The Elements of Film Genre

Genres identify group, social, or community activity and seem opposed to the individual creativity we associate with many art forms, including the art film. Our recognition of genre formulas and conventions allows us to understand genres as part of a historical evolution and a cultural community.

Generic conventions identify a genre through such features as character types, settings, props, or events that are repeated from film to film. For example, we expect a western genre film to take place in the American Southwest, have cowboys and sheriffs as characters, and be filled with plenty of guns and horses.

Reoccurring images and image patterns such as the dark alleys and smoky bars of film noir are referred to as iconography – images or image patterns with specific connotations or meanings. Certain conventions and icons can acquire larger meanings and become archetypes—spiritual, psychological, or cultural models expressing certain virtues, values, or timeless realities.

Generic formulas determine how generic conventions are organized throughout a plot. In some cases, these generic formulas can also become associated with myths—spiritual and cultural stories that describe a defining action or event for a group of people or an entire community.

Audience expectations describe a viewer’s experience and knowledge while watching a film that help to anticipate the meaning of particular conventions or the direction of certain narrative formulas. These expectations are guided by promotional practices, prior experience with film genres, and by the details of the film itself.

Genres are a product of a perspective that groups movies together, but these groupings can be constructed in many ways. Hybrid genres and subgenres help us better understand the multiple combinations and subdivisions of genres. Hybrid genres are those created through the interaction and fusion of different genres, such as romantic comedies or musical horror films. Subgenres are specific versions of a genre denoted by an adjective, for example, the spaghetti western (produced in Italy) or the slapstick comedy.

The six central film genres include:

  1. Comedies, which celebrate the harmony and resiliency of social life.
  2. Westerns, which feature lone protagonists (usually men) on some sort of quest into the natural world.
  3. Melodramas, which develop a conflict between the interior emotions of a character and his or her external restrictions.
  4. Musicals, where song and dance are the vehicles for expressing emotions.
  5. Horror films, which are about fear – physical fear, psychological fear, sexual fear, or social fear.
  6. Crime films, where deviance is the barometer of the state of society.