Schatz Article

When I began reading Thomas Schatz's "From Hollywood Genres: Film Genre and the Genre Film," I have to admit that my initial reaction was 'not another article defining what a genre is.' However, after reading it, I think that he actually introduced some new and interesting thoughts into genre studies. A film genre is a formula of interweaving characters and cinematic components that become repeated and expanded upon throughout time so that a clear grouping of films emerges. However, as Schatz notes, the genre is susceptible to change, as he explains through a grammatical analogy. While a sentence's grammatical structure can be skewed into incorrect ways, the structure is still absolute and static. In contrast, a slight tweak to a genre film has the ability to change the entire structure that governs it.

Another point I thought was important to Schatz's overall argument was when he states, "from this observation emerges a preliminary working hypothesis: the determining, identifying feature of a film genre is its cultural context, its community of interralated character types whose attitudes, values, and actions flesh out dramatic conflicts inherent within the community." In other words, Schatz states that the community within which the action of a genre film occurs is defined by contemporary culture, and the interweaving relationships and values and characters within which leads to conflict.

The one problem I did have with this article is that it broke down the form of a genre film too much with its discussion of the arena and how the effect of external stimuli on the characters effects the overall nature of the film. After reading this section I felt that every genre film really employs the same narrative structure, and is only different due to slight adjustments of the "grammar structure." This made me feel a bit disenchanted with the idea of genre films as a whole.