ch 14 - genre films, remakes, sequels

Genre

• plays on audience expectations re-plot structures, characters, setting, etc

• defines product distinction and product differentiation—what the film is (or aspires to be) and what it isn’t

• depends on conventions, (i.e. tropes)

Basic Genre Conventions: The Western

• hero is rugged individualist

• white hat/black hat

• climactic gunfight

Basic Genre Conventions: The Gangster Film

• set in concrete jungle

• hero is brutal, aggressive, lone wolf

• good conquers evil or evil destroys itself

Basic Genre Conventions: Film Noir (black film)

• unique, american crime drama

• marked by mood of pessimism, fatalism, and menace

• femme fatales — danger to gullible men who desire them

Basic Genre Conventions: War Films

• dying and refusing to die are staples

• “Gung ho” glorification vs. “War is hell” message

Basic Genre Conventions: Horror films

• presiding irony is lack of imagination (Anthony Lane)

• John Carpenter opened floodgates for teen, slasher films Wes Craven added self-conscious wit to mayhem

Basic Genre Conventions: Science Fiction and Fantasy Films

• sci-fi can catalog culture’s major anxieties (J.P. Telotte)

• fantasy relies on patterns, motifs, archetypes (A. O. Scott)

Basic Genre Conventions: Screwball Comedies

• sumptuous romantic ideals with farce lurking underneath (Ed Sikov)

• has evolved/disintegrated into raucous ribaldry (eg. Farrelly Bros. and Judd Apatow)

Basic Genre Conventions: Film Musicals

• most complex art form ever devised (Rick Altman)

• sugar coated vs. bitter

Remakes: changes in style (inc. social, lifestyle, pop tastes

• A Star is Born (4 versions)

• The Wizard of Oz vs. The Wiz (afrocentric cast)

• The Karate Kid (1984) vs. The Karate Kid (2010)

Remakes: changes in film technology (color, sound, SFX)

• Ben-Hur (3 versions)

• King Kong

Remakes: changes in censorship

• The Blue Lagoon (1949/1980)

• cape fear (1962/1991)

Remakes: New Paranoias

invasion of the body snatchers (4 versions)

Remakes: The Musical Version

• pygmalion (1938) → my fair lady (1964)

• hairspray (1988) → hairspray (2007)

remakes: change in format (television version)

• in cold blood (1967/1996 TV miniseries)

• the shining (1980/1997 TV miniseries)

remakes: remakes of international films

• the seven samurai → the magnificent seven

• internal affairs → the departed

Sequels: optimal success when following original quickly

• alien (1979) → aliens (1986)

• back to the future trilogy (1985, 1989/1990)

what is usually more profit than creativity?

Sequels

Sequels: can be part of preconceived larger whole

• 3 star wars trilogies (classic, prequel, sequel)

• planet of the apes prequel trilogy (Rise/Dawn/War, 2011-17)