Movie Genres at Listology, or When is a Genre Not a Genre?
- THE THICK LIST:
- 80's "teen" flick
- action
- action / adventure
- adaptation [e.g. breakfast at tiffany's]
- adventure / romance
- anime
- anti-war
- apocalyptic
- Aussie movie
- bio-pic
- black & white
- British
- character study [e.g. seven samurai]
- "chick" flick
- children's film
- Chinese film
- college
- comedy [several sub-genres]
- coming of age
- computer animated
- contemporary drama
- cops & robbers
- costume drama
- courtroom
- crime
- dancing movie
- detective
- documentary
- drama [several sub-genres]
- drug movie
- education
- epic
- erotic
- family
- fantasy
- film noir
- foreign
- French film
- gangster
- gay / lesbian
- Greenaway film
- guilty pleasure
- heist-gone-wrong
- high school
- Hitchcock
- horror
- horror 'film'
- iconic [e.g. casablanca]
- institutional
- intellectual
- Italian film
- Kevin Bacon movie
- love, existential
- love, tragic
- love, doomed
- Merchant-Ivory
- midnight movie
- military
- monkey / ape movie
- movie largely reliant on computerized effects
- musical [several sub-genres]
- mystery
- mystery / suspense
- native american movie
- nc-17 rated movie
- neo-noir [e.g. chinatown]
- New Zealand movie
- obsessive [e.g. vertigo]
- period piece
- Plot Number One
- prison
- pulp violence [e.g. pulp fiction]
- road trip
- romance
- romantic comedy
- sci fi
- science fiction
- semi-fictional biography
- shakespeare
- shark movie
- silent
- social criticism
- spoof
- sports
- suburban angst
- sword & sorcery
- tear jerker
- teen angst
- thriller
- vampire movie
- vaudeville
- war [several sub-genres]
- western
- Woody Allen
- xmas
- zombie movie
- THE THIN LIST:
- 80's "teen" flick
- action
- adventure / romance
- anti-war
- apocalyptic
- bio-pic [non- or semi- fictional]
- character study
- Christmas movie
- college
- comedy [several sub-genres]
- coming of age
- cops and robbers
- courtroom
- crime [several sub-genres]
- dance movie
- detective
- documentary
- drug movie
- education
- epic [defined as...?]
- erotic
- fantasy
- film noir
- gangster
- gay / lesbian
- heist [whether gone right or wrong]
- high school
- horror [several sub-genres]
- institutional [as many sub-genres as there are sorts of institution]
- military [as distinct from 'war' and 'anti-war']
- monkey / ape movie
- musical [several sub-genres]
- mystery
- native american movie
- period piece [a.k.a. costume drama]
- prison movie
- road movie
- romance [includes, I take it, 'love']
- science fiction
- shakespeare
- shark movie
- social criticism
- sports [as many sub-genres as there are sports]
- suburban angst
- sword & sorcery
- tear jerker
- teen angst
- thriller [distinct from 'suspense'?]
- vampire movie
- vaudeville
- war [several sub-genres]
- western
- zombie movie
This list has been compiled from all (I think) the "Favorites By Genre" lists posted here at The Listology.
I have a problem with some of these 'genres', which is that they are not genres according to my understanding of the term.
Let me admit first up that my own 'Favorites By Genre' list is far from perfect. It will be amended and expanded in the near future.
When is a genre not a genre? When it's either too broad or too narrow.
The ones that are too broad are:
adaptation
anime
Aussie movie
black & white
British
Chinese film
computer animated
contemporary drama
drama
foreign
French film
guilty pleasure
iconic
Italian film
movie largely reliant on computerised effects
NC-17 rated movie
New Zealand movie
silent
These are too broad because they contain a whole lot of genuine genres. For example, French cinema includes movies of many genres, probably just as many as American cinema. So 'French film' is absurd as a genre because it contains so many other genres. A good way to recognise a 'genre' that is too broad is to ask yourself whether it tells you anything about the content of any movie. Does 'French film' tell us anything about what such films are about? No, so 'French film' is not a genuine genre; a genuine genre tells us about the content of its movies.
The ones that are too narrow are:
Greenaway film
Hitchcock
Kevin Bacon movie
Merchant-Ivory
Woody Allen
These are too narrow because are limited to the works of particular individuals. Your favorite work of a particular film-maker will be a movie of another genre, a genuine genre. For example, the genuine genre of the movie SLEEPER is 'comedy', or 'sf / comedy', not 'Woody Allen'. Again, notice that these alleged genres tell us nothing about content.
Some items do give us a hint about content in that they tell us what sort of audience the movie is aimed at:
"chick" flick (and its counterpart, the "dick" flick)
children's film
family
intellectual
To my mind, such borderline cases are still too broad.
One or two items are tongue-in-cheek:
pulp violence
midnight movie [Better called 'horror']
Several items are simply alternate names for the same genre.
And several items are sub-genres rather than genres (e.g., 'vampire' is a sub-genre of 'horror'), but I see no need to be picky about these, so I'll leave them as individual items.
So, when we take all these non-genres and twice-named genres into account we end up with a shorter and more sensible list - though it's a list that could no doubt be sensibly expanded.
A special case. 'Documentary' is, strictly speaking, also too general, because there are dozens (perhaps hundreds) of genres and sub-genres of documentaries. But nobody at Listology seems interesting in listing more than one documentary on their "Favorites by Genre" list, so I'll leave this item untouched.
I think the "foreign film" genre is mainly for those of us who haven't seen too many foreign films, but would feel bad making a list without including any foreign films on it. That's what I was going for on my list. That's probably what the problem was: some people wanted to include certain films on their "Favorites by Genre" lists, so they made up genres when they couldn't find any other place for those films.
Secondly, on the Thin List, I think "monkey / ape movie" is too narrow, as is "shark movie" (I can only think of a few). And "Native American movie"? I can only think of "Smoke Signals" and Disney's "Pocahontas", unless you're counting the westerns in which white heros fight those evil Native Americans, who are portrayed in a stereotypically stupid way.
Also, I think we can combine "high school" and "college" - I don't always remember whether movies take place in high school or college anyway. And finally, I think "social criticism" and "character study" are too broad.
Peace out,
AJ
Thanks for your comments, AJ - very constructive.
I take your point about 'foreign film'. Come to think of it, it's a bit like 'documentary' - not mant people have seen a lot of either, and yet they may want to include one in their list. Point taken also about making up a genre so as to include a cherished movie whose spot is already taken.
You haven't convinced me about such genres as 'monkey' or 'shark'. Let me suggest that even if there were only two shark movies, say Jaws and Deep Blue Sea, the two would still make a genre and there would be a choice to be made between them. 'Native American movie' I take to mean a movie which is largely about native Americans, and I think there must be lots more examples, even if we leave out 'cowboy and indian' movies. Another example that comes to mind is Thunderheart.
Yes, there are genres, sub-genres, and sub-sub-genres. 'High school' and 'College' come under 'education' which itself comes under 'institution'.
About 'socoal criticism' and 'character study', they are a bit like 'romance' - most movies, whether comedy or drama, contain an element of romance, social criticism and character study. So, you are right - unless the movie concentrates strongly on one of these elements; then I think they can be counted as genres.