GANGSTER FILM IS A GENRE THE FILM NOIR IS NOT
“ALTHOUGH THE GANGSTER FILM IS A GENRE, THE FILM NOIR IS NOT.” DISCUSS THIS STATEMENT WITH REFERENCE TO THEORIES OF GENRE AND FILM NOIR. To discus the above statement, the key term and concept “genre” must be defined. I also plan to present evidence that will validate my claim that film noir is not a genre, as I agree with the above statement. ‘Genre’ is a French word meaning ‘type’ or ‘kind’. ... However, theory on the concept of genre in the cinema only began to be developed in the late sixties and early seventies. ... (Hayward, 1996) However defining genres from each other becomes a problem when accounting where one genre stops and another begins. Because of the problems encountered when defining each genre, some argue that genre is more than ‘generic cataloguing’ but is the centre of the relationship between audience and filmmakers. And by generic cataloguing I mean genre is more than the classification process of typecasting, putting everything in one box or another. Writers such as Stephen Neale argue that analysis of genre cannot be restricted to individual genres in isolation from one another. (Neale 2000:207) Many look at analysis of genre from two basic viewpoints. The first being those who deal with the aesthetic components and characteristics of genre, such as character, setting, plot etc. Secondly, there are those, which deal with the social and cultural significance such as Will Wright who attempts to adapt Levi-Strauss’s concept of myth to an explanation of how genre conventions represent social shifts and problems and can be a way of how society communicates with itself. (Cook 2000:137) Both analytical viewpoints can often be incorporated within each other; such is the complexity of analysing genre. Starting with these two basic viewpoints and looking at gangster film and film noir, independently as well as comparatively, I will illustrate how one is viewed as a genre whereas the latter is viewed as a style of film making rather than a type of film. ... The 1930’s are seen as the ‘classic’ period for gangster films. ... Emerging as a distinct genre, it is associated with the Warner Bros. ... These two factors were both influential, not only to the gangster film as a genre, but also to the studio’s identity. ... But it also extended to include cultural forms, such as the narrative formula of the story, which could be used repetitively, simplified the basic storyline of the gangster’s rise and fall. ... Nick Roddick sees the consolidation of the ‘classic’ gangster film as a generic and industrial issue. ... Theorists such as Thomas Schatz have argued that cultural forms were constantly reproduced, and this is exactly the reason why the gangster film can be generically typed. As with most aesthetic theorists of genre, Schatz looks at the issues of repetition and variation, similarity and difference and the extent to which the elements repeated and varied are simple and complex.