Genre - Continued

To further extend our knowledge of genre in today's lesson as well as looking at where the idea of genre itself originally developed from we also began to look at the development of genre groups through the years and how these genres have adapted to maintain successful levels of audiences as times have changed and peoples taste in what they wish to see have developed. A good example would be 'The Western' genre. Originally a genre that came from 19th century melodramatic literature which was inspired by the idea of a hero and villain in which the hero is out to stop the villain involving scenarios such as wild chases, violence and criminal offences. As well as focuses on more story based themes the original form of this genre also provided educational content as it explored the history of western migration and other key parts to the current events of the time and how the world was changing. Films such as 'The Covered Wagon' and 'The Iron Horse' are both examples of these original western styled movies in which all that were later to follow in developed styles had all spiralled from. Notably one of the first developments and considered as one of the first 'modern westerns' produced in late 30's 'Stagecoach' was seen as the first steps of the development of this genre with a change in the ways the audience began to feel about the characters they saw on the screen came a change in the way these characters were set to behave in order to achieve this level of empathy from the audience. Further on from this came the western genres most successful period to date in which the now classed 'classic western' films were developed, these films including the likes of Clint Eastwood staring in films such as 'A fistful of Dollars'. However after such a peak in successes had to come a downfall for the genre. With genres submerging in popularity such as those of the horror and sci-fi genre particularly through the 70's, 80's and 90's western movies lost a lot of its audiences to these genres and thus became a smaller more uncountable genre. However learning to keep with the current audiences again new developments of the western genre were coming to the cinemas with films such as 'Young Guns' released in the late 80's and from then on providing a fresher look at morals, race (such as seeing a black cowboy for almost the first time as the hero of this genre) and genuine public interest came a revile of the western genre once again. Clearly demonstrating how genres especially that of the western genre has had to develop over time in order to keep itself current and of interest to audiences. For further information on 'The Western' genre follow the link provided  http://www.filmsite.org/westernfilms.html