Film Genre Theory: The Idea of Genre in the American Cinema

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Table of Contents

Difficulties in Theoretical Understanding of Genres
Common Genre System
The Genre of Crime in the Film Industry
Conclusion
References

Movie genres are historically established conditional categories of intraspecific differentiation of films in cinematography. They are distinguished based on the comparison in terms of plots, themes, scenery, and the use of certain types, images, and characters. It is impossible to clearly define the genre of cinema as it does not have clear boundaries. Moreover, genres usually complement each other, thus constantly creating new ones. In addition, as well as being connected, genres can be divided into numerous subgenres. Therefore, one film cannot be attributed to any particular genre since it combines parts of different ones. However, many genre films use visual tropes, so-called generic visual references, that are easy to identify, such as violence in action movies or space battles in science fiction. At the same time, there are more subtle tropes, which may or may not be deliberately used to make a genre film feel fresh or different from other films of the same type, that is, able to combine features from other genres.

That happens, for example, in the film Goodfellas, since the film belongs to several genres at once, which will be discussed further. “As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster,” Henry Hill says in the opening scene, as his friends Jimmy and Tommy finish off the wounded man in the trunk (Scorsese, 1990). After that, the spiral of time will return to 1955, when Brooklyn teenager parks the cars of the Goodfellas and continuously turn back – through robberies, murders, weddings, infidelities, and imprisonment. Further in the paper, the mixing of genres in the film industry and specifically in the film Goodfellas will be analyzed in more detail.

Difficulties in Theoretical Understanding of Genres

There is usually a tendency to tie this classification not to any feature but to a grid of invariance with as many elements as possible, namely, a structural pattern. It ultimately makes films of a particular genre a variation of the way (Buscombe, 2021). Even though some films are in different genres and may even belong to three or four genres, most can be divided into categories easily recognizable to viewers. It is crucial because cinema is also a business, in addition to the artistic side. This type of interest extends to individual actors or directors as well. Usually, audiences associated specific genres with actors: John Wayne and Ranfold Scott with westerns, James Cagney and Edward G. Robinson with gangster films. However, some theorists even argue about the existence of genres, believing that the categories are too confusing to the point that definitions are at best fluid and meaningless

Common Genre System

Thus, feature films have no generally accepted genre classification; different genres can be found in various film criticism sources. Therefore, it is possible to talk about the following system of feature film genres with a certain degree of conventionality (Buscombe, 2021). However, this system is the most widespread and practically generally accepted. It allows determining the general theme of the cinema, which corresponds to one or another feature of a particular genre.

Most often, films that belong to the action genre do not prioritize a complex plot. As a rule, it is based on the story of the protagonist, who fights evil in its various manifestations. Popular themes of this genre are crime, terrorism, corruption, and, of course, murder. As a result of the absence of an alternative hero, the hero of the picture also resorts to violence (Kundalia et al., 2019). At the end of the film, the eradication of evil is accepted. It can be inextricably linked with the following widespread genre of cinema. In drama, the specifics are the plot, the conflict of action, and the abundance of dialogues and monologues. Dramatic films focus on a person’s conflict with something entirely accurate, for example, a battle with society. Usually, the theme is universal human relations and their contradictions.

Thriller is a particular type of adventure film that evokes active empathy and strong emotions in the audience with special techniques. The emphasis on external actions (chases, fights) is shifted to the psychological experiences of the characters associated with the crime (Kundalia et al., 2019). In a thriller, the story is told from the point of view of the victim or the perpetrator. It is a genre where suspense is the main point, the basis of the motion picture. Suspense is the moment the audience’s involvement in the film is almost complete (Kundalia et al., 2019). That occurs, for example, occurs when danger threatens a character that the audience empathizes with. Thus, the thriller contains suspense, the reaction of the audience to what happens in the film.

The Genre of Crime in the Film Industry

Crime films, in the broadest sense, are a genre of films inspired by and similar to the literary genre of crime fiction. Films in this genre usually deal with various aspects of crime and its solution. Stylistically, a genre of cinema, as mentioned above, can merge with other types and fall into sub-genres within its field. Even seemingly incompatible genres like comedy and drama can come together in one gangster movie. At the same time, the theme of a crime film with the features of a detective or suspense may remain the main.

Many screenwriters and scholars argue that all feature films can be classified into super genres, the most common and frequently produced. The other ten super genres are Action, Fantasy, Horror, Romance, Sci-Fi, Slice of Life, Sports, Thriller, War, and Western (Kundalia et al., 2019). Some of them are grouped under the larger group called film type, and film noir as the writer’s path, explaining that these categories are complementary, not exclusive.

Crime films are often based on actual actions, variations from literature, or a remake or adoption of an earlier movie. Some of the stories are original and entirely made up. For example, the film adaptation of the novel by Nicholas Pileggi, Wiseguy, presented the crime drama with elements of the black comedy of 1990 Goodfellas. As mentioned earlier, the proposed film is a collective genre with several main directions. Film critics define it not only as a crime picture but also as a thriller, suspense, drama, detective, and action movie.

A young guy from childhood dreamed of becoming part of a gangster group. Over time, he became a gangster, but one has to pay for everything in life. The director bases his practice on suspense; the film is also based on a true story. Scorsese spoke about the mafia as a huge family, where in the middle of the night, one can come home to mother with friends, and she will feed everyone, and everyone will be happy. It is customary for them to visit each other and, if possible, help financially and in business. That in no way romanticizes the life of a gangster but rather, on the contrary, translates this theme into a drama.

Conclusion

There is a fundamental problem with theoretically portraying or defining film genres. Despite the considerable evidence that such classic Hollywood genres as westerns, musicals, gangster films, and more have, both for theorists and for filmmakers and recipients, all attempts to theoretically work them out satisfactorily, define them logically, and at the same time empirically, ran into significant difficulties. Film theorists have tried – and in some cases continue to do so to this day – to develop genres as categories that meet formal logical criteria, as text classes.

References

Buscombe, E. (2021). The idea of genre in the American Cinema. Film Genre Reader IV, 12–26. Web.

Kundalia, K., Patel, Y., & Shah, M. (2019). Multi-label movie genre detection from a movie poster using Knowledge Transfer Learning.Augmented Human Research, 5(1). Web.

Scorsese, M. (1990). Goodfellas. Warner Bros.

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Film Genre Theory: The Idea of Genre in the American Cinema

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