Reel Expression

The Western
The hero, a man alone, functions with a world view that is both moral and decent.

The hero has a distinct skill with guns and horses.

The antagonist has mercantile goals – the accumulation of money, land, cattle – and will recognize no person or ethic that stands in his way.

Civilization is represented by those forces that represent an organizing influence on life – the town, the army, married life, and children.

The struggle between the forces of primitivism (e.g. the land, the Indians) and those of civilization forms a particular dilemma for the Western hero. In which world will he reside? His heart sides with the forces of primitivism, but his head sides with the forces of civilization. This is the classic conflict of the Western hero.

The drama plays itself out in a ritualized form – gunfights, cattle drives – and individual conflicts are acted out rather than negotiated.

Gangster Film
The hero is an immigrant who is low in status, but desires higher status.

The city is the home of the gangster; it is the location for his struggle to move up the social order.

Power comes from the willingness to take power. This means courage, cunning and a willingness to murder those who object to sharing power. This is the law of the jungle.

The hero is loyal to his immigrant roots.

The antagonist is the society that cannot tolerate the law of the jungle. The representatives of the society are the police and the F.B.I They are the front line of combat against the law of the jungle.

The symbols of success are materials – guns, cars and women.

Getting ahead is everything and the ends justify the means.

Film Noir
The desperate central character lives on the edge; he merely exists. We can’t call him the hero, because the personal behavior of the central character in the film noir is anything by heroic.

The central character thinks that his chance at a better, richer more vital life can only be found in another character – usually a woman. This may be his last chance and he certainly acts as if it is.

The relationship between the central character and his savior is a highly charged, sexual relationship.

A by-product of the relationship is violence.

The key root of the problem with the relationship is the city, the stand-in symbol for modern life. The city saps the generosity out of the relationship. All that is left is deception and betrayal.

There are no children in film noir. Married couples have no children. Children represent hope and there is no hope in any relationship, nor future.

Sexuality and violence coexist, and seem to be cause-and-effect.

The sense of aloneness in the central character is palpable. It represents an existential state.

Screwball Comedy
The central character is an isolated male.

He looks desperately for a female to overcome is isolation or anxiety.

The premise of the film is about the struggle in their relationship.

During the course of the struggle, which is highly sexually charged, the maleness of the central character is challenged. The female is the dominant character in the relationship. This role reversion is central to the screwball comedy.

Whereas the outcome of film noir is tragic, the outcome of the screwball comedy is happy.

The urban setting of the genre is as much a jungle as it is in film noir.

There are no children and only troubled married couples.

The aggression in this genre is the source of the humour, rather than the violence it evokes in film noir.

Melodrama
The central character is more often female then in many other genres.

The presence of s distinct social order is a barrier to the central character and indicates the power structure in the city, region, town, or country.

The central character transgresses the power structure. This is usually attempted through a relationship with someone from within the power structure.

Beauty and intelligence are not equivalent to the symbols of power – money and social or political connections.

The central character’s behiaviour while transgressing the power structure is as much a threat to her own family as it is to the powerful family of which they would become a part of the new relationship is a success. The central character is unsupported in her goal.

The conviction of the central character is fueled by the belief that life must and can be improved. The status quo is an insult to her sense of self.

The vitality of the melodrama is, in part, supported by its modernity. Period melodramas are less successful because they are too distant from the audience. More successful melodramas reflect the people, lives and issues of the audience that attends the film.

Idealism, cynicism, sexuality, and aggression reflect the attitudes of the characters and more importantly, support the central characteristic of the melodrama – a story of power and powerlessness set against an inflexible power structure.

Situation Comedy
The central character is more often male than female.

The setting is contemporary.

The central character transgresses not the power structure, but the values of the power structure.

Money and social connections are not enough. The central character needs to recapture values he feels are lost – idealism, vitality.

As in the melodrama, the central character’s transgressions isolate him from everyone – friend or foe.

Readily embraces current issues, uses the to the disadvantage of the central character and promotes a search for new values.

Horror Film
The central character is a victim, rather than a hero.

The antagonist is often manifested from a technological aberration for a social aberration.

Unbridled aggression and sexuality play an important role. Cruelty knows no relative form, this is a genre of absolutes.

Technology, science and scientific activity often unleash the antagonist. Fears about the future are as important as our fears about the past.

Religion is viewed as an intermediary that can influence the outcome of events. The central conflict is often portrayed as a struggle between God and Satan.

Children have special powers in this genre. Vision, insight and tolerance are exhibited by children: the opposite traits are exhibited by adults.

Relationships can’t save the central character. Very often, the victimizer is a member of the family.

The location has a special significance that influences the outcome of events for the central character.

The supernatural has a significant role in the horror film genre; most events can’t be explained rationally. Since the genre dwells on the irrational, some form of understanding devolves from supernatural explanation.

Science Fiction
The central character is an innocent bystander who is victimized by a technological accident or an unnatural phenomenon of another world.

The central character may or may not overcome the challenge of the antagonist.

The existence of relationships promises respite and perhaps an element of hope in the light of the daunting scale of the struggle.

The antagonist may be a scientist or the product of science or nature. The scale of the antagonist is so great that the central character is reminded not only of her mortality, but also of how human she is.

The outcome in the science fiction film story is often more hopeful than the outcomes in either the film noir or the horror film.

There is a certain nobility that devolves the central character based on her attempt to overcome her struggle with the supernatural.

The environment can be urban or rural, earthbound or otherworldly. In any case, the environment is a benign, but necessary, host for the antagonist. The presence of earth and how the environment is present, reminds us of our place in the natural order.

The story line of the science fiction film is often plot-intensive and presents a specific threat to the natural order. The plot outlines the central character’s response to that threat.

“It’s the human life in a profoundly focused crisis, the struggle to get control of reality. We all live In the midst of the struggle, but only sci-fi can make it clear. That’s what it’s for ultimately.” Orson Scott Card, Author.

The War Film
The central character has on primary goal – survival. This may mean personal survival, national survival, or the survival of the personal or political values he believes in.

The character’s values are tested.

The polarities of human behavior – altruism and barbarism – co-exist and are as much in combat as the combatants.

By definition, violence plays a central role.

Relationships that on particular importance.

Each film carries a particular political prospection of way. Many films are critical of war while others suggest war brings out the best and worst in the characters.

There is a primal quality and intensity to personal behavior.

The antagonist is often never seen.

The Adventure Film
The central character, most often male, rather than trying to survive, plays a messianic character whose role is to save either the action or the world.

The main character is thoroughly capable in terms of mastery of the tools and weapons of salvation, whether they be cerebral or physical.

The main character exhibits a playfulness that can be childlike or childish.

The challenges to the main character are considerable and numerous. This is more plot-intensive than most genres.

The antagonist is very often imbued with almost super-human intelligence, strength, or other powers. The more formidable the antagonist, the greater the success of the central character.

Humour and self-depreciation are often a characteristic.

Relationships are superficial. There is no time for intimate relationships.

Sexuality and violence, although present, are neither sensual nor visceral. Again, there is no time to dwell.

Ritual and mythology are more important than realism and complexity. Consequently, the genre readily embraces less realistic action and modes; farce and technology coexist.

Stereotypes abound.

The Sports Film
The central character is a gifted athlete.

The central character tests himself within the parameters of a particular sport.

Only sports that have broad appeal to society make a good background. The best films have been boxing films in which the character has much at stake, physically and spiritually.

The apparent antagonist – the other team, the manager, or the owner – is not as important as the interior struggle of the central character. He is his own worst enemy.

Relationships are crucial to the emotional well-being of the central character.

A mentor plays a key role.

Family is an important component.

The ritual – in this case the big game or big fight – plays the central role.

The Biographical Film
The central character has a particular talent and a nonconformist personality.

The central character’s talent develops in conflict with the conventions of society.

The drive for actualization is singular.

The antagonist is not physical. It can be time, ignorance or conventional thinking.

The seminal event is acted out in a public manner.

The psychological makeup of the central character allows her to overcome the tragedy of like and succeed.

There is a sense of mission that is religious in it overtone.

Personal relationships often fail, but this only adds to the spiritual side of the central character.

The critical moment is the most important point in the story. Far more important than the public acknowledgement of the character’s achievement.

The tragic aspect of the character’s life is also important. The reminder of mortality acts as a ballast to they mythical sub-text of these stories.

The Satire
The central conflict relates to a crucial social or political issue of the day. The environment, health care, the power of TV and nuclear war are all examples.

A distinct point of view about the issue permeates the film.

Humour mixes freely with aggression.

The central character is a vehicle to promote an issue.

Fantasy and unreality are acceptable in this free-from genre.

The level of aggression mounts rapidly, escalating to absurd levels before the film ends.

Relationships can only be transient, given the urgency of the posed social or political threat.

Random irrationality reminds us of the horror film. The genre succeeds when we see ourselves as victims of the danger and of the threat to society.

This is a vigorous, energetic genre and is not at all tied to realism. High energy is rampant.

The Epic Film
A charismatic central character.

An antagonist who is so powerful that the efforts of the central character elevate him to a heroic position.

A moral struggle, by the protagonist, that is so overwhelming success seems impossible.

A depiction of the real world, rather than fantasy. Therefore when violence is displayed, it is all the more shocking. Violence plays an important role because it signals the central character’s willingness to sacrifice his life for a just cause.

Poetic sub-text. In the midst of all the violence, the central character is sufficiently moral that his stand seems romantic, old fashioned and poetic. Consequently, the central character in an epic film is often immensely appealing.

A sense of mission in the central character that is rarely exhibited by central characters.

A complex story line that blends two stories – the personal story of the central character and the historical incident.

The central character is tested. As a result of the test, he is challenged to pursue a course of action.

The central character meets a tragic fate.