This document discusses film genres and their defining characteristics. It identifies common genres such as science fiction, horror, western, war, comedy, romance, action, thriller, police, and musical. A genre represents a system of symbols and themes that allow an audience to recognize a particular category. For example, the western genre is typically associated with cowboys, guns, horses, mountains or deserts, Indians, and the "taming of the west" narrative. The document notes that genre boundaries can be flexible, allowing for hybrid genres like Terminator 2, which combines science fiction and action genre elements.