1903
Definitions are crucial to analysis. Definitions select what is being discussed. By defining, some things are included and some things are excluded. Generally disciplines need to make specific definitions in order to restrict what is being examined. Since the definition is not something which comes from god or is carved in stone, one hopes that any definition that is constructed will allow for a better understanding of the area defined.
Two important questions:
What do the terms “genre”, “mixed genre” and “sub-genre” mean?
What are the characteristics of the “crime” genre?
Genre refers to a “kind” of film. Some genres are defined by the kind of emotion they look to produce such as “comedy”. “horror” “suspense” and so on.
Other genres are constructed by content such as “westerns”. “science fiction” “crime” and perhaps “monster”
Still others are based on techniques or style such as “musical” “animation”, “film noir”
Mixed genres refer to films which can be placed in 2 or more genres.
Sub genres are genres which can be included in a larger genre.
There is discussion in film studies as to whether the concept is valuable in analysis or not. Some feel that films should not be classified in any way, simply taken on their own merit or lack thereof. On the other hand, people have some feeling about what to expect from films which are classified as specific genres and therefore the concept has some value as a marketing device. None the less, when people talk about a specific genre, there are some expectations and some things which the films share in common. Westerns generally deal with the place in which civilization meets the wild and perhaps should be thought of a “frontier” films.
The “Crime” genre has several sub genres: mysteries, court room dramas (trial films), heist films, cop films and so on.
There are several questions that need to be asked about films dealing with crime and punishment. The first is what constitutes a crime film? Do all films with crimes in them constitute crime films? Consider a film like Sudden Fear. What defines a crime/punishment film? There seem to be a number of subgenres as well – detective stories, police stories, mysteries, prison films, noir and so on. Is there a question of focus in the film? How does focus relate to topics like “secondary classifications”, sub genres and so on
A second set of questions deals with the actual criminal justice system which involves a number of people and events. These include crimes from the planning stage to the execution stage; the pursuit of the criminals (or what happens after the commission of the crime); the trial and finally the punishment.
The people (statuses) involved are the criminals, the forces of law and order, (police, sheriffs, marshals , private investigators, people from the media, court room personnel, judges, lawyers, court officers, expert witnesses and ultimately corrections officers, parole and probation officers and so on. All of these are governed by laws, rules and regulations.
In terms of film, there are questions about style, texts and subtexts. The text is what the story is about, the subtext is an underlying meaning to the story.
In all communications there is a sender who sends a message which is coded in some way to a receiver. The sender codes the message and the receiver decodes it Each art form has its own set of variables which it uses to code its message. Writers code in language; composers use sound and vary pitch, duration etc. Painters use color, composition, intensity and so on. Film makers use the same variables as painters and still photographers – composition, lighting and so on, but in addition they add “editing” the way in which different shots in the film are put together. Each film needs to be analyzed in terms of the visual variables the film maker manipulates to code the message. Some films are complex and have many subtexts coded into them; others have very little in the way of subtexts.
Films reflect attitudes of the times they are made. They can tell us much about attitudes toward crime and the criminal justice system in general.
One can see swings between liberal and conservative ideas and the policies they generate in the systems. Ideas or beliefs are how people feel about things, policy is how these are manifest in the system itself.
As is the case with any film genre, it shifts over time and one of the interesting things about crime films is tracing the general attitudes toward the subject matter over time. Sociologically there have been discussions about the impact of crime films on the viewing public. How much violence is there and how dies this impact the population in eneral? What attitudes does the film generate toward the main character or characters? Does a lack of realism in crime films (especially trial films) help or hinder actual treat because jurors believe what they have seen in films.
What uses and misuses does the criminal justice system have built in. False accusations, availability of data (police working for the D.A. have more access than investigators working for defense lawyers)
Crime films are among the first films to be made. The first “film” is generally considered to be The Great Train Robbery. Both of these films are seen as critical in film theory
THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY
(1903)
Edwin S. Porter
This film is considered the first narrative film giving some depth to the time span of crime films. The other contender might be Trip to the Moon (1902), the Méliès film but this film lacks the complex editing with cross cuts that typify modern film. The Méliès film is basically a documentation of a stage show with some complex (for its day) special effects which could not have been done in live theater.
Porter, the director made many innovative approaches to film, but having done so, seems to have dropped them and left it to those who followed to pick up on them
The film deals with an attack on a station agent and the subsequent hold up of a passenger train.
The film cuts between scenes in different places (the posse chasing the bandits) and uses editing a way that had not been done before. Some other manipulations of variables, such as the clothing of the tenderfoot (a sartorial code) allow the audience to distinguish between local cowboys and someone who is not.
The film also establish some basic aspects of the crime film:
Good guys vs. bad guys (typically later white hats vs, black hats). What roles do we find in crime film is general?
How justice is administered (posse – lynching, vigilantism here not criticized)?
One of the questions we need to look is the way in which the criminal justice system is viewed by the film makers. This will mean looking at shifts over time between liberal and conservative positions.