Action Films:

Action Films have tremendous impact, continuous high energy, lots of stunts, possibly extended chase scenes, rescues, battles, fights, escapes, non-stop motion, spectacular rhythm and pacing, and adventurous heroes - all designed for pure audience escapism with the action sequences at the core of the film. Action films and adventure films have tremendous cross-over potential as film genres. Both types of films come in a variety of forms or genre-hybrids: sci-fi, thrillers, crime-drama, war, horror, etc. Always, however, they have a resourceful hero(ine) struggling against incredible odds or an evil villain, and/or trapped in various modes of transportation (bus, ship, train, plane, etc.), with victory or resolution attained by the end. Action films have traditionally been aimed at male audiences, ages 13 to the mid-30s, although modern action films have featured strong female characters to broaden demographic appeal.

Adventure Films:

Adventure Films are exciting stories, with new experiences or exotic locales. Adventure films are very similar to the action film genre, in that they are designed to provide an action-filled, energetic experience for the film viewer. The viewer can live vicariously through the travels, conquests, explorations, creation of empires, and situations that confront the main characters, actual historical figures or protagonists. Adventure films were intended to appeal mainly to men, creating major male heroic stars through the years. These courageous, patriotic, or altruistic heroes often fight for their beliefs, struggling for freedom or overcoming injustice. Modern adventure films have crossed over and added resourceful action heroes (sometimes heroines).

Under the category of adventure films, we can include traditional swashbucklers and historical spectacles (similar to the epics film genre), searches or expeditions for lost continents, "jungle" and "desert" epics, treasure hunts, James Bond movies, disaster films, or searches for the unknown. Adventure films are often set in an historical period, and may include stories of historical heroes, kings, battles, rebellion, or piracy. Adventure films, in a broader context, could include boxing movies, motor racing films, and films adapted from literary novels.

Animated Films:

Animated Films are ones in which individual drawings, paintings, or illustrations are photographed frame by frame (stop-frame cinematography). Usually, each frame differs slightly from the one preceding it, giving the illusion of movement when frames are projected in rapid succession at 24 frames per second. When combined with movement, the illustrator's two-dimensional static art comes alive and creates pure and imaginative cinematic images - animals and other inanimate objects can become evil villains or heroes. Animations are not a strictly-defined genre category, but rather a film technique, although they often contain genre-like elements. Animation, fairy tales, and stop-motion films often appeal to children. Animated films are often directed to, or appeal most to children, but can be enjoyed by all.

The British Film Industry:

The British Film Industry and its studios have created a number of memorable films, many of which have won Academy Award Oscars. Many films have been jointly produced by US and UK studios. Throughout all of film history, British films have played an important role. A few Australian films are also included in the greatest films indexes.

Classic Films:

Classic Films are often distinguished or unique works of cinema which have transcended time and trends, with indefinable quality. Classic films are often universal favorites that hold up after repeated rescreenings.

Classics are renowned films of first rank, reference points in film mythology, or films that have become a part of American cultural folklore. Who can argue with these classic examples? Citizen Kane (1941), Gone With The Wind (1939), Casablanca (1942), Grand Hotel (1932), Psycho (1960), or Bonnie and Clyde (1967)?

Comedy Films:

Comedy Films "make 'em laugh" - they elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are light-hearted dramas, designed to amuse and provoke laughter. The comedy genre exaggerates the situation, the language, action, and characters. Comedies observe the deficiencies, foibles, and frustrations of life, providing merriment. Providing a momentary escape from day-to-day life, they usually have happy endings, although the humor may have a serious or pessimistic side. There are many forms of comedy:

(1) Slapstick is comedy with broad, aggressive, physical action, including harmless or painless cruelty and violence, horseplay, and sight gags, e.g., a custard pie in the face, collapsing houses, a fall in the ocean, a loss of trousers or skirts, runaway crashing cars, people chases, etc. The term slapstick was taken from the wooden sticks that clowns slapped together to promote audience applause. It was typical of Laurel and Hardy, Abbott and Costello, W. C. Fields, The Three Stooges, the stunts of Harold Lloyd in Safety Last (1923), and the silent era Keystone Kops. More recent feature film examples include the comedic mad chase for treasure film, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), the Blake Edwards series of Pink Panther films with Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau, and Jim Carrey in Ace Ventura, Pet Detective (1993) and The Mask (1994). Cartoons are the quintessential form of slapstick, i.e., the Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote, and others. Slapstick evolved and was reborn in the screwball comedies of the 1930s and 1940s.

(2) Deadpan was exemplified by the expression-less face of stoic comic hero Buster Keaton.

(3) Verbal comedy was classically typified by the cruel verbal wit of W. C. Fields, the sexual innuendo of Mae West, or the verbal absurdity of dialogues in the Marx Brothers films, or later by the self-effacing, thoughtful humor of Woody Allen.

(4) Screwball comedies are light-hearted, often sophisticated, romantic stories, commonly focusing on a battle of the sexes. They usually include visual gags, wacky characters, a fast-paced plot, and rapid-fire, wise-cracking dialogue reflecting sexual tensions and conflicts in the blossoming of a relationship (or the patching up of a marriage) for an attractive couple with on-going differences. The couple is often a fairly eccentric, but well-to-do female interested in romance and a generally passive or weak male who resists romance. The characters often have contradictory desires for individual identity and for union in a romance under the most unorthodox, insane or implausible circumstances. However, romantic love usually triumphs in the end.

(5) Black or Dark comedies are dark, sarcastic, humorous, or sardonic stories that help us examine otherwise ignored darker serious, pessimistic subjects such as war, death, or illness. One of the greatest black comedies ever made was Stanley Kubrick's Cold War classic satire titled Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) which spoofed the insanity of political and military institutions. (See examples of feature films below for more.)

(6) A Parody or Spoof is a humorous take-off of a more serious film or genre, ridiculing the style, conventions, formulas, or motifs of a serious work, e.g., the films of Mel Brooks, or the Marx Brothers' satiric masterpiece Duck Soup (1933) with anarchic, irreverent humor.

Crime and Gangster Films:

Crime and Gangster Films are developed around the sinister actions of criminals or gangsters, particularly bankrobbers, underworld figures, or ruthless hoodlums who operate outside the law, stealing and murdering their way through life. Criminal and gangster films are often categorized as film noir or mystery films, because of underlying similarities between these cinematic forms.

Crime stories in this genre often highlight or glorify the rise and fall of a particular criminal(s), gang, bank robber, murderer or lawbreakers in personal power struggles or conflict with law and order figures, an underling or competitive colleague, or a rival gang. Headline-grabbing situations, real-life gangsters, or crime reports have often been used in crime films. Rivalry with other criminals in gangster warfare is often a significant plot characteristic. Crime plots also include questions such as how the criminal will be apprehended by police, private eyes, special agents or lawful authorities, or mysteries such as who stole the valued object. Gangster films are morality tales, Horatio Alger success stories turned upside down in which criminals live in an inverted dream world of success and wealth. Although they are doomed to failure and inevitable death, criminals are portrayed as the victims of circumstance, because the stories are told from their point of view - all other "normal" avenues to the top are unavailable to them.

Film gangsters are usually materialistic, street-smart, immoral, meglo-maniacal, and self-destructive.They rise to power with a tough cruel facade while showing an ambitious desire for success and recognition, but underneath they can express sensitivity and gentleness. Gangster/crime films are usually set in large, crowded cities in the secret world of the criminal: dark nightclubs or streets with lurid neon signs, fast cars, sleazy bars, seedy living quarters or rooming houses. Exotic locales for crimes often add an element of adventure and wealth. Writers dreamed up appropriate gangland jargon for the tales, such as "tommy guns" or "molls."

Cult Films:

Cult Films have limited but special appeal. Cult films are usually strange, quirky, offbeat, eccentric, oddball, or surreal, with outrageous and cartoony characters or plots, garish sets and they are often considered controversial. They step outside standard narrative and technical conventions. They elicit a fiery passion in devoted fans, and may cause cultists to enthusiastically champion these films, leading to audience participation and repetitive viewings and showings. Cult movie worshippers persuasively argue with all about the merits of their choices, without regard for standard newspaper or movie reviews.

Many cult films fared poorly at the box office when first shown, but then achieved cult-film status, developing an enduring loyalty and following among fans. They are often made by maverick film-makers with low-budget resources and little commercial marketing. Cult films have tremendous followings with certain groups, e.g., college campuses, midnight movie crowds, etc. Camp films are cult-type films, but they are often poorly made or ludicrous, yet still enjoyable and appreciated. Cult films follow no rules or pattern - some cult films are popular only among certain limited groups of audiences or friends.

Detective Films:

Detective Films are usually considered a sub-type of mystery and crime films (or film noir) that focus on the central character, the hard-boiled detective-hero, as he/she meets various adventures and challenges in the cold and methodical pursuit of the criminal or the solution to the crime. The plot centers on the deductive ability, prowess, confidence, or diligence of the detective as he/she attempts to unravel the crime or situation by piecing together clues and circumstances, seeking evidence, interrogating witnesses, and tracking down a criminal.

The detective often succeeds in cleverly trapping the killer or criminal where law and order officers and local police officials do not. Intensity, anxiety, and suspense build to an exciting climax, often with the detective using his fists or gun to solve his crimes.

Drama Films:

Drama Films are serious presentations, portraying realistic characters, settings, life situations, and stories. A dramatic film shows us human beings at their best, their worst, and everything in-between. Each of the types of subject-matter themes have various kinds of dramatic plots. Dramatic films are probably the largest film genre. See also the melodramas and epics (historical dramas) genres.

Dramatic themes often include current issues, societal ills, problems or injustices, such as racial prejudice, religious intolerance (such as anti-Semitism), drug addiction, poverty, political unrest, the corruption of power, alcoholism, sexual inequality, mental illness, corrupt societal institutions, violence toward women or other explosive issues of the times. These films have successfully drawn attention to the issues by taking advantage of the topical interest of the subject. Although dramatic films have often dealt frankly and realistically with social problems, the tendency has been for Hollywood, especially during earlier times of censorship, to exonerate society and institutions and to blame problems on an individual, who more often than not, would be punished for his/her transgressions.

Epics/Historical Films:

Epics/Historical Films often take an historical or imagined event, mythic, legendary, or heroic figure, and add an extravagant setting and lavish costumes, accompanied by grandeur and spectacle and a sweeping musical score. Epics, costume dramas, historical dramas, medieval romps, or 'period pictures' are tales that often cover a large expanse of time set against a vast, panoramic backdrop. In an episodic manner, they follow the continuing adventures of the hero(s), who are presented in the context of great historical events of the past. Accuracy is sometimes sacrificed: the chronology is telescoped or modified, and the political/historical forces take a back seat to the personalization of the story. Epics often share elements of the more elaborate adventure films genre.

Fantasy Films:

Fantasy Films take the audience to netherworld places where events are unlikely to occur in real life - they transcend the bounds of human possibility and physical laws. Fantasy films are often in the context of the imagination, dreams, or hallucinations of a character or within the projected vision of the storyteller. Fantasy films often have an element of magic, myth, wonder, and the extraordinary.

In fantasy films, the hero often undergoes some kind of mystical experience, and must ask for aid from powerful, superhuman forces on the outside. Flying carpets, magic swords and spells, and ancient religious relics or objects are common elements. Bizarre and imaginary lands include sci-fi worlds, unreal worlds, fairy tale settings, or other whimsical locales (e.g., Shangri-La or Brigadoon). Odd phenomena, physical aberrations, and incredible characters (sometimes monstrous characters that represent the divine or evil spirits) are incorporated into fantasy films. They are often inspired or taken, however remotely, from myth or legend and fill us with a marvelous sense of awe, touching off deep primal emotions.

Film Noir:

Film Noir (literally 'black film,' from French critics who noticed how dark and black the looks and themes were of these films) is a style of American films which evolved in the 1940s. Classic film noir developed during and after World War II, taking advantage of the post-war ambience of anxiety and suspicion. Film noir is a distinct branch of the crime/gangster sagas from the 1930s, but different in tone and characterization. The crime element in film noir is a metaphoric symptom of society's evils, with a strong undercurrent of moral conflict. Strictly speaking however, film noir is not a genre.

The primary moods of classic film noir are melancholy, alienation, bleakness, disillusionment, disenchantment, pessimism, ambiguity, moral corruption, evil, guilt and paranoia. Heroes (or anti-heroes), corrupt characters and villains include down-and-out, hard-boiled detectives or private eyes, gangsters, crooks, petty criminals, murderers, and femme fatales - duplicitous, double-crossing, predatory, tough-sweet, and desperate women. These protagonists are often from the dark and gloomy underworld of violent crime and corruption. Distinctively, they are cynical, tarnished, obsessive (sexual or otherwise), brooding, menacing, sinister, sardonic, disillusioned, frightened and insecure loners, struggling to survive.

Horror Films:

Horror Films are designed to frighten and to invoke our hidden worst fears, often in a terrifying, shocking finale, while captivating and entertaining us at the same time in a cathartic experience. Horror films effectively center on the dark side of life, the forbidden, and strange and alarming events. They deal with our most primal nature and its fears: our nightmares, our vulnerability, our alienation, our terror of the unknown, our fear of death, loss of identity, or fear of sexuality.

Whatever dark, primitive, and revolting traits that simultaneously attract and repel us are featured in the horror genre. Horror films are often combined with science fiction when the menace or monster is related to a corruption of technology, or when Earth is threatened by aliens. The fantasy and supernatural film genres are not synonymous with the horror genre.

Horror films, when done well and with less reliance on horrifying special effects, can be extremely potent film forms, tapping into our dream states and the horror of the irrational and unknown, and the horror within man himself. In horror films, the irrational forces of chaos or horror invariably need to be defeated, and often these films end with a return to normalcy and victory over the monstrous.

Melodrama Films:

Melodrama Films are sub-types of drama films, characterized by a plot to appeal to the emotions of the audience. Melodrama literally means "play with music," and liberal use of music often enhances the emotional plots of melodramas. Melodramatic plots with heart-tugging plots which require hankies, usually emphasize sensational situations of human emotion, failed romance or familial situations, tragedy, illness, or emotional and physical hardship. Victims or suffering protagonists in melodramas are presented with improbable events or difficulties with friends, community, lovers, or family.

Musical and Dance Films:

Musical and Dance Films were the last of the major film genres, as they were dependent on sound. (How could a movie be "all-singing, all-dancing" without sound?) With the coming of talking motion pictures, the musical film genre emerged from its roots: stage musicals and operettas, revues, music halls and vaudeville. Musical/dance films are cinematic forms which emphasize full-scale song and dance routines in a significant way (usually with a musical or dance performance as part of the film narrative), or they are films which are centered on combinations of music, dance, song or choreography.

Musicals highlight various musical artists or dancing stars, with lyrics which support the story line, often with an alternative, escapist vision of reality - a search for love, success, wealth, and popularity. Tremendous film choreography often enhances musical numbers. Musicals are often described as Broadway on film, although many other forms of musicals have been made (e.g., rock 'n' roll movies and disco/dance films).

Mystery Films:

Mystery Films are a particular type of crime film, exploring the unsolved crime (usually the murder or disappearance of one or more of the characters, or a theft), the unmasking of the perpetrator, and an end to the effects of the villainy. Many film genres can be blended with mystery films, including detective films, crime/gangster films, suspense or thriller films, and film noir.

Mystery films often emphasize the detective or person(s) (an amateur, a plain-clothes policeman, or a Private Investigator) solving the crime through clues and his rational powers, the intriguing reasons and events leading to the crime, and the identity of the villain (a murderer, a master spy, an arch fiend, an unseen evil or malignant psychological force). Suspense is added as the protagonist struggles within the puzzle-like narrative to gather evidence and testimony, to investigate all motives, and to discover the one essential clue or fatal flaw/alibi that betrays the identity of the culprit.

Romance Films:

Romance Films , love stories, or affairs of the heart center on passion, emotion, and the romantic, affectionate involvement of the main characters (usually a leading man and lady), and the journey that their love takes through courtship or marriage. Romance films make the love story the main plot focus. Oftentimes, lovers in screen romances face obstacles and the hazards of hardship, finances, social class or status, occupation, or family that threaten to break their union. As in all romantic relationships, tensions of day-to-day life, temptations (of infidelity), and differences in compatibility enter into the plots of romantic films.

Romantic films often explore the essential themes of love at first sight, young (and older) love, unrequited love, obsessive love, sentimental love, spiritual love, forbidden love, sexual and passionate love, sacrificial love, explosive and destructive love, and tragic love. Romantic films serve as great escapes and fantasies for viewers, especially if the two people finally overcome their difficulties and experience life "happily ever after" - implied by a reunion and final kiss. Many romantic films do not have fairy-tale, wistful-thinking stories or happy endings, although love serves as a shield against the harshness of the real world.

Science Fiction Films:

Science Fiction Films are a version of fantasy films - scientific, visionary and imaginative - complete with heroes, distant planets, impossible quests, improbable settings, fantastic places, great dark and shadowy villains, futuristic technology, unknown and unknowable forces, and extraordinary monsters ('things or creatures from space'), either created by mad scientists or by nuclear havoc. Sci-fi tales have a prophetic nature and are often set in a future time, visualized through fanciful settings and advanced technology gadgets, scientific developments, or by fantastic special effects.

Sexual or Erotic Films:

Sexual or Erotic Films focus on themes with either suggestive, erotic or sensual scenes or subjects, sometimes with depictions of human nudity and lovemaking, but not of an explicit nature. Recently, sexual or erotic films are often rated R (except during the early days of cinema). They can include other adult content, including violence and explicit language, or just suggestions of eroticism or sensuality.

Supernatural Films:

Supernatural Films are films that have themes including gods or goddesses, ghosts, apparitions, spirits, miracles, and other similar ideas or depictions of extraordinary phenomena. They may be combined with other genres, including comedy or horror. Interestingly however, supernatural films are usually presented in a comical, whimsical, or a romantic fashion, and are not designed to frighten the audience.

Thriller and Suspense Films:

Thriller and Suspense Films are types of films known to promote intense excitement, suspense, a high level of anticipation, ultra-heightened expectation, uncertainty, anxiety, and nerve-wracking tension. Thriller and suspense films are virtually synonymous and interchangeable categorizations, with similar characteristics and features.

If the genre is to be defined strictly, a genuine thriller is a film that rentlessly pursues a single-minded goal - to provide thrills and keep the audience cliff-hanging at the 'edge of their seats' as the plot builds towards a climax. The tension usually arises when the main character(s) is placed in a menacing situation or mystery, or an escape or dangerous mission from which escape seems impossible. Life itself is threatened, usually because the principal character is unsuspecting or unknowingly involved in a dangerous or potentially deadly situation. Plots of thrillers involve characters which come into conflict with each other or with outside forces - the menace is sometimes abstract or shadowy.

War and Anti-War Films:

War and Anti-War Films often acknowledge the horror and heartbreak of war, letting the actual combat fighting (against nations or humankind) provide the primary plot or background for the action of the film. Typical elements in the action-oriented war plots include POW camp experiences and escapes, submarine warfare, espionage, heroism, "war is hell" brutalities, air dogfights, tough trench/infantry experiences, or male bonding buddy adventures in wartime. War films are often paired with other genres, such as romance, comedy (black), and suspense. Some war films are actually westerns masquerading as war films, with the good guys against the bad guys (with stereotyped labels such as 'krauts,' 'commies,' 'Huns,' or 'nips').

Themes explored in war films include combat, survivor and escape stories, tales of gallant sacrifice and struggle, studies of the futility and inhumanity of battle, and intelligent and profound explorations of the moral and human issues. Some war films do balance the soul-searching, tragic consequences and inner turmoil of combatants with action-packed, dramatic spectacles, enthusiastically illustrating the excitement and turmoil of warfare.

Western Films:

Western Films are the major defining genre of the American film industry, a eulogy to the early days of the expansive American frontier. They are one of the oldest, most enduring and flexible genres and one of the most characteristically American genres in their mythic origins - they focus on the West - in North America. Western films have also been called the horse opera, the oater (quickly-made, short western films which became as commonplace as oats for horses), or the cowboy picture. The western film genre has portrayed much about America's past, glorifying the past-fading values and aspirations of the mythical by-gone age of the West. Over time, westerns have been re-defined, re-invented and expanded, dismissed, re-discovered, and spoofed.