Discuss the use of genre in any two films of your choice.
You should consider the use of generic and visual
iconography as well any relevant ideological coding. You
should also consider the development of study and
criticism within your chosen genre.
Genre is a term that is used for the labelling of films,
to pigeonhole them into types. In this essay the films
White Heat (Raoul Walsh, 1949) and Scarface (Brian De
Palma, 1983) will be used to show that the gangster movie
can be labelled as a genre film, by explaining the many
facets that contribute to the term genre. To place any
film in this category, different elements need to be
fulfilled. The iconographies, both generic and visual
must adhere to certain rules, and re-occurring themes are
often linked with genre films. The placing of the film in
a determinate or in-determinate setting is also to be
taken in to account. Whether the story unfolds around the
characters or the backdrop the story is set is precise in
determining factors. To incorporate the two films White
Heat and Scarface this essay will also look at the
creation of genre films through economic necessity and
its ability to be used along with other elements of film
studies as a mass marketing tool, which in turn adds
another dimension to the term genre, one that avoids the
art of cinema (although present in some cases) as merely
a tool of monetary gain.
“Hollywood is surely a cinema of genres, a cinema of
westerns, gangsters films, musicals, melodramas and
thrillers” (Ryall, 1970,pp.327). This is a broad
statement that shows how easy it is to apply the label
genre to types of film. Genre can be used by people,
cinephile or not to easily identify with a type of movie.
Much like the auteur theory, genre can be used as a guide
for personal tastes. This is genre in its simplest form.
Labelling a film a western or in this essays case a
gangster film, seems to be too easy. There are many other
factors that both contradict and aid the labelling of the
genre movie.
Genre films can be said to have always been around.
There is George Melies A Trip To The Moon (1902) as an
early example of science fiction and The Great Train
Robbery (Edwin S. Porter, 1903) as an early example of a
western. As Hollywood became the focal point of the movie
business genre films were exploited, but rather than from
an artistic standpoint that the iconography of films
represents, from a monetary view of the studio or company
that makes the film. “Differences between genres meant
different audiences could be identified and catered to.
All this made it easier to standardise and stabilise
production.” (Cook, Bernink, 1999,pp.137) During the
golden age of Hollywood cinema, genre was at the
forefront of the pictures being made. The musicals from
(Loews) MGM, the horror films of Universal to the
gangster films of Warner Bros. These genre pieces were
essential to the studios that made them. It enabled them
to re-use sets and costumes that cost lots of money to
make. “Hollywood’s economic imperative mandates concerted
attempts at economy of scale. Only by producing large
quantities of similar films could studios justify their
enormous investment in real estate, personnel, publicity
and technology.” (Ryall, 1970,pp.328)
The economic
climate of the United States was a governing reason for
this. Cinema during the depression era became escapism
for the struggling masses, which the film making studios
utilised by producing films using this conveyor belt
process. The studios overheads were kept low by this
reusing of props and sets. They also kept their actors
and actresses on contract so actors like Humphrey Bogart,
Edward G.Robinson and James Cagney became the faces of
the gangster film as Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi did
for horror and John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart did for
westerns. This typecasting of the ‘star’ helped the genre
theory, as actors were intrinsically linked with genre
films. This trend continued in film making with actors
such as Al Pacino and Robert De Nero being associated
with the crime/gangster film in the nineteen seventies
and eighties, and today with Jim Carrey and Will Ferrell
known primarily as comedic actors. What these actors
bring to a role with their generic iconography is already
in the subconscious of the viewing audience, thus
allowing an awareness and acceptance through the actor’s
link to a specific genre film. This can also work for a
director by using the preconceptions of the actor’s
generic iconography, in playing him/her against type.
This is shown in Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo (1958) where
Jimmy Stewart’s character starts the film in typical
style, as a pillar of society (in this case a policeman),
but ends up being shown as an obsessive man forcing a
woman to change for his own perverse needs.
The two films (White Heat and Scarface) also use the
actor’s history in previous films to help with their
generic iconography. Pacino was best known for his roles
in The Godfather films (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972,1974)
and Dog Day Afternoon (Sidney Lumet, 1975) whereas James
Cagney was known from films such as The Public Enemy
(William A.Wellman, 1931) and Angels with Dirty Faces
(Michael Curtiz, 1938). The link to the crime film from
both actors allows them to fit neatly and be accepted in
their roles.
All of the labels that help to decipher which genre
a film belongs to are up for interpretation. The most
readily available source of decoding a genre film is that
of the films visual iconography. It is everything that
the audience can see or hear on screen that acts as a
signifier to what belongs where, so a film language is
created by all of its parts. Iconography plays a large
part in deciding a genre, “Since we are dealing with a
visual medium we ought surely to look for our defining
criteria at what we actually see on the screen.”
(Buscombe, 1970,pp.157)
This is a point made that cinema
being such a visual art needs to aid the process of
storytelling by using its own visual language. The
iconographic language created can then portray the
character or location of the genre film. “Recurrent
images including physical attributes and dress of the
actors, the settings, the tools of the trade.” (Cook,
Bernink, 1999,pp.140)
In the film Scarface Tony Montana
uses the iconography of the film to portray his
progression through his American dream. His clothes
change from poorly made, dirty and torn to smart tailored
suits to show his status. As in all gangster films the
gun is also a visual of the tools of the trade much like
the gunslinger from the western. The lush surroundings
Montana finds himself in at the climax of the film are a
recurrent theme from the earlier surroundings of the
‘big shot’ gangsters he works for. These recurrent themes
and objects do not only stay true to the gangster film,
all genre films have their own set of visual
iconographies. The horror film may have the darkly lit
scary house, or the dark forest, which is now the
synonymous backdrop for scary events to take place. Even
the re-occurrence of the action or scares taking place at
night is iconography used by the horror genre. The
western too uses iconography; from the setting of
Monument Valley or other baron landscape, to the
simplistic white hat equals good, whilst black hat equals
bad. The visual iconographies can be inverted also, this
allows for tricks to be played on the audience when items
or characters they are subconsciously linked with play
against type or represent other ideals than expected. In
the film The Goonies (Richard Donner, 1985) the character
of Sloth is portrayed at first to be a monster. The
language created through visual iconography allows the
audience to think that Sloth is an evil character through
his surroundings (mise en scene), accompanying score and
the way he is shown to be bound to protect others, by the
finale of the movie Sloth becomes the hero of the film
thus dispelling all the preconceived iconographies. His
sound motif has changed with him from that of scary,
eerie music to that of a fanfare thus making his
transformation complete in the eyes of the viewer.
The factors of location and character being used to
construct a genre brings in another branch of genre
study, that of the determinate and indeterminate space.
“In a genre of determinate space (Western, gangster,
detective, et.al), we have a symbolic arena of action. It
represents a cultural realm in which fundamental values
are in a state of sustained conflict. In these genres…
the contrast itself and its necessary arena are a
determinate, a specific social conflict is violently
enacted within a familiar locale according to a
prescribed system of rules and behavioural codes” (Neale,
1999). The western example is that of a land that needs
taming, the arid dry landscape. With the two gangster
films it is that of the prison in White Heat and the
crime run underground of Miami in Scarface. The main
plots of the films revolve around the setting and power
struggle of the locations; the characters must fight to
gain control of the landscape, thus resolving the films
issues.
With the iconography of a film being recurrent they
are backed up by the themes and ideologies of the films,
in their prevelant re-occurrence. The two films White
Heat and Scarface have shared ideals and themes. The
small timer who grows into bigger things through his
work, yet unmoral ethics. The psychopathic killer without
regret, the paranoid episodes, in White Heat’s Cody
Jarrett’s case over his mother and in Tony Montana’s case
the killing of his best friend for sleeping with his
sister. The ideology behind the two films is one of the
bad guy dies in the end. Both men have reached a pinnacle
of their crime careers only for them to be shot down, in
Jarrett’s case literally in flames. This ‘happy’ ending
is one that was acceptable through the Hays Code, which
White Heat had to adhere to. It was acceptable for a
man/woman to do bad things as long as he/she got his/her
comeuppance. The Hays Code was altered by the MPAA in
1951 therefore Scarface did not have to follow such
stringent rules, but De Palma still has his main
protagonist killed in the end. This being a gangster film
and a re-occurrence of the themes and ideologies
established by the previous list of gangster movies, and
the ‘bad guy’ being killed, is in itself part of the
iconographical make up of the gangster genre.
Iconography is used as a signifier to label the film
in a genre, but the boundaries of a genre can cross over
so a hierarchy is needed if genre is to be applied to a
film. The gangster film can have many guises, as can
other genre films. “Iconography does not provide a
sufficient basis for defining genre. Consider the way the
traditional signifiers of the gangster genre are used to
‘dress’ the musical Bugsy Malone (Alan Parker, 1976) or
how in Westworld (Michael Crichton, 1973) the iconography
of the western is appropriated for a science-fiction
movie.” (Nelmes, 1999,pp.168)
Bugsy Malone has all the
iconography of the gangster film but it is a comedy and a
musical. The iconography of guns, cars, nightclubs and
even the names of ‘Fat Sam’ and ‘Dandy Dan’ are all
prevelant terminologies used in gangster films. The
iconography of the gangster film has been used here to
aid a story, but it is irrelevant in this case because it
is a comedy before it’s a gangster film and a musical
before it’s a comedy. Bugsy Malone is an example of the
cross over that can be achieved with genre film, which
Muddies the water of clear definition.
The fact that it is a gangster film can come second
to the fact that it is a Warner Bros. Gangster film.
“While some genres are based on story content (the war
film), others are borrowed from literature (comedy,
melodrama) or from other media (the musical). Some are
performer based (Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers films) or
budget based (blockbusters), while others are based on
artistic status (the art film), racial identity (black
cinema), location (the western) or sexual orientation
(gay and lesbian cinema)” (Stam, 2000,pp.14). The film
Blacula (William Crain, 1972) is a remake of Dracula (Tod
Browning, 1930) made with an all black-leading cast, but
it is not seen as a horror film but as a blaxploitation
movie. Pirates of the Caribbean (Gore Verbinski, 2003)
could be seen as an action, pirate or Johnny Depp movie,
but many view it as a blockbuster.
Whilst labelling a film to a genre can seem easy, it
can also be problematic. The earliest of moving pictures
started the trend, but as technology and storytelling
become more advanced, the ways of labelling a movie
becomes harder. The boundaries are merging more now and
new genres are being produced as a result. In recent
years we have had a zombie comedy, Shaun Of The Dead
(Edgar Wright, 2004) and a sci-fi romance, Eternal
Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (Michel Gondry, 2004).
Genre placement for films is a needed element for film
studies, and can be both complex and simple depending on
how deep you want to look, much like other theories in
the family of film/media studies.