Genre analysis examines how films are classified based on similarities in their narrative elements and content. Popular film genres include comedy, drama, romance, and horror. Drama films focus on the realistic and emotional struggles of complex characters dealing with conflicts or dilemmas. Common sub-genres are crime drama, historical drama, comedy-drama, and romantic drama. Key characters in drama are the protagonist, who the audience sympathizes with, and the antagonist, who goes to extremes to achieve their goals and lacks empathy. Examples of successful drama films that illustrate sub-genres are Forrest Gump, Titanic, and Inglorious Bastards.

1. Genre Analysis
By Liam White

2. Genre
Genre, is a film theory refers to the method based on similarities in the narrative elements
from which films are constructed. They are then classified into films or genres. Some popular
genres in Hollywood include Comedy, Chick Flick, Horror, Romance, Drama, Musicals etc.
Films are then subdivided by their characteristics and the content shown in the film. For
example: Family movies, children’s films, cult films and silent films. Genres are basically
used by film makers to appeal different audiences classified by either age, ethical
background, region etc.
Drama:
Drama describes a genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious
than humorous in tone, focusing on in-depth development of realistic characters who must
deal with realistic emotional struggles. A drama is commonly considered the opposite of a
comedy, but may also be considered separate from other works of some broad genre, such
as a fantasy. At the centre of a drama is usually a character or characters who are in conflict
at a crucial moment in their lives. They often revolve around families.
The purpose of a dramatic storyline is to move the audience emotionally. Dram films depend
mostly the development on normal character(s) that is dealing with a conflict or dilemma.
Dramas often give actors a chance to stretch into a role that other genres wouldn’t allow
them to do. This is because drama films focus on building up characters that the audience
can engage with. Drams typically portray a character(s) journey and developments as well
as exhibiting real life characters, situations, settings and stories. They also typically have
dramatic sounds and exaggerated performance
Drama is a very broad genre and sub-genres of drama often overlap, e.g.
Crime Drama – Generally follows a character(s) involved in criminal activity or law
enforcement and the justice/legal system
Historical Drama – Films that focus on dramatic events in history particularly in war films.
Comedy Drama – A drama film that uses an equal, or nearly equal balance of humour and
serious content
Romantic Drama – Drama film which dwells on the elements of romantic love

3. Common characters in Drama films
The protagonist
He/she is generally the main character in the film. The audience feels sympathy towards this
character that always triumphs over the villain. The character also has such as bravery,
determination and a desire to overcome evil. This characteristics often put under trails so
that these characteristics can be exposed to the audience.
Drama is the genre who is not only engaging the audience into the protagonist's journey,
but also participates into the character's transformation inviting the public to wonder and put
questions upon their life, becoming an inspiration and an opportunity to get connected with
our imagination and inner self.
The antagonist
The antagonist goes to extreme lengths to get exactly what he/she wants this could include
breaking the law, hurting someone or potentially killing someone. The character primarily
looks out for themselves and seems to posse little empathy towards the character. There us
always a feud between the protagonist and antagonist which makes the antagonist
determined to ruin the life of the protagonist
Film Examples
A drama film is a film genre build upon the journey and development of realistic characters
dealing with emotional themes like poverty, class division, drug addiction, infidelity, sexuality,
moral dilemmas, and alcoholism or representing a model or artist's biography.
Dramas are produced re-presenting a reality (like history drama) or creating a new one,
overreacting sometimes the facts to induce more emotion, usually evoking in a profound way
meanings of life. Films like comedy-drama (Forrest Gump – 1994 directed by Robert
Zemeckis), historical drama (Titanic – 1997 directed by James Cameron, including war
drama (Inglorious Bastards – 2009 directed by Quentin Tarantino. These are just a few of
the hundreds of top hit drama films that have been released.