Film Genres
Making Movie Categories
Definitions
•	Genre: 
•	a classification of films based on plot type and characters
•	No single system of genres exists.
•	Film genres are similar to literary genres.
•	Purpose
•	Helps define purpose of film
•	Allows viewer to 
•	anticipate content before viewing
•	analyze content after viewing

Action Films
•	Also called “Thrillers”
•	Features
•	Physical stunts and chases
•	Rescues, battles, fights, escapes
•	Destructive crises (floods, fires, explosions, tsunamis, etc.)
•	Fast pacing, non-stop motion
•	Two-dimensional characters (good guys, bad guys)
Adventure Films
•	Journeys to exotic locations: jungles, climax forests, savannahs, frozen wastelands. 
•	Plots usually secondary.
•	May be fiction or documentary.

Comedy
•	Plots end on a positive note
•	Emphasis on resolution and community
•	Light tone to elicit amusement, laughter
•	Exaggerated plots, characters, situations, language, relationships
•	Categories
•	Slapstick: physical humour
•	Parody: exaggerated imitation of another genre
•	Romantic comedy: boy-girl relationships
•	Satire: questioning generally held beliefs
Film Noir
•	Called “noir” because often shot at night
•	Characteristics
•	plots involve murder
•	characters are hard-boiled, often cynical
•	one may be a femme fatale
•	setting is the city at night, often shot in black-and-white
•	Related to crime drama, gangster films, detective, and mystery films

Drama
•	Plot driven
•	Realistic characters and settings
•	Intense emotions, focus on relationships
•	Categories
•	Historical drama: set in the past
•	Biographical drama: about real people
•	Epics: longer films with more characters, settings, time frames
Horror Films
•	Plot and character designed to elicit fear.
•	Cathartic experience of fear
•	Usually surprise ending
•	Can have overtones of science fiction or fantasy
Musical Films
•	Music is main theme
•	Main characters are musicians
•	Often stage shows
•	Full-scale scores, song and dance routines
•	Categories
•	Broadway musicals
•	Biographies of musicians
•	Stage shows
Science Fiction and Fantasy Films
•	Set in space or other worlds
•	Science fiction begins from science fact
•	more realistic characters and plots
•	Often based on utopia (ideal) or distopia (post-apocalyptic) settings
War Films
•	Plot driven
•	Usually recent history (20th century)
•	can be
•	realistic
•	fantasy or future world war
•	satiric
Western Films
•	Setting:  old West (usually 19th century)
•	Themes: justice, good and evil
•	Characters: cowboys, Indians, sheriffs, etc.