Film Genre
Genre refers to the method which films are constructed.
By Lenah Tanaka Nyamukapa
Films genres
•Action
•Adventure
•Comedy
•Crime
•Documentary
•Drama
•Family
•Fantasy
•Horror
•Musical
•Mystery
•Romance
•Science Fiction
•Sport
•Thriller
•War
•Western
Action
• Action films usually include high energy, big-budget physical
stunts and chases, possibly with rescues, battles, fights, escapes,
destructive crises (floods, explosions, natural disasters, fires,
etc.), non-stop motion, spectacular rhythm and pacing, and
adventurous, often two-dimensional 'good-guy' heroes (or
recently, heroines) battling 'bad guys' - all designed for pure
audience escapism.
• Examples of this genre includes the James Bond 'fantasy'
spy/espionage series and martial arts films..
• A major sub-genre is the disaster film. See also Greatest Disaster
and Crowd Film Scenes and Greatest Classic Chase Scenes in
Films.
Adventure
• Adventure films are usually exciting stories,
with new experiences or exotic locales, very
similar to or often paired with the action film
genre. They can include traditional
swashbucklers, serialized films, and historical
spectacles (similar to the epics film genre),
searches or expeditions for lost continents,
"jungle" and "desert" epics, treasure hunts,
disaster films, or searches for the unknown.
Comedy
• Comedies are light-hearted plots consistently and
deliberately designed to amuse and provoke laughter
(with one-liners, jokes, etc.) by exaggerating the
situation, the language, action, relationships and
characters. This section describes various forms of
comedy through cinematic history, including slapstick,
screwball, spoofs and parodies, romantic comedies, black
comedy (dark satirical comedy), and more. See this site's
Funniest Film Moments and Scenes collection -
illustrated, and also Premiere Magazine's 50 Greatest
Comedies of All Time.
Crime
• Crime (gangster) films are developed around the
sinister actions of criminals or mobsters,
particularly bankrobbers, underworld figures, or
ruthless hoodlums who operate outside the law,
stealing and murdering their way through life.
Criminal and gangster films are often categorized as
film noir or detective-mystery films - because of
underlying similarities between these cinematic
forms. This category includes a description of
various 'serial killer' films.
Documentary
• is a broad category of moving pictures intended to
document some aspect of reality. A "documentary
film" was originally a movie shot on film stock—the
only medium available—but now includes video and
digital productions that can be either direct-to-video
or made for a television programme. "Documentary"
has been described as a "filmmaking practice, a
cinematic tradition, and mode of audience
reception" that is continually evolving and is without
clear boundaries
Drama
• Dramas are serious, plot-driven presentations,
portraying realistic characters, settings, life situations,
and stories involving intense character development
and interaction. Usually, they are not focused on
special-effects, comedy, or action, Dramatic films are
probably the largest film genre, with many subsets.
See also melodramas, epics (historical dramas), or
romantic genres. Dramatic biographical films (or
"biopics") are a major sub-genre, as are 'adult' films
(with mature subject content).
Family
• A family film is a film genre that is designed to appeal to a variety of age groups
and, thus, families. To attract these diverse audiences, film makers often create
works that operate simultaneously on several levels of appeal.[citation needed]
Comic songs might appeal to younger children, for example, while wittier jokes
and pop culture references attract adults.[citation needed]
• In December 2005, Steven Spielberg's 1982 film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial came
first in a poll of the 100 Greatest Family Films.[1] The genre today generates
billions of dollars per annum.[2]
• Family films generally do not contain content that would be deemed unsuitable
for children. In the United States, such films are usually conceived so as to
guarantee nothing greater than a G or PG rating;[citation needed] however, there
are some exceptions such as Dr. Dolittle, which received a rating of PG-13. This
rating does not distinguish between children's films and family films.
Fantasy
• Fantasy films, usually considered a sub-genre, are
most likely to overlap with the film genres of science
fiction and horror, although they are distinct.
Fantasies take the audience to netherworld places
(or another dimension) where events are unlikely to
occur in real life - they transcend the bounds of
human possibility and physical laws. They often have
an element of magic, myth, wonder, and the
extraordinary. They may appeal to both children and
adults, depending upon the particular film.
Horror
• Horror films are designed to frighten and to invoke our hidden
worst fears, often in a terrifying, shocking finale, while captivating
and entertaining us at the same time in a cathartic experience.
Horror films feature a wide range of styles, from the earliest silent
Nosferatu classic, to today's CGI monsters and deranged humans.
They are often combined with science fiction when the menace or
monster is related to a corruption of technology, or when Earth is
threatened by aliens. The fantasy and supernatural film genres are
not usually synonymous with the horror genre. There are many
sub-genres of horror: slasher, teen terror, serial killers, satanic,
Dracula, Frankenstein, etc. See this site's Scariest Film Moments
and Scenes collection - illustrated.
Musical/Dance
• Musical/dance films are cinematic forms that
emphasize full-scale scores or song and dance
routines in a significant way (usually with a musical
or dance performance integrated as part of the film
narrative), or they are films that are centered on
combinations of music, dance, song or
choreography. Major subgenres include the musical
comedy or the concert film. See this site's Greatest
Musical Song/Dance Movie Moments and Scenes
collection - illustrated.
Mystery
• Detective-mystery films are usually considered a
sub-type or sub-genre of crime/gangster films (or
film noir), or suspense or thriller films that focus on
the unsolved crime (usually the murder or
disappearance of one or more of the characters, or
a theft), and on the central character - the hard-
boiled detective-hero, as he/she meets various
adventures and challenges in the cold and
methodical pursuit of the criminal or the solution to
the crime.
Romance
• A sub-genre for the most part, this category shares
some features with romantic dramas, romantic
comedies, and sexual/erotic films. These are love
stories, or affairs of the heart that center on passion,
emotion, and the romantic, affectionate
involvement of the main characters (usually a
leading man and lady), and the journey that their
love takes through courtship or marriage. Romance
films make the love story the main plot focus. See
Greatest and Most Memorable Film Kisses Scenes.
Science Fiction
• Sci-fi films are often quasi-scientific, visionary and imaginative -
complete with heroes, aliens, distant planets, impossible
quests, improbable settings, fantastic places, great dark and
shadowy villains, futuristic technology, unknown and
unknowable forces, and extraordinary monsters ('things or
creatures from space'), either created by mad scientists or by
nuclear havoc. They are sometimes an offshoot of fantasy films,
or they share some similarities with action/adventure films.
Science fiction often expresses the potential of technology to
destroy humankind and easily overlaps with horror films,
particularly when technology or alien life forms become
malevolent, as in the "Atomic Age" of sci-fi films in the 1950s.
Sport
• Films that have a sports setting (football or
baseball stadium, arena, or the Olympics, etc.),
event (the 'big game,' 'fight,' 'race,' or
'competition'), and/or athlete (boxer, racer, surfer,
etc.) that are central and predominant in the story.
Sports films may be fictional or non-fictional; and
they are a hybrid sub-genre category, although
they are often dramas or comedy films, and
occasionally documentaries or biopics.
Thriller
• Thrillers are often hybrids with other genres - there are
action-thrillers, crime-caper thrillers, western-thrillers,
film-noir thrillers, even romantic comedy-thrillers.
Another closely-related genre is the horror film genre.
Thriller and suspense films are virtually synonymous and
interchangeable categorizations. They are types of films
known to promote intense excitement, suspense, a high
level of anticipation, ultra-heightened expectation,
uncertainty, anxiety, and nerve-wracking tension. The
acclaimed Master of Suspense is Alfred Hitchcock. Spy
films may be considered a type of thriller/suspense film.
War
• War (and anti-war) films acknowledge the horror and
heartbreak of war, letting the actual combat fighting
(against nations or humankind) on land, sea, or in the air
provide the primary plot or background for the action of
the film. War films are often paired with other genres,
such as action, adventure, drama, romance, comedy
(black), suspense, and even epics and westerns, and they
often take a denunciatory approach toward warfare.
They may include POW tales, stories of military
operations, and training. See this site's Greatest War
Movies (in multiple parts).
Western
• Westerns are the major defining genre of the
American film industry - a eulogy to the early
days of the expansive American frontier. They are
one of the oldest, most enduring genres with
very recognizable plots, elements, and characters
(six-guns, horses, dusty towns and trails,
cowboys, Indians, etc.). Over time, westerns have
been re-defined, re-invented and expanded,
dismissed, re-discovered, and spoofed.
