Show How Genre and Narrative are established in two crime film

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Show How Genre and Narrative are established in two crime film

In order to examine how genre and narrative is established in two crime films, we conducted a close textual analysis of Ocean’s Eleven and The Bone Collector to find out the main conventions. The main conventions of the crime genre are law enforcers, criminals and action sequence. There are also other signifers such as criminals and etc. You can find typical iconography in the crime genre; the most obvious one is a gun. Other iconography in the crime genre includes police uniform, badges, gadgets, money.

There have been many notable crime films such as Seven (2000), Paycheck (2004) and The Godfather (1972). The crime genre has perhaps been most successful in creating hybrid and sub-genres. There is the heist genre which include films such as The Italian Job also there is the prison genre with films such as Shawshank Redemption. As well, Goodfellas and The Godfather are categorised in the Gangster sub-genre.

Crime is mostly mainstream genre but there are some independent films such as Knock around Guys (2001) and Layer Cakes (2004).  Crime can be classified as a mainstream genre because of the A-list star that appears its movie, e.g. Brad Pitt in Seven, and Tom cruise in Collateral. Another explanation for the genre’s mainstream status is that studio knew the crime genre was a mainstream genre and produce them e.g. Collateral was produced by DreamWorks and Paramount. Also this film have a large appeal of the genre so therefore make sure that it will attract mainstream audiences. These studios have huge Hollywood status.

Historically, Hollywood studios have always been interested in crime films. Crime has been an irresistible lure at the box office for virtual the entire history of films. Criminal behaviour has been so constant in movies that are the following genre of a greater understanding of crime in film: thriller, action, suspense, mystery, detective, prison, film noir and the most modern heist. The crime genre started with one main sub-genre, and that was the gangsta genre.

The crime genre appeals to a mainstream and diverse audiences because of all the elements of the film. Firstly, the action elements of the films which include shoot-outs and car chases appeal to the mainstream audience. The action sequence are very important to the mainstream audience as they want to see the spectacle .Secondly, the A-list actors, who are attracted to the crime genre, make certain people go want the movie for the star. Thirdly, the crime genre appeals to the diverse audience are because there are other type of film if you don’t like action, there is often a more complex storyline. Arguably the biggest appeal for the crime genre is the diversity of film, there is a sub-genre for everyone, which creates appeal for mainstream and diverse audience. These crime films have resulted in some actors being typecast. This means that the actors are expected to play a certain role. For example, Morgan Freeman is typecast as a veteran detective such as in Seven and Along came a Spider.

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The films that I have examined are ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ and ‘The Bone Collector’. Ocean’s Eleven was released in 2001 and is a heist film targets a young age group around 18 and also any person who like a film with action. Similar films that were released during this year were, ‘’ and ‘Monster Ball’.  The director of ‘Ocean’s Eleven’ is Steven Soderbergh, who has directed and written many films such as Insomnia. He also won an award for Traffic. The stars in the film (George Clooney, Brad Pitt) are typecast. George Clooney plays the old sympathetic criminal; the type that George ...

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