Do Genres Make Us Lazy?

It has been well discussed here how the audience to a genre film approaches it with a set of expectations. As Thomas Sobchack explains it, “the plot is fixed, the characters defined, the ending satisfyingly predictable.” I have questioned the spectator’s reasons for choosing a genre film over another that does not fit a particular model. And while I will certainly not complain about the genre film’s status, that does not prevent me from questioning its ethics.

Film is most certainly a form of entertainment. It is also a thought-provoking and socially relevant mode of communication. Thus choosing to watch a genre film can be seen as a choice that one makes with the assumption that it has the highest possibility of yielding a positive result. This is precisely why they are made. So producing a genre film could potentially be seen as a plight of laziness on behalf of the filmmakers. Potentially, not always. That is not my concern at the present time. Rather, I approach the topic from the audience standpoint.

“It is that which we expect in a genre film and that which we get,” states Sobchack. So in decidedly picking a genre film we lend no creativity to our conjectures of the final product. Does this mean we are lazy in our decision? My aim here is not the world at large but rather our current American society that is already plagued with clear and unapologetic displays of laziness. It only makes sense, for the modern general public, that such laziness would manifest itself in the forms of media it chooses to ingest.

The claim could be made that it is the industry’s fault for continuing to make formulaic pictures. It is strictly a chicken and egg debate at this point. However, it is only going to change when the studios feel that money can be gained by making something original. Here comes the problem. We are not a society that is particularly fond of immediate change and it is usually much easier to take what is convenient. So it seems that my initial question could be reversed. Does laziness make genres?

Stating it like such makes it sound a little absurd. There are numerous factors not being taken into account and today’s society is nowhere near a mirror image of society during the birth of film and film genre. Regardless, the film genre remains an important mode of discourse for affirming our ideological stances and broadcasting them to the masses. Thus we continually demand that which we want to see and that which with we agree. I am not suggesting that genres are the only way in which the ideology is perpetuated, but it is the most cinematically available.

So we can return to the original question, this time ignoring any other factor and focusing entirely on choosing between a genre film and any other film. Sure, there is a degree of laziness in picking something that will do versus something that could be more challenging. Thus the genre film and film genre are more than industrially relevant products but are clearly socially relevant, as reflected in their existence.