For Walt’s custom post, a reward for winning the TV Episode Naming Convention Contest, I’m going to recommend a film in various genres for people unfamiliar with those genres. We’ll begin with Walt’s suggestion, which I think is a good one, for Sci-Fi…
Sci-Fi
STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN
It’s always a good sign when you can describe a genre film in terms that don’t include the genre. For example, it’s perfectly accurate to say that Wrath of Khan is a movie about aging and coming to terms with mortality. It’s also fair to say that it’s a retelling of Moby Dick with Kirk as the whale (have to give @epistemographer credit for that one).
Whatever the interpretation, it’s a great movie that uses the genre to service the story instead of the other way around. If you’ve never seen a sci-fi movie before, this will give you a positive portrayal of the possibilities.
Action
RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK
It’s a close call between this and Die Hard, but I almost feel like Die Hard needs to be the second action movie in the syllabus since it begins to play with the conventions of the genre by introducing limitations (e.g. you can’t leave the building). Raiders is pure action and yet manages to hit all the high notes of solid fimmaking with a sharp script by Lawrence Kasdan, gorgeous cinematography by Douglas Slocombe, note-perfect performances by Harrison Ford (still one of his best) and the rest of the cast and rambunctious-yet-disciplined direction by some guy named Spielberg. There’s very little you can’t teach about filmmaking using this movie.
Thriller
NOTORIOUS
If it’s a gateway thriller, how could it not be Hitchcock? In that sense, I’m not picking Notorious to be representative of most thrillers (these days, a thriller is basically a horror movie with less gore and 10 percent more plot) but rather to highlight best practices. What a thriller aspires to is to create tension out of the very core of its characters and how they relate. Claude Rains longing for Ingrid Bergman that blinds him to the fact that she’s a spy and her devotion to Cary Grant which pushes her to take risks that could get her killed, an outcome that Grant has to weigh against the importance of her mission vs. his feelings for her and… Suffice it to say if these characters weren’t interesting, there would be no sense of danger. There would be no thrill when she drops that bottle of wine just as Rains goes looking for her. There would be no thrill during that climactic walk down the stairs. There would be no thriller.
Romcom
WHEN HARRY MET SALLY
You could just as easily throw in The Philadelphia Story or His Girl Friday here, but I can’t have Cary Grant in every damn movie. The reason I pick this movie as a gateway drug for romcoms is that it appeals to men as well as women, and women generally don’t need as much incentive to watch this particular genre.
The key to this film, from a male perspective, is Billy Crystal. His performance as…um, gimme a sec…yes, Harry (had a 50/50 shot there, think I nailed it) mirrors the attitude of most men who cringe whenever the trailer for the latest Kate Hudson film appears. He is not the Matthew McConaughey that most women are expected to drool over, and that’s the point. His path to love and maturity through friendship (and, hence, empathy) with a woman is easier to relate to than the path of “boy who gets laid regularly meets girl who is special and so he must change his lecherous ways to become the man that she will tolerate enough to marry.” This is mostly because that first part about getting laid regularly is true for about .02 percent of the male population.
Drama
THE LION IN WINTER
Drama is a pretty broad fucking category, but for someone who’s never seen one, the definition probably goes something like this: “A movie where nothing happens.” Well, if that’s your definition, have I got the movie for you. Plot-wise, absolutely nothing happens in The Lion in Winter. Spoiler alert, but the stakes are the same at the end as they were at the beginning. A grand total of zilch gets accomplished. And yet, it’s one of the most riveting movies ever made.
Credit James Goldman with writing what may be the most whip-smart dialogue ever committed to the screen (adapted from his own play). Credit Peter O’Toole and Katherine Hepburn with delivering said dialogue at the top of their game (Hepburn got an Oscar for her trouble, as did Goldman for that matter). Credit a you-know-some-of-them-now supporting cast, including Anthony Hopkins and Timothy Dalton, with holding their own. And credit director Anthony Harvey with staying out of the way.
Documentary
SPELLBOUND
Honestly, the documentary genre is just as broad, if not broader, than drama. But I think if you’re going to introduce somebody, in this day and age, to the medium, you’re going to want to use an example that mimics what they’re probably used to: Reality television.
As with most reality television, Spellbound is centered on a competition, in this case the Scripps National Spelling Bee. As with most reality television, we spend a lot of time behind the scenes getting to know the contestants. Unlike most reality television, Spellbound isn’t interested in humiliating any of its subjects. Its goal is empathy, not ridicule.
And that’s the principal difference between documentaries and a lot of reality television. Documentaries don’t (for the most part) judge. An important exception are muckraking docs, which follow a more journalistic bent, and come up with pretty harsh opinions (about government and big business, for the most part) but even most of them try to be even-handed about it (the best ones, anyway).
Spellbound also breaks the myth of the documentary as boredom incarnate. You will be on the edge of your seat. Moreso than most horror films, actually.
Horror
SCREAM
Scream has the advantage of acting as a primer on the horror genre while also acting as a pretty good example of the genre. It’s scary enough to chill a newbie without completely turning them off, but isn’t so tame as to offend a hardcore fan. (That opening sequence is pretty damn creepy in any context.)
It’s also, and here’s the point most people unfamiliar with the genre miss about horror, a lot of fun. That it wears this fun on a post-modern sleeve simply makes it more accessible.
Children’s
THE MUPPET MOVIE
Speaking of post-modern, The Muppet Movie is the quintessential adults-can-enjoy-it-too children’s movie. It goes so po-mo as to include a scene in which characters actually read from the script, but never forgets that it’s a movie for kids, with enough action, humor, silliness and truly great songs to keep anyone entertained. I’m looking forward to watching it with Kiran one day and hearing him say, “Seriously, Dad, I’m trying to play that crazy new video game that you’re too old to understand that they beam directly into our brains these days cos’ it’s the future.”
Foreign
AMÉLIE
Just as no one American film can give you the flavor of all American film, no one film from another country can give you the flavor of their films, much less all other films from all other countries, so I’m going to shift the objective a bit for this one. Here, all I’m trying to accomplish is to give the viewer a positive experience with a foreign film so they’ll want to come back for more, and hardly a more positive experience can be had, in any language, from any country, than Amélie. The sheer creative force writer/director Jean-Pierre Jeunet invests in every shot of this film is enough to convince you that all foreign film is worth a look. It’s not, actually, but you’ll discover that gem later.
Click to Buy:
My wife and I went on our first movie date (2nd or 3rd overall date depending how you count) to see Amelie. We’re celebrating our 5th anniversary tomorrow. Coincidence? Regardless, good choice there and all around.
I’ve taught a seminar on Hitchcock, but have somehow never been able to get into Notorious. I think of that drama between Grant and Bergman as utterly manufactured–the sort of thing reasonable adults could sort out with a simple conversation. “I love you, so I will sleep with this other guy because you asked me to and I have low self-esteem” is too melodrama, not enough thriller for me.
You know how those old melodramas were so full of dumb dilemmas like this? “My husband is dying of radiation poisoning, so I will become a rich man’s mistress to earn money to pay for his treatment.” I have a campy fondness for those melodramas, but in a thriller the contrivance leaves me cold.
How about North by Northwest? That’s sexier, and I love that little tiny razor.
I agree with all of your calls, but I can’t help but wonder if the Muppets are losing their relevance with the current generation of kids. Lately they’ve been relegated to bad TV movies and rides at Walt Disney World – the kids today (oh geez, I thought I’d be much older before I used that phrase) don’t understand how wonderfully subversive the original Muppet Show was. (Thank god for the DVDs, but it’s not the same as experiencing them when they first aired…)
I hate to say it, but I think the Muppets in general (and “Muppet Movie” in particular) may have been surpassed by the work of Pixar.