Maggie Denning
Professor Jennifer Enoch
ENC 2135-002
07 July 2015
Genre Conventions Displayed in Romance Movies
Genre can be defined as many things but in simplest terms it is defined as a
communicative action that brings forth a specific response. Young adult romance movies
do exactly this. Authors and producers of romance movies purposely stage out the movie
scene for scene, line for line. Through the many stages of relationships and the
excitement, happiness, sorrow, regret, and most of all, love that romance movies contain,
each stage and feeling is meant to have a certain impact on the audience individually.
Though there are thousands of movies that fall into this category, The Longest Ride is the
best example of certain qualities that love movies hold. Love movies, specifically in The
Longest Ride, have common genre features including themes like ‘love will always find a
way’, ‘ordinary people can fall in love too’, and ‘in the end, everything will work out’.
These three genre conventions are conveyed in specific ways and will be analyzed in this
paper.
The Longest Ride is a romantic drama film released in 2015 aimed toward a
young female viewer although any romance movie fanatic can be found in the audience
as well. After meeting at a bull riding contest, Luke, a bull-riding champion, and Sophia,
a college student, cannot deny their chemistry toward one another. They quickly realize
that their connection is strong, but different futures involving Luke furthering his career
in bull riding and Sophia moving to New York for her dream job temporarily tear them
apart. Through an elderly man named Ira, they rekindle their flame after learning that
Ira’s life long relationship with his wife overcame obstacles of equal or greater challenge.
The movie ends with the happy couple driving off into the sunset.
One of the several genre conventions being communicated to the audience in The
Longest Ride is the fact that although there may be bumps in the road, ‘love will always
find a way’; this means that people who are truly in love will stay in love and will fulfill
their goals together. This shows us that love always does win since both individuals are
headed on different paths but end up together at the end. This convention ties into the
major theme that ‘love will always win’ because the movie is structured for them to
undergo hardships repeatedly but when the movie ends, Luke and Sophia are living life
together.
In the beginning of the movie, we can see that the young man, Luke, is a
unpredictable bull rider while Sophia, the main female character, is a college student with
a planned future – both with different goals and thoughts on how they are going to live
their lives. This genre convention is the major conflict in the movie and what Luke and
Sophia’s love finds a way through. This sets up the major theme for the movie that ‘love
will always find a way’. The audience is shown Luke’s reckless personality trait when he
is shown repeatedly falling off the bull and becoming seriously injured. This idea is
continued when the audience hears the doctor telling Luke over and over that he cannot
continue bull riding if he wants to live a long, healthy life. Sophia is then depicted as a
responsible student when the audience hears her telling her best friend she can’t go out
because she has to study for her tests and finish homework. The two characters realize
they are following two different paths in their lives shown to the audience when Luke
tells his mom that he wants to continue bull riding and when Sophia is on the phone
communicating with her new boss about traveling to New York. The different ways the
producers emphasize the convention “love will always find a way” not only make the
storyline relatable and personal to the audience, but it also gives hope to the individuals
watching the movie.
Any audience of a movie is drawn in when a conflict arises. The Longest Ride’s
conflict, and mostly every romance movie’s conflict, is their temporary break up. The
viewers want to see this resolved. Like most relationships, Luke and Sophia have a
temporary break up over the danger of bull riding adding to the list of genre conventions
shown. Of course, Luke sacrifices bull riding for Sophia and they continue their romance.
This not only makes the movie more relatable to the typical young couples who go on
“breaks” once a month as they can see common characteristics in Luke and Sophia’s
relationship as well as their own but it also adds passion and fire to the movie as a whole
drawing the audience in for more romance and lust.
Ira and Ruth’s relationship (the couple that Luke and Sophia model their
relationship after) also had struggles as the husband could not have children causing their
relationship to undergo a temporary break up as well. The author’s goal was to somewhat
achieve a type of pity for the characters, and in doing so, caused the audience to root for
the couple whether that was consciously or unconsciously. In rooting for Ira and Ruth,
the viewers felt a sense of obligation to root for Luke and Sophia as well. The audience
feels invested because of the ordinariness depicted throughout the movie. Once again,
this ties into the major theme that in the end, ‘love will always find a way’.
Through the movie, a genre convention that no matter what obstacles are thrown
at a relationship, ‘love will always find a way’. This convention ties into the second
convention that ‘ordinary people can fall in love too’. The authors of love movies
purposely make them relatable and trick the viewers into picturing the characters as
themselves. Romance movies want the teenage and young adult females to fall in love
with the relationship depicted and apply that to their personal lives so they have hope that
true love exists. Luke and Sophia met at a bull-riding contest that Sophia was not
interested in attending at all. They overcame and withstood dire circumstances and
because of this, the viewer can only assume that their love is true and that it was fate for
Luke and Sophia to have met depicting that ‘love will always find a way’.
Another genre convention that is being communicated throughout the movie is the
vision that ‘ordinary people can fall in love too’. Sophia is a regular college student like
most young adults who is a member of a sorority and Luke is a typical cowboy who lives
in the country. When describing a typical young girl in her twenties an individual’s
perception would state a female who is in college and a member of some type of
organization – that is a description of Sophia making her ordinary. If one were asked to
describe their perception of a young man who lived in the south one would say
somewhere within the lines of a gentleman who lives on a farm – this is a description of
Luke as well. The general perception of an ordinary girl included being a member of an
organization- Sophia’s sorority house is shown making her a member of an organization
and crediting her with ordinariness. Furthering this, Luke’s house in the country makes it
relatable to the audience since the typical perception of someone living in the rural South
includes living on a farm or farm like land. When shown where Luke lives, the viewer
gets a full image of his farm from the sky showing his big white house including a wrap
around porch with a red roof and a barn to the side. The image of his house also shows
the audience that he lives on several acres of land. The ordinariness and relatability
shown in relation to people’s perceptions help the audience believe “love will always
win’ by making the viewers invested individually by depicting that ‘ordinary people can
fall in love too’. It helps us root for the couple because we can see ourselves in them and
want our love to prevail hence why we want theirs too as well.
The genre convention that ‘ordinary people can fall in love too’ is furthered in
Luke and Sophia’s personal communication. Luke communicates in tones of one who is
from the south including words like y’all, no sir and yes ma’am, and pardon me. This is
an individual’s perception of a man from the South- a true gentleman who speaks like
one too. Sophia speaks in a manner of an educated student when she speaks of her love
for art. Furthering this, their communication to one another would be that of a typical
couple in a relationship. They discuss their interests along with what they don’t like, their
goals in life, and simply joke around with one another. Once again, the ordinariness and
familiarity of the movie makes it easier for the audience to relate to based on their
personal lives and personal perceptions. If the characters falling in love were big time
movie stars or athletes it would not hold the same amount of similarity to the majority of
viewers.
The convention that ‘ordinary people can fall in love too’ is shown in their jobs
and financial life as well. Neither one of the main characters are financially well off and
both Luke and Sophia have jobs and live day to day but they still have a fairytale
romance. Their jobs would be that of the cultural archetype that is known worldwide of a
man working with his hands and body and a woman working a desk like job. Luke’s job
is maintaining the family farm. His job is a working one meaning he sweats and uses his
hands. Sophia on the other hand, does work a desk job by being a secretary for a
museum. Their jobs fit perfectly into the cultural archetype. The truck Luke drives is an
older model and the clothes that both characters wear in the majority of the movie are
typical and that of the blue-collar class. For example, Sophia wears shirts you would see
at Old Navy with blue jeans and Luke is shown wearing a flannel button up shirt with
blue jeans on as well. This idea in the movie expands the audience base. Now not only
are they ordinary people in the sense that one is a college student and one is a bull rider,
but both are also living the common American life regarding money and jobs regarding
the archetype. This is also depicted in their first date. Instead of going to a fancy
restaurant, they have a picnic by a lake. This certain date is any individual in the
audience’s dream. Although the conventions are meant to enforce that they are ordinary
people, it also adds the tone of sweetness to the movie, almost making the audience
jealous.
In writing The Longest Ride, the author was aware of the fact that she had to make
sure it was something that was ordinary and not over the top. This is the case for most
love movies. In order to draw the audience in, it must be a love movie filled with
relatable narrative and ideas where the audience can make the movie their own.
The end of the movie was brought into closing by the last major genre
convention- ‘in the end, everything will work out’. This specific concept was exemplified
in different ways. Both of the main characters were discussing how relieved they were
that they can both go on to live happy lives by working the jobs they both desire and
coming home to each other at the end of the day. When Luke is shown pulling up at
Sophia’s job to pick her up, he is shown driving a new truck that the viewers can assume
was expensive. As their financial stability was a factor before, it can now be undertaken
that money is no longer a problem in their relationship. Furthering the convention,
Sophia’s job is located at a museum that she either owns or has a very high position at
since the audience can see her locking the door behind her as she leaves work. The image
of Luke and Sophia greeting each other shows happiness and joy in their facial
expressions and body language. Both are smiling from ear to ear as well as a display of
affection by a hug and a kiss. These few instances depict very clearly that ‘in the end,
everything will work out’.
The detail that the movie ended happily was another tactic that the author and/or
producer carefully thought of. The happy ending left the audience leaving in the same
mood as the end of the movie. If The Longest Ride had ended with Luke and Sophia not
being together or having struggles in their relationship, the viewers would not have left as
happy. They would have left wishing the couple had fought through the hardships.
Instead, the producer knew the blissful ending would continue the idea of hope as it was
shown throughout the movie and is similar to all romance movies. The audience can now
take the hope that overcoming obstacles is worth it in the end and apply it to their own
life and relationships. This response is exactly what the producer of The Longest Ride
intended.
The genre conventions that were seen throughout The Longest Ride were ‘love
will always find a way’, ‘ordinary people can fall in love too’, and ‘in the end, everything
will work out’. The author and producer of The Longest Ride were trying to communicate
these specific conventions while expecting certain responses from their audience. In
doing so, viewers have certain feelings and thoughts subconsciously. These subconscious
moods and opinions are important to watch for but at the same time, generally give the
viewers hope toward their relationships and happiness as the movie concludes. In young
adult love movies in general, one of major themes is a couple prevailing over a conflict.
The genre as a whole communicates this by conventions such as two different paths in
life and/or a temporary break up.
Works Cited
The Longest Ride. Dir. George Tillman Jr. By Nicholas Sparks. Screenplay by Craig
Bolotin. Perf. Scott Eastwood and Britt Robertson. Fox 2000 Pictures and Temple
Hill Entertainment, 2015. Film.