Editing Film genre (section)

==Categorization==
[[File:All Quiet on the Western Front (1930 film) poster.jpg|thumb|[[War film]] or [[List of anti-war films|anti-war movie]]: [[Lewis Milestone]]'s ''[[All Quiet on the Western Front (1930 film)|All Quiet on the Western Front]]'', 1930|336x336px]]
Because genres are easier to recognize than to define, academics agree they cannot be identified in a rigid way.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FUNBpwAACAAJ|title=Film Art: An Introduction|last1=Thompson|first1=Kristin|last2=Bordwell|first2=David|date=2012-07-06|publisher=McGraw-Hill Education|isbn=9780073535104|language=en}}</ref> Furthermore, different countries and cultures define genres in different ways. A typical example are war movies. In [[United States]], they are mostly related to ones with large U.S. involvement such as World wars and Vietnam, whereas in other countries, movies related to wars in other historical periods are considered ''war movies''.

Film genres may appear to be readily categorizable from the setting of the film. Nevertheless, films with the same settings can be very different, due to the use of different themes or moods. For example, while both ''[[Midway (1976 film)|The Battle of Midway]]'' and ''[[All Quiet on the Western Front (1930 film)|All Quiet on the Western Front]]'' are set in a [[war]]time context and might be classified as belonging to the [[war film]] genre, the first examines the themes of honor, sacrifice, and valour, and the second is an [[List of anti-war films|anti-war film]] which emphasizes the pain and horror of war. While there is an argument that [[film noir]] movies could be deemed to be set in an urban setting, in cheap hotels and underworld bars, many classic noirs take place mainly in small towns, suburbia, rural areas, or on the open road.<ref name="google">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Dxis1i4jxVwC|title=Architecture and Film|last=Lamster|first=Mark|date=2000|publisher=Princeton Architectural Press|isbn=9781568982076|page=217}}</ref>

The editors of filmsite.org argue that animation, [[pornographic film]], [[documentary film]], [[silent film]] and so on are non-genre-based film categories.<ref name="filmsite">{{cite web|url=http://www.filmsite.org/genres2.html |title=Other Major Film Categories |publisher=filmsite.org|access-date=2015-03-14}}</ref>

[[Linda Williams (film scholar)|Linda Williams]] argues that horror, melodrama, and pornography all fall into the category of "body genres" since they are each designed to elicit physical reactions on the part of viewers. Horror is designed to elicit spine-chilling, white-knuckled, eye-bulging terror; melodramas are designed to make viewers cry after seeing the misfortunes of the onscreen characters; and pornography is designed to elicit sexual arousal.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Williams|first=Linda|date=Summer 1991|title=Film Bodies: Gender, Genre, and Excess|url=http://fq.ucpress.edu/cgi/doi/10.2307/1212758|journal=Film Quarterly|volume=44|issue=4|pages=2–13|doi=10.2307/1212758|jstor=1212758}}{{Dead link|date=May 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> This approach can be extended: comedies make people laugh, tear-jerkers make people cry, feel-good films lift people's spirits and inspiration films provide hope for viewers.

[[Eric R. Williams]] (no relation to Linda Williams) argues that all narrative feature-length films can be categorized as one of eleven "super genres" ([[Action film|action]], [[Crime fiction|crime]], [[fantasy]], [[Horror film|horror]], [[Romance film|romance]], [[Science fiction film|science fiction]], [[slice of life]], [[Sports film|sports]], [[Thriller film|thriller]], [[War film|war]] and [[Western film|Western]]).<ref name=":0" /> Williams contends that labels such as [[Comedy film|comedy]] or [[Drama (film and television)|drama]] are more broad than the category of super genre, and therefore fall into a category he calls "film type".<ref name=":1" /> Similarly, Williams explains that labels such as animation and musical are more specific to storytelling technique and therefore fall into his category of "voice".<ref>{{Cite web|last=Williams|first=Eric R.|title=How to View and Appreciate Great Movies (episode 24: Filmmaker's Voice and Audience Choice)|url=https://www.thegreatcourses.com/courses/how-to-view-and-appreciate-great-movies.html|access-date=2020-06-07|website=English|language=en}}</ref> For example, according to Williams, a film like ''[[Blazing Saddles]]'' could be categorized as a [[Comedy film|comedy]] (type) [[Western (genre)|Western]] (super-genre) [[Musical film|musical]] (voice), while ''[[Anomalisa]]'' is a [[Drama (film and television)|drama]] (type) Slice of Life (super-genre) [[animation]] (voice). Williams has created a seven-tiered categorization for narrative feature films called the [[Screenwriters Taxonomy]].<ref name=":2" />

A genre movie is a film that follows some or all of the conventions of a particular genre, whether or not it was intentional when the movie was produced.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RbKuuBqBWg8C|title=Journalists in Film: Heroes and Villains|last=McNair|first=Brian|date=2010|publisher=Edinburgh University Press|isbn=9780748634477|language=en}}</ref>