1. Lesson 06: Film Genre
Professor Aaron Baker

2. Previous Lecture Cinematography The Photographic Image Lenses Framing
Camera Movement
The Long Take
Cinematography in Raging Bull (1980)

3. In this Lecture…
Film Genre
The Gangster Film
Goodfellas (1990)

4. Part I: Film Genre

5. Genre French Term A film genre is a certain category of movie.
Conventions define it.
Examples include the western, the science fiction film, the horror movie, the musical.

6. Expectations
We inevitably anticipate a certain kind of film when we watch a movie.
Films that present the features we expect are called genre films.

7. Blockbuster Hits Some of the top earning films in the
history of Hollywood are genre films:
Place Title Genre
Titanic Disaster film
Lord of the Rings Fantasy
Star Wars Science fiction

8. Entertainment Genre films are often seen as entertainment: Fun
Escapist
Formulaic
Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

9. But Less Conventional Films Get More Respect
Steven Spielberg’s genre films made big profits.
But he didn’t win an Oscar for best director until he made a “serious” social drama: Schindler’s List (1993).

10. Disrespect
Genre films not only are often viewed as aesthetically inferior, some genres get more disrespect than others.

11. Serious Drama
While a social protest film like Erin Brockovich has been praised for raising serious issues like environmental degradation . . .

12. Melodrama
This genre is often dismissed as insignificant because it emphasizes:
Emotional stories about family conflict; with female protagonists
Is aimed at female viewers.

13. But…
Melodrama can be about important issues of family, gender politics.
And minus issue of environmental contamination, Erin Brockovich is a family melodrama with a female lead!

14. Contemporary Horror Films
Scare audiences to entertain.
But some also question family.
On this issue they are a lot like melodramas and social dramas.

15. Family Dysfunction
In It’s Alive (1974), a couple gives birth to a monster.
In The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) and The Hills Have Eyes (1977), whole families are killers.

16. Fun and Serious So, some genre films are--
commercial movies with a pleasurable veneer that conceal
social critique, presenting disturbing subject matter

17. Part II: Gangster Films

18. Gangster Films Guns, Violence, Crime Money, Sex
Rise/Fall of Gangster As Too Egotistical, Greedy, Brutal
The Public Enemy (1931)

19. Entertainment Appeal Enjoy Boldness, Swagger, Charisma of Gangster
But We Feel Secure When He’s Brought Down

20. Muskateers of Pig Alley (1912)
D. W. Griffith defines gangster film
Real NY Location
Real Street Toughs
Immigrants As Criminal Threat

21. Prohibition Volstead Act 1920-1933 outlaws alcohol
Controls immigrant workers
Less Leisure, More Work
Bootleggers get rich

22. Al Capone Born 1899 in Brooklyn Chicago in 1919
1925 heads Chicago rackets
Grossing $100 Million Year From Bootlegging and Prostitution
Known as Scarface for knife scars on cheek

23. Canonical Gangster Films
Little Caesar (1931), Public Enemy (1931), Scarface (1932)
Based on journalistic writings about Capone and other gangsters
Box office hits

24. Censorship
Warner Bros. added disclaimer to Little Caesar, Public Enemy: not glorifying criminals.
Scarface director Howard Hawks, and producer Howard Hughes forced to add 2 scenes criticizing media glorification of gangsters.
Scarface release delayed 2 years.

25. Will Hayes
Former Chair of Repub. National Committee and Postmaster General
Hired by Hollywood as President of MPAA
Established Production Code

26. Catholic Legion of Decency
Influenced content of Hollywood films from within.
Avoided mistake of Protestant reformers with Prohibition, who tried to legislate social change.

27. Depression Wall Street Crash October,1929
Millions in U.S. out of work and homeless in 1930s.
Widespread disillusionment with American economy.

28. 1930s Film Gangsters From working class hardest hit by Depression
Ethnic
Between Cultures

29. Gangster Films Renewed Fear of Cultural Difference
Prohibition
KKK targeted Catholics as well as African-Americans
Anti immigrant acts
Italian immigrant family at Ellis Island

30. Immigrants Expected to Be Individuals
Privileged Identity in Capitalist Society
Give Up “Old World” Culture
Reject Identity from Ethnic Group

31. Prof. Jonathan Munby 30s Gangster Films:
Show Ethnic Resentment at Discrimination
Reject Idea That Immigrants Must Accept Dominant Culture

32. Gangster Asserts Equality with Higher Classes, Native Born Whites
Entrepreneur—But in Wrong, Criminal Ways!
Once Rich, No Limits to His Consumption (Booze, Cars, Clothes, Sex)

33. Will Hayes and MPAA
Forced studios to control/punish gangsters within films.
All Killed:
Rico in Little Caesar
Tony in Scarface
Tommy in Public Enemy

34. Bank Robber John Dillinger
Popular Folk Hero for the Poor
Killed by police in 1934 at Biograph movie theater in Chicago
1935 Will Hayes declared moratorium on gangster films
Fear of Dillinger’s glorification in movies

35. Synchronized Sound Added Realism (Sound of cars, Guns, Nightclubs)
Gangsters Spoke in Own Voices
Urban/Ethnic slang
Robinson, Cagney, Muni Ethnic Actors
Robinson and Cagney

36. Genres Develop/Change Over Time
Technology. E.g. Synch. Sound Important to Gangster Films, Musicals
Hits Establish Popularity of Certain Genres/Cycles
Change Via Mixing of Conventions
Individual Films Can Revise, Reject
Conventions

37. Mixing Bladerunner (1982) Part Sci Fi: -Set in Future -Technology
Part Detective Story:
-Urban Locale
-Noir Lighting
-Violence and Passion

38. Prominent Films Can Change Genre Revise Conventions
Set a Trend for Other Films

39. Robert Ray: Corrected Genre Films
Use Expected Genre Conventions
Also Subtext of Social Critique
E.gs. The Godfather (1972), The Godfather, Part II (1974)
Genre/Ganster Films entertained by meeting our expectations, yet also offered ideas that challenged us

40. Godfather, Part II As a gangster film it has the usual conventions:
Charismatic Criminals
Wealth from Crime
Sex
Violence

41. But along with these genre conventions…
Godfather, Part II also presents a critique of capitalism by paralleling the Corleone crime family with legitimate business.

42. In this scene…
Mafia family head Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) attends a meeting in Havana with U.S. corporate leaders.
Please watch a clip from Godfather, Part II.

43. Part III: Goodfellas

44. Goodfellas Based on Nicholas Pileggi’s, Wise Guys (1985) Journalistic
About Henry Hill
Lucchese Crime Family
Insider/Outsider
Sicilian/Irish
Nicholas Pileggi

45. Director Martin Scorsese Like Hill
Ethnic (Italian American)
Grew Up in New York’s Little Italy
Both Insider/Outsider

46. Henry Hill
Had access to mob information because not subject to rules secrecy for “made” men
Scorsese had similar attraction to, detachment from Mob
Both “Traitors”

47. Witness Protection Program
Hill kicked out for more crimes.
Most of those he fingered died in jail.
“What I’m proud of is (Scorsese)
didn’t glamorize it. They’re not
nice people.”– Henry Hill

48. Documentary Style Voice Over Mob Oral Culture
Stories from Little Italy
Look of That World

49. Violence Graphic/Repellent No Exciting Gunfights
No Violence as Entertainment

50. But Not Just Realism Stylized Point of View Shots Freeze-Frames
Expressionist
Mobile Camera
Please watch a clip from Goodfellas.

51. Usual Rise and Fall Structure
Criminal Money
Frenzied Consumption
Eventually Too Much:
-Money, Greed
-Drugs
-Violence

52. Wiseguy Ethos Henry: “Those goody good people who worked
They were
suckers. If we
wanted something,
we just took it.”

53. Copacabana Long Take Realism and Stylization Image of Excess
Henry Seduces
Lifestyle Seduces
Him
Please watch this scene.

54. Tommy’s Downfall: Too Violent
Disregard for Rules
Killing of Billy Batts
(Made Man)
“He’s a Cowboy”

55. Drugs and Henry’s Downfall
“Someone’s watching”
Frenzied Lifestyle
Drugs and Long Sentences
Loss of Rispetto/Omerta

56. Jimmy Conway Also Half in/Out Mentor to Henry
“Never rat on your friends”
Yet Greedy, Reckless

57. Crime in Gangster Films
Because of environment
Lack of other opportunity
Nicole Rafter on Crime Movies:
“Environmental [causes] illustrating how
criminalistic subcultures or other situational
factors can drive people to crime”.

58. In Goodfellas Not Society’s Fault Karen Middle Class/“It turned me on”
Nicole Rafter, Other Cause for Crime:
“Aspirations for a better life (more money, more excitement, more opportunity to rise through the class structure) crime over dull conformity.”

59. Mob in Goodfellas Mirrors Larger Society: Rules and Transgression
Greed and Overconsumption
Violence
The Goodfellas eat well even in prison.

60. Goodfellas as Corrected Gangster Film
Charismatic Gangsters
Money, Violence
Rise, Fall
They are Just Like Larger Society:
-Too Much Self Interest
-Overconsumption
-1980s Supply Side Economics
-Decade of Greed

61. Summary Genre Films Entertainment and Social Critique
Conventions and Change
Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas

62. End of Lecture 6
Next Lecture: Film Authorship