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 produces 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 if it is true love then sacrifices will be made
to make it work.
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
prevail. 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. Luke is shown being an irregular bull rider by a visual mode showing Luke
repeatedly falling off the bull and becoming seriously injured. The mode then turns to
visual 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. The linguistic mode depicts
Sophia being 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. Spatial mode is
also called into play when the two characters realize they are following two different
paths in their lives seen – 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 linguistic, visual, and spatial modes shown here
not only make the storyline relatable and personal to the audience, but it also gives hope
to the individuals watching the movie.
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. Any audience of a movie is drawn in when a conflict arises. The
Longest Ride’s conflict, and mostly every romance movie’s, is their temporary break up.
The viewers want to see this resolved. An example of a spatial mode in The Longest Ride
is the progressive flashbacks of another couple’s, Ira and Ruth, relationship while it went
through trials and also a temporary break in their relationship. The couple also had
struggles as the husband could not have children. 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 and in rooting for Ira and Ruth,
the viewers felt a sense of obligation to root for Luke and Sophia as well.
Through the movie, a genre convention that no matter what obstacles are thrown
at a relationship, it can be endured if true love is present is depicted. 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 the idea that true love exists.
Another genre convention that is being communicated throughout the movie is the
vision that ordinary people can fall in love. 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 one would say she 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 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 visual mode added here relates to the college students in
the audience when the scene of her sorority house is shown. Furthering this, the specific
visual mode of Luke’s house in the country makes it relatable to any males in the
audience as well as any females who are from the south or in a relationship with someone
with a similar lifestyle. 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 personal communication spoken between to the two regarding his and her
lifestyle play as a linguistic mode as well. 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. 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. 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.
Neither one of the main characters are financially well off either. Both Luke and
Sophia have jobs and live day to day but they still have a fairytale romance. Luke’s job
is maintaining the family farm. His job is a working one meaning he sweats and uses his
hands like most hard working Americans (it is not a desk job). Sophia on the other hand,
does work a desk job like most female Americans. She is the “secretary” for an art
museum. The truck Luke drives is an older model and the clothes that both characters
wear in the majority of the movie are typical and 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. This is also depicted in their first date. Instead of going to a fancy
restaurant, they have a picnic by a lake instead. This certain date is any individual in the
audience’s dream. Although the gestural and visual modes 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 most 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
by different linguistic, visual, and gestural modes. The linguistic mode was indicated by
the words spoken between Luke and Sophia. 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. The visual mode
played into factor is greatly as important as it interacts with the gestural mode used.
When Luke pulls 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 visual concept, 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 gestural mode intertwines with the visual mode as 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.
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 and
shown throughout the movie 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 are very
similar to those in all young adult romance movies. Authors and producers of love
movies are trying to communicate specific themes while expecting certain responses
from their audience. In doing so, viewers have certain feelings and thoughts
subconsciously. These subconscious moods and opinions are careful to watch for but at
the same time, generally give the watchers hope toward their relationships and happiness
as the movie concludes.
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.