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English 101/Section #
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Essay #3
Silent Film Genres
In the early twentieth century, close to twenty-six million people attended
nickelodeons weekly. Gross receipts totaled close to 100 million dollars yearly. The
frequent movie watchers were immigrants, the working class, or the unemployed. The
silent films could be understood by all; however, the middle and upper class did not
attend the early film showing as they would not have been caught dead in the
disreputable nickelodeons. During the silent picture era, movie studios produced three
main categories of films. The western, slapstick comedy, and romance genres were used
repeatedly during the early motion picture production.
Western films were very popular due to a number of factors. First, directors of
western films, such as John Ford and W.D. Griffith, went to great lengths to include
footage of the surrounding land and its beauty when editing their films. The public was
not as well traveled in the early years of this century, and it enjoyed watching films of
places they had not been. A central theme of the western film was good versus evil.
Frequently, the climax included a villain who had terrorized a town in a fight or shootout
involving the sheriff or the "good guys." Men enjoyed westerns, as the stars in the movies
were men they could identify with or emulate.
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Another category of the film story line was the slapstick comedy. Early on, film
producers saw that poking fun at people involved in everyday life circumstances could be
profitable. In the movie, The Kiss, the actor takes great care in smoothing out his
voluminous mustache before planting his lips on his costar's cheek. Many times, the star
of the comedy was involved in a man versus nature scenario. He might be seen running
from an animal or trying to get out of the way of an avalanche. The harder he tried to
overcome the situation, the worse the situation became. Other comedies revolved around
chase scenes and people fighting over a particular object. Comics were quite physical and
acrobatic and took great pride in trying to amuse the audience with their facial
expressions.
Romance films by far were the most popular due to several factors. Early women
stars were perfect for bringing femininity to the big screen. Clara Bow, silent movie
actress, portrayed much more than the girl next door. Bow's character liked men a lot, did
not mind being kissed, and often exposed various parts of her anatomy in order to get the
man. Before the moral codes of today's films, the director could specialize in eroticism
and visual beauty to heighten the emotions of the audience. Romance films always had
happy endings that left their viewers with feelings of optimism. Other films called
cliffhangers ended before the boy-gets-girl scenario, asking the audience to return the
following week to see its conclusion. This left the viewers contemplating the happy
ending for its favorite stars. Romance films were and still are very popular on the wide
screens.
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Silent films, unfortunately, are no longer made. Their success ended with the
development of the radio. Viewers wanted to hear what the actors were saying; therefore,
the film industry started production of talkies, though voiceless films were understood
everywhere and were intelligible in all languages. Their themes were universal and
common to all populations. Today's audience still just as easily understands the westerns,
romances, and comedies of the past.
Questions on Technique
1. Which sentence is the thesis (main idea) of this essay? Are there any words in
the thesis to indicate that the author is going to classify anything?
2. This author uses topic sentences to introduce the groupings she is classifying.
List the topic sentences.
3. Does the author use good examples to enhance her classification? If so, what
do you think of the examples? Explain.
4. Does the author use transitions in this essay? If so, list some of them.