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Examples
of the Fourteen Basic Movie
Genres--
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Action
(Disaster):
Stories whose central struggle plays out
mainly through a clash of physical
forces.
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48 Hours
Face/Off
Die Hard
Air Force One
Jurassic Park
Lethal Weapon
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Return of the Jedi
(also Science Fiction)
Speed (also a Thriller)
Titanic (also a Love story)
The Terminator
True Lies
Twister
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Adventure:
Stories whose central struggle plays out
mainly through encounters with new
"worlds."
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Apollo 13
The Deep
Get Shorty (extraordinary blend of
Gangster, Love, and Crime with a
twist)
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
(also an Action picture)
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Little Big Man
(Also Epic/Myth)
Lawrence of Arabia
Quest For Fire
Rain Man
Robinson Crusoe
Water World
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Comedy:
Stories whose
central struggle causes hilarious
results.
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Ace Ventura, Pet
Detective (also Adventure - the name
gives it away)
Analyze This
Annie Hall
Bowfinger
French Kiss
Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (also Fantasy)
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My Best
Friend's Wedding
Nine to Five
Shakespeare in Love
The Spy Who Shagged Me
When Harry Met Sally
Working Girl (also Love
Story)
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Coming-of-Age
Drama: Stories
whose central struggle is about the hero
finding his or her place in the
world.
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American Beauty
American Graffiti
The Breakfast Club
The Graduate
The Last Picture Show
The Lion King
My Brilliant Career
The Paper Chase
Pretty In Pink
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Rebel Without a
Cause
Risky Business
Saturday Night Fever
Shakespeare in Love (also Romantic
Comedy)
Splendor in the Grass
Top Gun (also Action)
The Water Boy (also
Comedy)
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Crime:
Stories whose
central struggle is about catching a
criminal.
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48 Hours
Basic Instinct
Fargo
French Connection
Ghost (also Love and Thriller)
L.A.Confidential
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Patriot Games
Pulp Fiction (Also Black Comedy, Bends
the Genre a lot))
The Sting
The Untouchables
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Detective
Story/Courtroom Drama:
Stories whose central struggle is to find
out what really happened and thus to
expose the truth.
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Caine Mutiny
Chinatown
Death and the Maiden
A Few Good Men
The General's Daughter
Inherit the Wind
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The Maltese
Falcon
Philadelphia
Rear Window
A Time to Kill
The Verdict
Vertigo
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Epic/Myth:
Stories whose central struggle plays out
in the midst of a clash of great forces or
in the sweep of great historical
change.
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Apocalypse Now
The Birth of a Nation
Bridge on the River Kwai
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Ghandi
The Godfather
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Gone With the
Wind
The Grapes of Wrath
Lawrence of Arabia (also Adventure)
Star Wars
The Ten Commandments
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Fantasy:
Stories which
are animated, or whose central struggle
plays out in two worlds - the "real" world
and an imaginary world.
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A Connecticut Yankee
in King Arthur's Court
Alice in Wonderland
Antz
Big
Ghostbusters
Heaven Can Wait
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Mary Poppins
The Mask
Peter Pan
Snow White
Toy Story
The Wizard of Oz
Who Killed Roger Rabbit?
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Gangster:
Stories whose
central struggle is between a criminal and
society. A cautionary tale, rooted in a
main character who commits crimes (This
genre is often blended with Film
Noir).
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Badlands
Bonnie and Clyde
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Dead End
Dead Man Walking
The Godfather (also
Epic/Myth)
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Goodfellas
La Femme Nikita
M.
Out of Sight (also Love Story)
Sling Blade
The Usual Suspects
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Horror:
Stories whose
central struggle focuses on escaping from
and eventually defeating a Monster (either
human or non-human).
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Alien
The Blair Witch Project
Friday the Thirteenth
Halloween
I Know What You Did Last Summer
It's Alive
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King Kong
Nightmare on Elm Street
Psycho
Scream
Tremors
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Love
(Romance): Stories
whose central struggle is between two
people who each want to win or keep the
love of the other.
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Annie Hall
As Good As It Gets
Casablanca (also Epic/Myth)
Ghost
The Graduate
It Happened One Night
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Mickey Blue Eyes
Notting Hill
Pretty Woman
Roman Holiday
The Way We Were
Wuthering Heights
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Science
Fiction: Stories
whose central struggle is generated from
the technology and tools of a
scientifically imaginable
world.
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2001 A Space
Odyssey
Back to the Future
Blade Runner (also Crime)
ET: The Extra Terrestrial
The Fifth Element
Gattaca
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The Sixth Sense
Stargate
Star Wars (and all the sequels or
prequels)
The Terminator
Twelve Monkeys
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Social
Drama: Stories
whose central struggle is between a
Champion and a problem or injustice in
society. Usually the Champion has a
personal stake in the outcome of the
struggle.
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A Civil Action
Dead Man Walking
Dr Strangelove
Grapes of Wrath
Kramer Vs Kramer
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Network
Philadelphia (also Courtroom Drama)
Schindler's List
To Kill a Mockingbird
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Thriller:
Stories whose
central struggle pits an innocent hero
against a lethal enemy who is out to kill
him or her.
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The Net
No Way Out
North by Northwest (also Love
Story)
Sleeping With the Enemy
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Night of the
Hunter
Three Days of the Condor
Wait Until Dark
Witness (also Love Story)
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Other Types
of Movies: There
obviously are many other groupings that might be
constructed. Discussing genres of movies might just
be a way of describing the history of moviemaking -
a method of grouping motion pictures for whatever
convenient need arises for whatever individual or
group. Without trying to define them, I'm listing
here a number of other possible types.
The Art Film:
Not a preferred Hollywood
Type. HOWEVER -- the acceleration of cheaper
video-to-film
technology makes this an interesting potential
genre to look at for the future.
The Black
Comedy: A comedy that
uses death and morbid doings as the root of its
humor. Surfaces regularly. Most recent
incarnations, Very Bad Things and Pulp
Fiction.
The Buddy
Movie: Not a distinctive
genre. Really describes a vehicle for two stars of
relatively equal importance, although one of them
is usually the main character. Redford and Newman
are the most well known pairing from the recent
past.
When these types of films
work, they can be a cash cow for the studios; for
example, the "road" films of Bing Crosby and Bob
Hope, the musicals of Fred Astaire and Ginger
Rogers, the wacky doings of Dean Martin and Jerry
Lewis, Abbot and Costello, etc. In today's market
there is probably a pent-up appetite for female
pairings, witness the phenomenal success of
Thelma and Louise (despite the sour "downer"
ending -- somebody took the ending of Butch Cassidy
and the Sundance Kid too seriously. They should
have checked out The Sting).
The Film
Noir: From the standpoint
of the way I prefer to define a "genre" -- that is,
defining the genre according to the nature of the
central struggle -- this type of film is more of a
stylistic categorization. Even so, the typical
black and light patterns, the dark shadows, the
penchant for cynicism and irony, the use of the
dark side of human behavior, these elements still
have a potent appeal for a large segment of the
moviegoing audience.
The Ghost
Story: Obvious from its
title, needs no definition. This type of story,
popular in the past, has been somewhat supplanted
by the horror genre. Interesting to us writers for
its resurgence with a twist in the Demi Moore
thriller Ghost. Testament to the writer's
imagination.
The Heist (or
Caper): Sort of a
"cross-categorization." An intricately planned
theft by a group of people. Examples: Ocean's
Eleven, The Thomas Crown Affair, The Great Train
Robbery, and more recently, one of the genres
in The Usual Suspects.
The
Picaresque: An episodic
string of adventures by a hero who moves from place
to place. Stellar example, Tom Jones, and
more recently, Forrest Gump.
Other obvious
types:
The
Historical Drama
The Musical
The Western
So, enough analysis of
genre.
Try to settle on a mix of two genres for your
story. To start with, that is. Keep the possibility
open that you might be able to spice up your story
with little bits of a third genre, but -- proceed
with caution. As an old Hollywood pro once growled
at me, "More than two genres is a mess."
Go back to: Genres
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