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Laura Petersen 2522
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A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on
in-depth development of realistic characters
dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes
such as alcoholism, drug addiction, racial
prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, crime and
corruption put the characters in conflict with
themselves.
This film genre can be contrasted with an action
film, which relies on fast-paced action and physical
conflict, but superficial character development. All
film genres can include dramatic elements, but
typically, films considered drama films focus mainly
on the drama of the main issue.
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Dramatic films include a very large
spectrum of film genres. Because of
the large number of drama films,
these movies have been subcategorized:
Crime drama and Legal drama Character development based on
themes involving criminals, law
enforcement and the legal system.
Historical drama(epic) (including War
drama) - Films that focus on dramatic
events in history.
Docudrama the difference between
a docudrama and a documentary is
that in a documentary it uses real
people to describe history or current
events; in a docudrama it uses
professionally trained actors to play
the roles in the current event, that is
"dramatized" a bit.
Comedy-drama: is in which there is
an equal, or nearly equal balance
of humor and serious content.
 Melodrama: a sub-type of drama
films that uses plots that appeal to
the heightened emotions of the
audience. Melodramatic plots often
deal with "crises of human emotion,
failed romance or friendship,
strained familial situations, tragedy,
illness, neuroses, or emotional and
physical hardship."
 Romance: a sub-type of dramatic
film which dwells on the elements of
romantic love.
 Tragedy: a drama in which a
character's downfall is caused by a
flaw in their character or by a major
error in judgment.
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From the silent era to the 1950s, Dramas were tools to
teach the audience they show the effects of the
depression. In the 1950s, began a rise in well-known
dramatic actors. Glenn Ford, James Dean, Bette Davis,
and Marilyn Monroe were notable dramatic actors.
Dramatic Films focused on character relationships and
development. All About Eve (1950) focused on women,
and their relationship with men. Rebel Without a Cause
(1955) displayed teenage angst.
 Some of the most critically-acclaimed drama films in
Asian cinema were produced during the 1950s,
including Yasujirō Ozu's Tokyo Story (1953), Kenji
Mizoguchi's Ugetsu (1954), Satyajit Ray's The Apu Trilogy
(1955-1959), Guru Dutt's Pyaasa (1957), and the Akira
Kurosawa films Rashomon (1950), Ikiru (1952) and Seven
Samurai (1954).
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The 1960s brought politically driven dramas focusing
on war.
During the 1970s, modern dramatic directors made
some of their first films. Francis Ford Coppola directed
The Godfather (1972). Martin Scorsese directed Taxi
Driver (1976), Mean Streets (1973), and musical drama
New York, New York (1977). Sylvester Stallone created
one of the most successful sports drama franchises
Rock (1976) and also directed the sequel Rocky II
(1979). In addition, in sports drama were films that
focused on the struggle of athletes such as Brian's
Song (1970), and The Longest Yard (1974). War films
and specifically World War II films were produced,
giving the most realistic adaptation of the war seen in
films at that time.
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In the 1980s, dramatic film put emphasis on highly
emotional themes., were full character studies of
African American culture and history. War dramas
again played a big part as Platoon (1986) showed the
horrors of Vietnam.. Drama, with a science fiction edge
was a theme when Steven Spielberg directed E.T. the
Extra-Terrestrial (1982), and Ridley Scott directed Blade
Runner (1982) , and also The Accused.
During the 1990s, Goodfellas (1990) took a gritty, hardedged look at mob crime. The Shawshank Redemption
(1994), which was set inside a prison, had strong themes
of hope, as did the Holocaust-themed Schindler's List
(1993). Comedy-drama was featured with films like
Forrest Gump (1994), Jerry Maguire (1996) and As Good
as It Gets (1997). Child-oriented dramas also became
more popular with titles such as The Lion King (1994)
and Toy Story (1995).
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In the 2000s, biopics such as Walk the Line (2005)
and Milk (2008) have become popular among
filmmakers. Gladiator (2000) is an epic dramatic
film, along with The Last Samurai (2003). The Gulf
War and similar skirmishes were an inspiration for
dramatic films in war drama movies like Black
Hawk Down (2001) and Jarhead (2005). Despite
the drop on popularity of the romantic dramas,
some of them have enjoyed big box office and
critical success, as the controversial
groundbreaking Brokeback Mountain (2005) for
example, that won several awards and Slumdog
Millionaire (2008) is a critically-acclaimed
romantic drama film that has been nominated
for ten Academy Awards, and went on to win
eight of them, including Best Picture.
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Films of the drama genre can be targeted at many
different audiences as drama is such a broad term and
there are many different hybrids within this genre.
Drama Films are serious presentations or stories with
settings or life situations that portray realistic characters
in conflict with either themselves, others, or forces of
nature. A dramatic film shows us human beings at their
best, their worst, and everything in-between. Each of
the types of subject-matter themes have various kinds
of dramatic plots. Dramatic films are probably the
largest film genre because they include a broad
spectrum of films. Also crime films, melodramas, epics
(historical dramas), biopic (biographical), or romantic
genres - just some of the other genres that have
developed from the dramatic genre.
As a group we have looked at skins and
misfits and found that the genre of
youth culture in television dramas
appeal to us but this genre does not
exist in film and therefore our piece
will be a hybrid of social realism and
drama. Using some of the themes
which we have seen in the
television series skins and misfits;
relationships, alcohol, drugs
violence ect and we feel a suitable
target audience for this genre of film
would be teenagers as it is about
the things a teenager would have
to deal with in society as well as the
stereotypes the media have
created for young people.