Intro to Genres (page 3)

Morgan Paar is Videomaker's Technical Editor.

Sidebars: Subgenres

Drama

• Melodramas: tearjerkers; The Joy Luck Club (Wayne Wang, 1993)
• Epics: past events with extravagance; Gone With the Wind (Victor Fleming, 1939)
• Biography: films of important people; A Beautiful Mind (Ron Howard, 2001)
• Romance: love and their obstacles; When Harry Met Sally (Rob Reiner, 1989)

Comedy

• Slapstick: visual, physical comedy; Ace Ventura, Pet Detective (Tom Shadyac, 1994)
• Verbal: humor delivered via dialog; A Night at the Opera (Sam Wood, 1935)
• Screwball: farce, slapstick and witty dialogue; Bringing Up Baby (Howard Hawks, 1938)
• Black/Dark Comedy sarcastic, pessimistic and/or mocking; Harold & Maude (Hal Ashby,
1971)
• Parody/Spoof lampooned imitations; Young Frankenstein (Mel Brooks, 1974)
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Crime/Gangster

• Film Noir: cynical loner hero in a bleak city; Chinatown (Roman Polanski, 1974)
• Gangsta: urban minority gangsters; Boyz in the Hood (John Singleton, 1991)
• Detective/Mystery suspenseful who-dun-its; Memento (Christopher Nolan, 2000)

Action/Adventure

• Swashbuckler: pirate films; Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
• Martial Arts: Bruce Lee led genre; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Ang Lee, 2000)
• Spy: James Bond and Austin Powers genre; Mission Impossible (Brian De Palma, 1996)
• Disaster Films: insurmountable man-made and natural challenge; The Perfect Storm (Wolfgang
Petersen, 2000)
• Blaxploitation: 70's era Black stereotype films; Superfly (Gordon Parks Jr., (Gore Verbinski, 2003)1972)

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