Today, we are going to be concentrating on the genre of film.
Genre:
for example, horror, western, comedy, action, thriller, etc.
In the 30s, people identified genre. Nowadays, a film is marketed by what genre it is, lines you will recognize are things like, "The Most TERRIFYING/funny/romantic/explosive/realistic thing you will ever see...." etc. Hollywood responds to the box office hits that audiences make. "Dancing with Wolves and "Brokeback Mountain" saw the return of the Western (slightly.) There is a Western coming out with Christian Bail in it very soon. And also, have you noticed how many "Superhero" movies there have suddenly come out? The list is endless. "Superhero" movies are a good chance for franchise and are very stunning with the use of CGI (now used all of the time.)
Iconography
If you saw a Western that did not include say, cowboy hats, revolvers, massive shoot 'em ups, desert landscapes and horses, wouldn't you feel a little cheated? These are examples of the iconography that goes with films like spandex suits and super heros. Iconography can depict a genre just from a still image. A desert landscape with Clint Eastwood in a big hat with a horse is going to make the film a hypothetical Western. "Film Noir"'s iconography includes high contrast lighting, cigarette smoke, police detectives in hats and guns. But that's not to say that genres stay the same.
Social Context
It is the social context that reflects in the films that we see. The film tells us about the world we live in and the time it was made and the opinions of the people who live at the time it was made. "Dancing with Wolves" is a good example. The 80s brought around the heroism in American men and the victim persona of Native Indians. All films not only refer to the time they were made, but also previous films. A seriously good example of this is "Nosferatu (1922 F.W. Murnau)" Watch a vampire that came after 'Nosferatu' and you will see a vampire/ghoul/character rise out of a coffin like they would on a plank. This is a reference to Murnau's film 'Nosferatu'.
A war film that was made at the time of the Vietnam war about the Vietnam war was "The Green Berets (1968)". The ending turns the liberal stock character into a pro-war soldier. The Americans are seen as a holy and heroic unit. John Wayne's character as the chief is a tough but fair persona. It is also about the Americans doing what is right to save Vietnam from the sadistic and purely evil Vietcong. It is absolute evil vs absolute good.
However, if you look at the film "Platoon (Oliver Stone 1986)" you will find a very different ending. INstead of the Americans working together to save orphaned children, they kill each other and cowardly stab themselves in the leg so as they are not perceived as cowardly. The whole film deals with racism in the American army and the bad commandment and bad morale. This is a revisionary film in that the views of the Vietnamese war had dramatically changed since 1968. However, "Platoon" ends with a narration about the loyalty and bravery of the casual grunt. This is more uplifting and more like "The Green Berets" than if Oliver Stone had carried on with the disturbia he had created in the film.
Hybrid Genres Movies
Aliens - a horror/sci-fi film.
Aliens was fresh as it combined the genres together making it more open to horror and sci-fi fans alone. In the present day, most films are revisionist and hybrid, unlike the old days (apparently.)
Crime Films
/ Police Procedure / Gangster / Detective /
These are the sub genres of the notorious "Crime" films. But how do they differentiate from age to age of the film industry. In both "Scarface, Howard Hawkes (1932)" and "The Untouchables, Brian de Palma (1986)" both deal with the Chicago gang-lord Al Capone.
The way they deal with females though is very different. In the scene were Scarface is given a Tommy gun for the first time, he goes wild killing many people with it in drive bys. But it is the female character (Femme Fatale) who
- Hands him the gun
- Smiles when he shoots the wall to bits
- Who tries to be part of the gang and more manly
in "The Untouchables" the female
- Is seen in the kitchen
- With a huge smile
- Wearing a dress
- Looking up to the man of the house
They are very different. "The Untouchables" has a far more cliche outlook on women, but handing Scarface a gun is like handing him candy.
Al Capone's power is displayed brilliantly in the first scene. Even though he is lying down and all the reporters around him are standing up he is the powerful one. The cinematography shoots him from above so on the screen, he is looking down at everyone, secondly, the shot is a Close Up. People all around him are cleaning his nails, his shoes and his face. Everybody goes silent when his barber accidently cuts his face and then laughs when he makes a slight joke.
Kevin Kosner's character has no power compared to Al Capone (Robert DeNiro) because, even though he is dealing with the same reporters, they mock him and blind him with flash lights.
That's all on that for today.
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