Lesson 06: Film Genre

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Lesson 06 Film Genre
Professor Aaron Baker
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Previous Lecture

• Cinematography
• The Photographic Image
• Lenses
• Framing
• Camera Movement
• The Long Take
• Cinematography in Raging Bull (1980)

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In this Lecture

• Film Genre
• The Gangster Film
• Goodfellas (1990)

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Part I Film Genre
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Genre

• French Term
• A film genre is a certain category of movie.
• Conventions define it.
• Examples include the western, the science fiction
  film, the horror movie, the musical.

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Expectations

• We inevitably anticipate a certain kind of film
  when we watch a movie.
• Films that present the features we expect are
  called genre films.

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Blockbuster Hits

• Some of the top earning films in the
• history of Hollywood are genre films
• Place Title Genre
• Titanic Disaster film
• Lord of the Rings Fantasy
• Star Wars Science fiction

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Entertainment

• Genre films are often seen as entertainment
• Fun
• Escapist
• Formulaic

Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)
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But Less Conventional Films Get More Respect

• Steven Spielbergs genre films made big profits.
• But he didnt win an Oscar for best director
  until he made a serious social drama
  Schindlers List (1993).

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Disrespect

• Genre films not only are often viewed as
  aesthetically inferior, some genres get more
  disrespect than others.

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Serious Drama

• While a social protest film like Erin Brockovich
  has been praised for raising serious issues like
  environmental degradation . . .

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Melodrama

• This genre is often dismissed as insignificant
  because it emphasizes
• Emotional stories about family conflict with
  female protagonists
• Is aimed at female viewers.

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But

• Melodrama can be about important issues of
  family, gender politics.
• And minus issue of environmental contamination,
  Erin Brockovich is a family melodrama with a
  female lead!

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Contemporary Horror Films

• Scare audiences to entertain.
• But some also question family.
• On this issue they are a lot like melodramas and
  social dramas.

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Family Dysfunction

• In Its Alive (1974), a couple gives birth to a
  monster.
• In The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) and The
  Hills Have Eyes (1977), whole families are
  killers.

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Fun and Serious

• So, some genre films are--
• commercial movies with a pleasurable veneer that
  conceal
• social critique, presenting disturbing subject
  matter

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Part II Gangster Films
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Gangster Films

• Guns, Violence, Crime
• Money, Sex
• Rise/Fall of Gangster As Too Egotistical, Greedy,
  Brutal

The Public Enemy (1931)
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Entertainment Appeal

• Enjoy Boldness, Swagger, Charisma of Gangster
• But We Feel Secure When Hes Brought Down

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Muskateers of Pig Alley(1912)

• D. W. Griffith defines gangster film
• Real NY Location
• Real Street Toughs
• Immigrants As Criminal Threat

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Prohibition

• Volstead Act 1920-1933 outlaws alcohol
• Controls immigrant workers
• Less Leisure, More Work
• Bootleggers get rich

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Al Capone

• Born 1899 in Brooklyn
• Chicago in 1919
• 1925 heads Chicago rackets
• 1925-1930 Grossing 100 Million Year From
  Bootlegging and Prostitution
• Known as Scarface for knife scars on cheek

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Canonical Gangster Films

• Little Caesar (1931), Public Enemy (1931),
  Scarface (1932)
• Based on journalistic writings about Capone and
  other gangsters
• Box office hits

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Censorship

• Warner Bros. added disclaimer to Little Caesar,
  Public Enemy not glorifying criminals.
• Scarface director Howard Hawks, and producer
  Howard Hughes forced to add 2 scenes criticizing
  media glorification of gangsters.
• Scarface release delayed 2 years.

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Will Hayes

• Former Chair of Repub. National Committee and
  Postmaster General
• Hired by Hollywood as President of MPAA
• Established Production Code

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Catholic Legion of Decency

• Influenced content of Hollywood films from
  within.
• Avoided mistake of Protestant reformers with
  Prohibition, who tried to legislate social
  change.

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Depression

• Wall Street Crash October,1929
• Millions in U.S. out of work and homeless in
  1930s.
• Widespread disillusionment with American economy.

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1930s Film Gangsters

• From working class hardest hit by Depression
• Ethnic
• Between Cultures

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Gangster Films RenewedFear of Cultural Difference

• 1920s
• Prohibition
• KKK targeted Catholics as well as
  African-Americans
• Anti immigrant acts 1921-1924

Italian immigrant family at Ellis Island
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Immigrants

• Expected to Be Individuals
• Privileged Identity in Capitalist Society
• Give Up Old World Culture
• Reject Identity from Ethnic Group

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Prof. Jonathan Munby

• 30s Gangster Films
• Show Ethnic Resentment at Discrimination
• Reject Idea That Immigrants Must Accept Dominant
  Culture

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Gangster

• Asserts Equality with Higher Classes, Native Born
  Whites
• EntrepreneurBut in Wrong, Criminal Ways!
• Once Rich, No Limits to His Consumption (Booze,
  Cars, Clothes, Sex)

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Will Hayes and MPAA

• Forced studios to control/punish gangsters within
  films.
• All Killed
• Rico in Little Caesar
• Tony in Scarface
• Tommy in Public Enemy

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Bank Robber John Dillinger

• Popular Folk Hero for the Poor
• Killed by police in 1934 at Biograph movie
  theater in Chicago
• 1935 Will Hayes declared moratorium on gangster
  films
• Fear of Dillingers glorification in movies

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Synchronized Sound

• Added Realism (Sound of cars, Guns, Nightclubs)
• Gangsters Spoke in Own Voices
• Urban/Ethnic slang
• Robinson, Cagney, Muni Ethnic Actors

Robinson and Cagney
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Genres Develop/Change Over Time

• Technology. E.g. Synch. Sound Important to
  Gangster Films, Musicals
• Hits Establish Popularity of Certain
  Genres/Cycles
• Change Via Mixing of Conventions
• Individual Films Can Revise, Reject
• Conventions

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Mixing

• Bladerunner (1982)
• Part Sci Fi
• -Set in Future
• -Technology
• Part Detective Story
• -Urban Locale
• -Noir Lighting
• -Violence and Passion

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Prominent Films

• Can Change Genre
• Revise Conventions
• Set a Trend for Other Films

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Robert RayCorrected Genre Films

• Use Expected Genre Conventions
• Also Subtext of Social Critique
• E.gs. The Godfather (1972), The Godfather, Part
  II (1974)
• Genre/Ganster Films entertained by meeting our
  expectations, yet also offered ideas that
  challenged us

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Godfather, Part II

• As a gangster film
• it has the usual
• conventions
• Charismatic Criminals
• Wealth from Crime
• Sex
• Violence

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But along with these genre conventions

• Godfather, Part II also presents a critique of
  capitalism by paralleling the Corleone crime
  family with legitimate business.

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In this scene

• Mafia family head Michael Corleone (Al Pacino)
  attends a meeting in Havana with U.S. corporate
  leaders.
• Please watch a clip from Godfather, Part II.

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Part III Goodfellas
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Goodfellas

• Based on Nicholas Pileggis, Wise Guys (1985)
• Journalistic
• About Henry Hill
• Lucchese Crime Family
• Insider/Outsider
• Sicilian/Irish

Nicholas Pileggi
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Director Martin ScorseseLike Hill

• Ethnic (Italian American)
• Grew Up in New Yorks Little Italy
• Both Insider/Outsider

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Henry Hill

• Had access to mob information because not subject
  to rules secrecy for made men
• Scorsese had similar attraction to, detachment
  from Mob
• Both Traitors

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Witness Protection Program

• Hill kicked out for more crimes.
• Most of those he fingered died in jail.
• What Im proud of is (Scorsese)
• didnt glamorize it. Theyre not
• nice people. Henry Hill

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Documentary Style

• Voice Over
• Mob Oral Culture
• Stories from Little Italy
• Look of That World

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Violence

• Graphic/Repellent
• No Exciting Gunfights
• No Violence as Entertainment

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But Not Just Realism

• Stylized
• Point of View Shots
• Freeze-Frames
• Expressionist
• Mobile Camera
• Please watch a clip from Goodfellas.

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Usual Rise and Fall Structure

• Criminal Money
• Frenzied Consumption
• Eventually Too Much
• -Money, Greed
• -Drugs
• -Violence

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Wiseguy Ethos

• Henry
• Those goody good
• people who worked
• . . . . They were
• suckers. If we
• wanted something,
• we just took it.

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Copacabana Long Take

• Realism and
• Stylization
• Image of Excess
• Henry Seduces
• Lifestyle Seduces
• Him
• Please watch this scene.

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Tommys Downfall Too Violent

• Disregard for Rules
• Killing of Billy Batts
• (Made Man)
• Hes a Cowboy

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Drugs and Henrys Downfall

• Someones watching
• Frenzied Lifestyle
• Drugs and Long Sentences
• Loss of Rispetto/Omerta

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Jimmy Conway

• Also Half in/Out
• Mentor to Henry
• Never rat on your friends
• Yet Greedy, Reckless

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Crime in Gangster Films

• Because of environment
• Lack of other opportunity
• Nicole Rafter on Crime Movies
• Environmental causes . . . illustrating how
• criminalistic subcultures or other situational
• factors can drive people to crime.

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In Goodfellas

• Not Societys Fault
• Karen Middle Class/It turned me on
• Nicole Rafter, Other Cause for Crime
• Aspirations for a better life (more money,
  more excitement, more opportunity to rise through
  the class structure) . . . crime over dull
  conformity.

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Mob in Goodfellas

• Mirrors Larger Society
• Rules and Transgression
• Greed and Overconsumption
• Violence

The Goodfellas eat well even in prison.
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Goodfellas as Corrected Gangster Film

• Charismatic Gangsters
• Money, Violence
• Rise, Fall

• They are Just Like Larger Society
• -Too Much Self Interest
• -Overconsumption
• -1980s Supply Side Economics
• -Decade of Greed

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Summary

• Genre Films
• Entertainment and Social Critique
• Conventions and Change
• Martin Scorseses Goodfellas

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End of Lecture 6
Next Lecture Film Authorship