The Genre Film

The idea of Genre in film is one that is shifting and not well defined. Certainly, when considering what makes a ‘Genre Film’, it may seem at first particularly easy to focus on certain stylistic or iconographic aspects of the film, but a closer inspection reveals certain problems with this means of analysing film. For Andre Bazin the Genre film centres around the idea of ‘the myth’, and in describing the Western as the ‘American Film par Excellence’, he focused on the universal, the popular notion of good versus evil (Hutchings, 1995, p62). Furthermore, Bazin focused on the changing nature of the Westen Genre, noting a 30s classical perfection that then led to Baroquish tendenceies, thus highlighting the important aspect of genre theory, that in terms of the time in which it was produced, the important aspect is not the production process, but rather what the Western is saying about society itself in that period (Hutchings, 1995 p62). Warshow also posits a similar line, that the most important aspect of a ‘Genre Film’ is its cultural and historical specificity (Hutchings, 1995, p63). However, more recent writing on the notion of Genre (Grant 2006 p4-10) has placed a little more emphasis on the conventions (such as the mise-en-scene or narrative flashbacks), setting (i.e. space being a sci-fi), and iconography (pinstripe suits and hats in the gangster film), in defining genre (Grant, 2006, p10-12).  Significantly, this structuralist view of film focuses on how these certain feautres produce meaning in the film on the part of the audience, who expect to see certain aspects of a genre film as part of their cultural consensus.

If the definition of the Genre is based around the audiences expectations rather than the cultural and historical specificity of the film, then it is necessary for us as critics to try to understand where this consensus on genre conventions come from. How did we know that the bad guy in a Western always dressed in black, or that the pinstripe suit was the uniform of the Italian-American wise-guy gangster? Received knowledge of film from media outlets, discussion, study and word of mouth surely plays a part for the modern day viewer, as well as the fact that nowadays, the viewer would feel that a Genre film had broken the “implicit contract” (Grant, 2006, p21), that we expect of a film were these aspects not there.  Certainly with Genre films such as the Gangster film or the Sci-fi film a huge part of the draw of the film is the satisfaction in the production and recognition of these genre conventions. However, returning to the problem of definition, Genre theory, would again struggle to identify how these expectations have developed. Perhaps then it is necessary to return to the idea of ‘the myth’ in film being the key aspect of genre, as asserted by Bazin. Certainly, we can see the idea of good versus evil as key to Westerns, however, the problem here is two-fold, firstly that this idea is too general to be considered relevant to the Western genre (since this idea of good versus evil can be seen in sci-fi epics e.g Star Wars), and that the idea of who the good guy and the bad guy is doesn’t always translate culturally.

In terms of Genre theory, I think that it is easier to say which film belongs to a Genre, rather than to define the Genre itself. Certainly the nature of the Genre shifts and is subject to cultural and societal influences, but I think on a personal level, the idea of genre is more useful in providing a shorthand for describing a film to other potential viewers than it is for providing any real critique. Furthermore, the nature of Genre in terms of film, as well as other art forms such as music, is ever changing, and more and more I believe to driven by the commercial pressures of marketing and finance. Films such as The Expendables easily fit into the ‘Big budget action’, and ‘The Avengers Assemble” fit into superhero films, and ‘Paranormal Activity’ into the horror genre often because Marketing executives promote them as such. In fact, even when considering films such as ‘Let the Right One In’, we may reflect on how marketing and commercial interests strip down the original genre fluidity of the film into a more palpably ‘Horror’ film, in order for the average horror film goer to quickly engage with the piece. Furthermore, when films are deemed to be 'genre busting', quickly we will see radio and newspaper coverage positing the creation of a new 'genre', often made up as a hybrid of two existing ‘genres’, in order to communicate effectively what you are going to spend your money on. While this is a commercial driven critique of genre theory in film, that is not to say that the audience does not participate in this. Certainly, if the potential viewer had no idea what a horror film was, it is unlikely that the description will produce any reaction at all. In this sense, the marketeers of film rely on the viewers own personal experience of film.The audience watches a film, is then being told it is a horror through media outlets, which solidifies and simplifies the viewer’s own perception of the film. This is then played on in the marketing of new films in that ‘genre’ thus creating reinforcement of the genre construct and a film classification feedback loop.

References

Peter Hutchings 'Genre Theory and Criticism' in Joanne Hallows and Mark Jancovich, eds., Approaches to Popular Film (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1995)

Barry Keith Grant, Film Genre: From Iconography to Ideology, (London: Wallflower, 2006)