon by producers and audiences together around similar conventions, subject matter, settings, and narrative and stylistic patterns.[4]
Approaches to Genre Analysis
In their An Introduction to Film Genres, Lester Friedman, et al. identify a number of ways that students of film can explore the concept of genre in cinema.
Genre as Cultural Myth
Scholars such as Carl Jung, James Frazer, Northrop Frye have hypothesized that certain narrative constructs appear over and over again across cultures and eras. Approaching film genre through this lens involves identifying and discussing how movie narratives interact with the archetypes–for example, repeated character types, plots, and images–that are important to a community (or communities.) Friedman, et al. posit that such archetypes “condense and distill a society’s collective fantasies, aspirations, and anxieties” (11). Such narratives serve both to reflect and shape a community’s identity and celebrate or critique its value system(s.)
By examining a range of examples from a film genre, viewers can start to notice how certain values appear over and over. For instance, Westerns often pit a lone (often righteous) individual against an (often corrupt or cowardly) collective. Critics have argued that films such as High Noon (1952) Shane (1953), The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962), Once Upon a TIme in the West (1968) and many others use the loner-against-the-mob trope in ways that emphasize American individualism and ingenuity.
Shane
Genre as Cultural Memories
We might consider genre films from the perspective of cultural memory as process of the retelling of an historical event. Genre films can reflect how a society “remembers” an incident or era. The closer a film’s audience is to the events portrayed on the screen, the more contested that movie’s version of reality is apt to be. Because most–if not all–of the spectators lived through the incident, they will inevitably be more invested in historical accuracy, but they will also often be divided as to what “accuracy” means. None of us lived through the Revolutionary War, for instance, but we were alive during the War in Afghanistan, which officially ran from 2001-2021. A war film that takes minor liberties with the artillery used in the former war might irritate a few history buffs, but a movie that does the same with the more recent one might be more universally panned. As events fade and few–if any–viewers were alive during the time of the film’s action, they must rely on other sources, such as history books, stories from older relatives, and fictional representations (such as other movies.) Further, as society changes, it also changes how it views events from the past. Sometimes events that once caused cheers now incite shame. Friedman, et al. remind us that “the historical variations on genre narratives and conventions will tell us more about the time the film was made than the era in which is it ostensibly set” (16).
For example, war films set during the conflict depicted on screen are sometimes uncritically jingoistic, whereas films set later are sometimes more critical of not only how the war unfolded but the events leading up to the war as well. Thus, films such as The Heart of Humanity (1918, World War I), Remember Pearl Harbor (1942, World War II), A Yank in Korea (1951, Korean War), and The Green Berets (1965, Vietnam War) were far less critical of their conflicts than movies such as Paths of Glory (1957, WWI), Attack! (1956, WWII), War Hunt (1962, Korea), and Apocalypse Now (1979, Vietnam), which show their subjects in a far more cynical light.
The Green Berets
Apocalypse Now
Genre as Rituals
Some critics consider genre films to function as a type of secular observance, a repeated act that serves to bond a community of like-minded people. Friedman, et al. observes that “some critics roughly equate watching genre films with religious ceremonies, noting that each activity offers the participant dependability, comfort, and familiarity” (16.) Certain subsets of viewers will watch genre films repeatedly and even memorize dialogue. Others are drawn to a certain type of film (such as horror or romantic comedy) and will watch them even if–or perhaps because–the plot is predictable or the characters stereotypical. Such communities–whether in person or online–will exchange lists of their favorites and take comfort in sharing time with individuals who “get it” in the same way that they do. Genre films can offer people a sense of identity and belonging, and genre fans will often delight in “insider” references and language. Of course, sometimes these subcultures can also express themselves in exclusionary and toxic ways, especially in “gatekeeping” activities such as hazing or quizzing newcomers. Horror films (in all their various subgenres), for instance, have sparked innumerable clubs, meetups, and online groups, with fans dressing up as their favorite characters, reviewing the latest movies, or even producing fanfiction films.
The Horror Crowd (2020)
Comedy
We begin examining specific genres by discussing one of the most popular, general, and complicated genres—comedy.[5]
Eric Trumbull defines comedy simply as “a way of looking at the world in which basic values are asserted but natural laws suspended — to underscore human follies and foolishness — sometimes wry, rueful, hilarious.” He further maintains that comedy often involves a “suspension of natural laws, a contrast between social order and individual,” or an “incongruous” premise.
Many people like comedies because laughing makes them feel good. Some people like to watch a comedy after a bad day because once the movie has ended they can deal with the negativity of the day easier. This is why even horrendous comedy movies can end up making a profit.
The characters and story for a comedy hinge on three main areas: the unexpected, the unusual, and repetition. These three areas will generally make people laugh. Generally, a comedy will have a happy ending. Even though some people will deny it, most people like a happy ending because it makes them feel good. This is one reason why comedies are so popular.
The complicated part of the comedy genre is that there are many subgenres. We will discuss the comedy genre in terms of some of the different subgenres and how the characters and story vary.
Comedies run a gamut, ranging from very physical and nonsensical to subtle or dark. The broad subgenres of comedy include slapstick, farce, satire, and dark. The many other subgenres are usually variation of these four types.
Slapstick Comedy
Slapstick comedy places exaggerated, sometimes violent, physicality at the core of its humor. Because of its physical action, which becomes extreme at times, slapstick often uses unrealistic characters in an unbelievable story or possibly a story linked together by episodes of the main character’s/protagonist’s life.
The plot is an inner conflict that builds and ends with these various comedic episodes. The setting can be any time or place that best exemplifies the comic antics that the characters go through.
Let’s take a look at a clip that demonstrates these elements.
Battle of the Century (1927)
From this example, you can see that slapstick comedy is all about the characters and the episodic situations that they get into, resulting in physical comedy. We laugh at the escalating pie battle even though in real life we would most likely show empathy to a delivery person who slipped and fell.
Farce
M.H. Abrams defines farce as comedy that “employs highly exaggerated or caricatured types of characters, puts them into improbable and ludicrous situations, and often makes free use of sexual mix-ups, broad verbal humor, and physical bustle and horseplay” (58).
Plot has more prominence in farce than in slapstick because there is a satirical story. In other words, the story concerns a topic that is ridiculed in an extreme way.
Some Like It Hot (1959)
You can see that a farce has more of a story than slapstick comedy. The plot has a clear conflict in which the protagonist, Jerry, who along with a friend has disguised himself as a woman to avoid the mob, wants get to know Sugar better. This leads to an outrageous scene in which Jerry’s desires are thwarted in an exaggerated way. The characters use slapstick at times, but they also use verbal wit based on the ludicrous situation of having to hide their true identities.
Screwball Comedy
Named after a baseball pitch, the screwball comedy is a subgenre of the romantic comedy. In the 1930s and 1940s, screwball comedies often merged a battle-of-the-sexes storyline with observations about social class. They also tended to rely on swift, witty dialogue and elements of mistaken identity.
Bringing Up Baby (1938)
Contemporary screwball-type comedy is also fast paced and employs eccentric characters, but they tend to not to rely on euphemism as much as those during the Production Code era (see Chapter 16) and are much more blunt. They also veer toward more realistic situations than do films from the classic period.
Something Wild (1986)
Satire
Satire, defined by Abrams as “diminishing or derogating a subject by making it ridiculous and evoking toward it attitudes of amusement, contempt, scorn, or indignation,” is another major comedic subgenre (352).
Satire can sometimes be subtler than farce or slapstick in the actions of the characters. The plot develops an inner conflict, but the story is more realistic and may, at times, not even appear to be a comedy. It can, however, lean toward farce as in the following example:
Spaceballs (1987)
The story ridicules science fiction and fantasy films as well as the home video market. The characters use slapstick at times, but they also use verbal wit based on the ludicrous situation of watching themselves in the movie they are creating.
A more nuanced use of satire appears in The Lobster (2015):
The Lobster
This film uses an absurd situation–that a person who fails to find a partner will turn into an animal–to satirize dating culture, social expectations surrounding marriage, and the concomitant anxiety experienced by many people struggling to find a long-term relationship.
The line of demarcation between farce and satire is, as with anything that is analytical, left up to an individual’s judgment. When does extreme satire become farce? A good way to judge farce or satire is how much unrealistic physical comedy is in the movie.
Dark Comedy, Gallows Humor, or Black Comedy
Abrams describes dark comedy (also known as gallows humor or black comedy) as consisting of situations wherein “baleful, naïve, or inept characters in a fantastic or nightmarish modern world play out their roles in what Ionesco called a ‘tragic farce,’ in which the events are often simultaneously comic, horrifying, and absurd” (2).
Dark humor will make fun of or ridicule taboo or sad topics such as death, failure, and chronic illness. The characters are involved in a story that might go to the point of being grotesque and not being truly funny.
In the midst of the Cold War, for example, Dr. Strangelove (1964) used dark humor to speak to fears of nuclear annihilation.
Dr. Strangelove
Despite the very real possibility of nuclear attack, the film plays the situation for laughs.
Here’s a scene that uses cannibalism as the basis of its humor.
Eating Raoul (1982)
This is a dark humor movie rather than a serious one because of the reasons, background, and extreme actions in the story. The characters act realistically based on their personalities, which are all unusual. The physical action is real so this scenario cannot be considered slapstick.
Romantic Comedy
Chayan Acharya explains that in romantic comedy, “the narrative often hinges around the central couple, who initially are antagonistic towards each other, but who come to recognize their inescapable compatibility in the face of great adversity and, often, mutual loathing. Their incompatibility may arise from social status, wealth, conflicting lifestyles and attitudes, or even purely their differing expectations of relationships. The warring couple clearly involves issues regarding gender” (13-14).
When Harry Met Sally (1989)
Historically, romantic comedies focused on white, heterosexual couples, and they usually ended in marriage. Recent examples, though, have explored previously marginalized stories involving people of color and the LGBTQ+ community. Some recent romantic comedies have also subverted the classic marriage plot and celebrated their protagonists’ decision to remain single.
Saving Face (2004)
Crime
Every aspect of the crime genre is dramatic, so the elements are quite different than a comedy. The setting for crime genre can be any location in the world and any year, because crime is something that has always existed in society.
Stories in the crime genre are frequently about people seeking wealth and power. Often, the criminals want control over the city where the story takes place. They may want to be in charge of an illicit drug trade, for example, or they want to rise up in the family or gang. There are always periods of violent action with the protagonist trying to reach his/her goal. Other crime films may focus on a “heist,” while still others examine petty crime. Depending on the film, audiences may be invited to identify either with the criminals or with the police trying to stop them. Some crime films will highlight their ethical ambiguity by comparing the immorality of the criminals with the corruption of those trying to catch them. In the Production Code era, the “bad guy” could never get away with the crime, but from the late 1950s onward, crime sometimes pays.
The Godfather (1972)
Drugstore Cowboy (1989)
Western
Westerns were one of the earliest and most popular film genres. Typically, they are set on the Western frontier, either in a small town or in transit. Classic Westerns were set in the late 1800s or early 1900s, but revisionist Westerns sometimes take place in the present. Archetypal Westerns tended to exemplify a normative moral code through characters clearly identified with “good” and “evil,” but as with recent crime films neo-Westerns will frequently muddle this binary with characters who exhibit traits of both good and evil. Early Westerns often employed problematic representations of indigenous and female characters, a phenomenon that recent films have sought to investigate.
My Darling Clementine (1946)
The Revenant (2015)
War
As with Westerns, war films initially offered a simple “good versus evil” paradigm, but many directors quickly subverted that basic plot. Similarly, while many war films follow the travails of a soldier or group of soldiers, others examine the effects of war on the civilian population. Some war films focus on individual or collective heroism, but many underscore brutality and pointlessness. Directors often use war films to promote an ideological perspective, whether with respect to the past or the present (even if the war depicted is historical.)
All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
Da 5 Bloods (2020)
Spy
The spy genre sounds like it could cross over to the previous genres already discussed. The setting could be the same as the war, Western, or crime genres, but it does not make it a war, Western, or crime genre. We have to remember that the story makes the genre because it controls everything else.
In the spy genre, the main character generally works under an assumed identity in order to find something or destroy something of harm controlled by a nemesis. Typically, spy films will use complicated plots with lots of twists (including double agents) and suspense as the protagonist faces obstacles on the way to achieving the mission. Whether the protagonist or the antagonist, characters in spy films will usually possess skills in a variety of areas, including combat, technology, linguistics, and politics. While a spy film might have a mundane setting, more frequently they use exotic international locations.
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965)
The Bourne Supremacy (2004)
Science Fiction
Science fiction usually involves an otherworldly location, although some science fiction will use a recognizable setting that contains a few key differences in technology, physical ability (e.g., evolved human capacities), or other significant areas. Quite often, science fiction takes place in the future, but films might be set in the past, present, or all three possibilities at once. Science fiction may test the limits of plausibility with concepts such as time travel, faster-than-light vehicles, sentient artificial intelligence, parallel universes, and more, but many films will ground their ideas in theoretical physics and speculative nonfiction. Most science fiction films will devote extreme care to worldbuilding.
Science fiction films will often comment on problems in current society even if the setting is a fictional planet from the year 3030. Writers will frequently use either a utopian or dystopian setting to show how a potential solution to the issue might make the world better or worse.
Science fiction genre, like any genre, can cross over at some point or points to another genre. This famous example crossed over to the crime genre, for instance.
Blade Runner (1982)
Sunshine (2007)
Fantasy
The fantasy genre explores imaginative realms that often, as with science fiction, push beyond the boundaries of the possible. Unlike science fiction, though, the worlds in most fantasy realms aren’t limited by speculative technology and frequently involve magical (or seemingly magical) powers and mythical or supernatural creatures. Fantasy films often incorporate elements from medieval folklore and frequently involve heroic quests that pit good versus evil. As with science fiction, fantasy films tend to involve elaborate worldbuilding, but unlike science fiction fantasy realms don’t always attempt to explain their concepts (a dragon or an elf simply exists.) Some fantasy films are set in a recognizable–or somewhat recognizable–setting, save for some characters, places, and objects possessing extraordinary traits. While some might categorize superhero films as their own genre, others would identify them as a subgenre of fantasy.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001)
A Writer’s Odyssey (2021)
Horror
Similar to dark comedy, horror films incorporate elements generally perceived as negative, including psychological terror, violence, and gore. Unlike dark comedy, though, horror films usually want to make their audience feel scared, not cynical. Characters might be deformed creatures or vicious demons, but they can also be the person next door. Setting is usually instrumental in a horror movie. Whether the film takes place in an abandoned gothic mansion, a backwoods cabin, or a forgotten warehouse, an isolated setting is typical for the horror genre.
Given their large number of subgenres, horror films will vary widely in their use of graphic violence, with some movies relying far more on psychological terror than on physical savagery and others nearly drowning in blood and viscera.
Psycho (1960)
Get Out (2017)
Action, Thriller, Suspense Thriller, Biography, Film Noir, Neo-Noir, and Mystery
Action, thriller, suspense-thriller, biography, film noir, neo noir, and mystery are terms that are often referred to as different genres. However, none of these are genres. They do not contain just the four basic elements of a genre—no matter how much people insist that they do. They contain the genre elements and other elements, like cinematography, that are not part of a genre.
Writers, educators, critics, historians, and others have stated that the above terms developed into being named a genre and that they can be accepted as a genre over time. How many of you heard or read the terms action genre, film noir genre, or suspense thriller genre? Just because they have been referred to by these terms, over the years, does not make them honorary genres. These terms, by themselves, still have the same meaning even if they have been named genres.
Most of these terms refer to specific cinematography when shooting the movie, or they refer to the way the movie was edited.
Action, thrillers, and suspense thrillers all have similar types of action in them. Adventure, spy, crime, war, and Westerns could all be action movies or thrillers or suspense thrillers. Action, thrillers, and suspense thrillers do not touch upon the four elements that make up a genre.
Film noir and neo-noir are predominantly crime movies that have certain cinematography. They overlap both in the construction and production aspects of making a movie.
Film noir means “black film.” Film noir has many scenes occurring at night with many gritty, seedy city shots. The character types in film noir are loners and schemers, but they are reflective of the types of characters in crime movies.
Detour (1945) is a good example of film noir. The anti-hero characters, the voice-over narration, the chiaroscuro style, and bleak plot all align with film noir. The traits, though, do not determine the genre. The jaded characters, story, and plot of murder defines the movie as a member of the crime genre. The use of shadows and voice-over narration are elements of directorial style. These decisions are characteristics that distinguish it as film noir.
Detour
Neo-noir is the new noir for the later 20th and 21st centuries when most movies are made in color. The genres could be crime, science fiction, or drama but the cinematography is dark, gritty, and symbolic, similar in many respects to film noir.
Mystery refers to the way the story is shaped. Most mysteries are concerned with who stole something or who murdered someone. Most mysteries belong to the crime genre where the story and the editing keep the audience guessing until the final minutes of the movie.
Biography refers to a nonfiction movie that is about a historical or living person. The background, character, and setting of the movie may determine what other genre a biography might belong to. If the person is a war hero, the movie would be of the war genre; if the person was a criminal or detective, the movie would fit the crime genre, and so forth.
Final Thought
We covered a lot of area in discussing different genres. Even though genres are only considered labels for movies, the four elements of a genre are the basis of any movie. Besides categorizing, genres indirectly shape the movie’s characters and story.
Character, story, plot, and setting are how a movie is constructed. From this construction, the specific theme that is created by the screenwriter and the director can be realized and understood by the viewer.
The other chapters in the construction of a movie go into more detail and dissect these elements in order for a better understanding of the scope of these elements and how the theme of the movie is realized.[6]
A note about sources
- https://milnepublishing.geneseo.edu/exploring-movie-construction-and-production/chapter/2-what-is-genre-and-how-is-it-determined/ ↵
- https://milnepublishing.geneseo.edu/exploring-movie-construction-and-production/chapter/2-what-is-genre-and-how-is-it-determined/ ↵
- https://ohiostate.pressbooks.pub/introfilm/chapter/types-of-films-film-genres/ ↵
- https://ohiostate.pressbooks.pub/introfilm/chapter/types-of-films-film-genres/ ↵
- https://milnepublishing.geneseo.edu/exploring-movie-construction-and-production/chapter/2-what-is-genre-and-how-is-it-determined/ ↵
- https://milnepublishing.geneseo.edu/exploring-movie-construction-and-production/chapter/2-what-is-genre-and-how-is-it-determined/ ↵