WHAT FILM INVENTED THE GENRE?

[AndyC]

Similarly Star Wars most certainly did NOT invent the space opera genre, a genre which really evolved in the pulps, was even adapted into various comic formats, and became caricaturized in the early B&W serials (Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, &tc) then slowly began to re-emerge in the 50s as, once again, stories for grown up audiences.  Yet when most movie critics review a space opera themed movie Star Wars is inevitably the ONE movie they ALL refer to.  Seldom will a critic even seem aware of the literary genre from which these movies draw their inspiration, much less the movies and serials that preceded it, which is a shame.

Quite a few people fail to understand that Lucas was paying tribute to the serials of his own childhood with movies like Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark. It would be most accurate to say that those movies ushered in a new era for their respective genres.

Personally, I prefer the approach that defines a seminal film by what it brought to the genre. Star Wars was far from an original story, and Lucas is pretty honest about using sources like Joseph Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Fritz Lang, etc. The movies that copied the plot are not really important.

The importance of Star Wars, aside from being a cultural phenomenon, has more to do with technical innovation, style and even its revolutionary approach to merchandising. After Star Wars, practically every movie and TV show set in space adopted techniques from Star Wars and tried to look like Star Wars. The scale got bigger. Spaceships became huge, highly-detailed, blockier and covered in hull plating and other details, not to mention huge, glowing reaction engines on the rear. Space battles all included small fighter craft. The future became decidedly more lived-in, with the norm being less shiny and clean, and more old, dirty and patched up.

Star Wars did not so much invent a genre as redefine it.

[Allhallowsday]

How about the gangster movie, the kind that focus on the gangster? Modern audiences would probably point to the "Godfather" franchise, but I'd guess that James Cagney's Public Enemy (1931) probably created this genre, unless anybody knows of earlier or more iconic examples...

LITTLE CAESAR (1931 also) starring EDWARD G. ROBINSON is certainly a contender for at least co-founding the modern gangster genre. 

[Menard]

How about the gangster movie, the kind that focus on the gangster? Modern audiences would probably point to the "Godfather" franchise, but I'd guess that James Cagney's Public Enemy (1931) probably created this genre, unless anybody knows of earlier or more iconic examples...

LITTLE CAESAR (1931 also) starring EDWARD G. ROBINSON is certainly a contender for at least co-founding the modern gangster genre. 

[Allhallowsday]

I think this film, cited below in a screencap, invented it's own genre... but I can't decide what exactly the genre would be... what film?  What genre? 

[Menard]

I think this film, cited below in a screencap, invented it's own genre... but I can't decide what exactly the genre would be... what film?  What genre? 

Remington Electric Razor commercials? 

[Allhallowsday]

I think this film, cited below in a screencap, invented it's own genre... but I can't decide what exactly the genre would be... what film?  What genre? 

Remington Electric Razor commercials? 

Nome!

[Fausto]

I was reading an anime magazine a while back, and there was an article discussing this very issue (though in that case, it was what series started anime genres/cliches-giant robots, fan service, magical girls, etc). One of the major issues the article brought up, which many have already mentioned here in one way or another, is that there is a difference between a film/series that creates a genre, and one that makes the conventions of the genre stick. To use another anime reference (I'm about to really nerd out here), the first real japanese "magical girl" series was Sally the Witch, back in the 70's. Yet the show that made the trend popular was Cutie Honey, which came much later. In the same way, while Blood Feast may have been the first to use gore, Psycho is definately the film that made the slasher genre really take off. (

[Menard]

...while Blood Feast may have been the first to use gore, Psycho is definately the film that made the slasher genre really take off. (

Psycho preceded Blood Feast by 3 years. The slasher sub-genre really didn't take off until much later. Though Halloween was the catalyst for it, even though it existed in bits before that, what really set it into motion, IMO, was Friday the 13th. The number of slasher flicks released shortly after the success of Friday the 13th was astounding. Friday the 13th was released 2 years after Halloween.

[Dr. Whom]

BTW, did The Attack of the Killer Tomatoes introduce the trope of monsters being killed by music?

[Jim H]

BLOOD FREAK (1972) definitely started the Christian gore/anti-drug horror movie genre. 

MR VAMPIRE - Jiang Shi
[/quote]

Heh, yeah.  Here's a few other HK film sub-genres.

The gambling film - God of Gamblers
Heroic Bloodshed - A Better Tomorrow (I've heard some people argue Long Arm of the Law, but I disagree)
Kung fu film - The Chinese Boxer (in the sense of being based around bare handed fighting instead of weapons fighting)

Also, the blind/handicapped fighter genre really starts off with the first Zatoichi film, The Tale of Zatoichi.

[peter johnson]

Hey!  Allhallowsday asked a question!  We should at least try to answer --
I don't know what film the still is from -- It looks French/late '50's/early '60's.  But what genre hasn't been discussed yet?
She looks like she's trying to seduce him -- but it couldn't be the first "let's kill my husband for money" flick, as this doesn't look as old as "Double Indemnity" --
We need clues --
peter johnson/denny clueless

[Raffine]

I think this film, cited below in a screencap, invented it's own genre... but I can't decide what exactly the genre would be... what film?  What genre? 

Is it an obscure non-English documentary that is considered a groundbreaking classic in it's country of origin?

[Allhallowsday]

Is it an obscure non-English documentary that is considered a groundbreaking classic in it's country of origin?

Hardly obscure, though it's a near miracle the film is extant.  It is non-English but no documentary... and considered a groundbreaking classic of world cinema. 

[peter johnson]

Wages of Fear?

[ghouck]

Not sure if it INVENTED the genre, but 'Poultrygiest' is the best Independent, Low-Budget, Zombie-Chicken Musical Parody I've seen in , ,well, , ever.