Apart from the give away title - how else, from the trailer, do we know that it is a science fiction movie?
Here's a short list of the most popular things that you will have noticed that told you the film is Science Fiction...
- The setting - it's in space!
- Other settings - strange planets, futuristic cities
- Technological advances - spaceships
- Weapons
- Clear heroes and villains
- Epic musical score
- Robots
- Aliens!
- Battles and the theme of (intergalactic) conflict
- The use of magic or powers not recognisable to humans
- Unearthly costumes
- Strange, involved dialogue
Look at the next two slides and you'll see that most of the conventions above fall into the category of Mise-en-scene. Read them again. Which ones can be considered as part of the mise-en-scene?
Now watch the trailer for the 1980s remake of the classic gangster film Scarface. Look specifically for elements of the mise-en-scene that can be considered as typical of the gangster movie...
You should be able to group the different elements into the following sub-categories.
- Costume
- Setting(s)
- Props
before we move on - how about the big question...
Why is Genre important?
As you would expect this question is far from simple and can be considered from various different points of view:
Genre is important for...
Filmmakers
- Can make decisions based on other films of the same genre
- Make sure that an audiences expectations are fulfilled
- Can purposefully challenge an audiences expectations
Audiences
- Make decision on what films to see based on other films in a genre
- Anticipate what will happen in a film - feel rewarded by this
- Try something new with an unfamiliar genre
Film Industry/Studios
- Plan for films that are popular at that point in time
- Keep sets and props that can be reused for films of the same genre - saving time and money
- Build relationships with stars and directors that work within specific genres
- Become known and trusted as being synonymous with a specific genre
Film & Media Students
- Group films together to distinguish certain unifying characteristics
- To see how particular directors are distinct from each other when working within the confines of a specific genre
- To analyse the appeals of various movies
- To trace the artistic and institutional evolution of the film industry
The last two points on that slide are absolutely key to our study of genre and should be remembered every time you consider an analysis of any film based on its genre.
Not only is the understanding of genre dependent on an audiences expectations of conventions - but their pleasure also.
Genre is one of the great appeals of the cinema - whether that is because a text meets an audiences expectations or breaks their expectations - for different audiences either one of these can be considered a pleasure of the cinema.
We also have to realise that Genres offer directors a lot of opportunities to give us a lot of information in a short space of screen time - because we come to a genre movie armed with knowledge and expectations based on our previous experiences.
For example, how much can we know about this Western film based on the things we see and our pre-existing knowledge of westerns...
Whether we are a fan of the Western genre or not, there are certain elements that seep into our consciousness from films that we have seen over the years.
Whilst many of the conventions you have probably spotted in The Searchers were from the mise-en-scene there were probably other elements that seemed appropriate such as the use of very wide shots to establish the dessert setting and specific character types that tend to crop up time and time again in these films.
Of course there are some elements in this sequence which we would always associate with the Western genre - these are what we call the Iconography of the genre.
Whenever you are analysing the genre of a movie you should use the list below to ensure that you have covered the appropriate range of conventions...
There are many reasons why the Western is a useful example for us to use as a case study, one of which is the fact that their decline means that you are less likely to be aware of very many and in that respect you should be more objective in your analysis.
That said a brief history of the genre will help you to identify various characteristics and trace certain advances in style and themes of the genre as time goes on.
The next clip is from the classic Western High Noon (1952), whilst watching this film look out for all of the generic conventions based on the characteristics outlined earlier - including the Iconography - of which there is loads!
You should also be looking at the themes of this film that emerge through the trailer - what is this film actually about underneath its story?
High Noon is a ‘classic’ western about archetypal Sheriff Kane (played by archetypal Western Actor Gary Cooper), fighting the good fight, doing what: ‘a man’s gotta do...’.
What themes did you spot?
And what Iconograpy?
This classic phase of the Western continued throughout the 1950s but as the period known as the Classical Hollywood Cinema came to an end in the early 1960s the Western also changed...
You should also be looking at the themes of this film that emerge through the trailer - what is this film actually about underneath its story?
High Noon is a ‘classic’ western about archetypal Sheriff Kane (played by archetypal Western Actor Gary Cooper), fighting the good fight, doing what: ‘a man’s gotta do...’.
What themes did you spot?
And what Iconograpy?
This classic phase of the Western continued throughout the 1950s but as the period known as the Classical Hollywood Cinema came to an end in the early 1960s the Western also changed...
Let's see what differences this made - first of all, make notes on the Sam Peckinpah movie 'The Wild Bunch' - the interesting thing about this movie is that it keeps much of the iconography of the classic western but is more explicit in its representations of violence...
Made at about the same time was Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West. This particular scene is worth watching to analyse the representation and differences between men and women.
The western has always been a genre dominated by men - but by analysing every aspect of this scene you will see that it is not only in the actions of the characters but also told to us quite distinctly by the decisions made by the director...
And then in the mid to late 1970s and throughout the 1980s the Western that had once been a staple of saturday morning television and a permanent fixture at the cinema all but disappeared.
Other genres filled the auditoriums, Disaster Movies, Science-Fiction, High Octane action films - but no room for the genre that started it all.
Clint Eastwood may have been making other films during this time, but he never forgot his roots - and he returned the Western to our screens in the early 1990s with the multi-award winning and criticallly acclaimed Unforgiven.
Although this Western was different still from the Classics of the 1950s or the Spaghetti Western that he had appeared in as The Man With No Name.
Unforgiven was a Revisionist Western - a film self conscious of its roots and a film which maybe seeks to question the ancestory of the genre and dare we suggest, right some of the wrongs of a genre which has retrospectively been attacked for its less than veiled racism and its overt sexism.
Here are some of the conventions of a Revisionist Western - the 90s sub-genre that Eastwood kick started with Unforgiven...
And here is the trailer so that you can make notes on exactly where these elements appear in the film and how these ideas manifest themselves...
So after another inevitable decline of the Western it's worth looking at some of other developments including some more recent evolutions in this immortal genre...
Just like Unforgiven, Brokeback has much of the iconography particularly in the setting of the film - it even continues some of the classic themes of the Western - a man's determination to fight for what's right. Facing adversity. Solidarity between men and even the burden and isolation of suffering in silence. All these elements are here, but obviously central to the film is a relationship that would never have been considered possible in the genre's classic era. In a genre so conservative in its history, this liberal adaptation turns the Western on its head!
