Genre theory offers a useful means of classifying films according to their tropes and conventions. Although films constructed purposely to fit into a specific genre can be criticized for being overly commercial, genre theory does reveal how American audiences do react favorably towards familiar themes, actors, directorial styles, plots, and imagery (“Movie Genres”). Moreover, genres reveal the power of archetypes in storytelling. Even when a film does not fit neatly within one and only one genre, or when a film straddles many genres at once, the plot and characterization may still reveal familiar themes. Fantasy can be considered a universal genre in that all cultures have a collective body of myths and storytelling about superhuman or otherworldly creatures. Therefore, fantasy films are about much more than escapism. Fantasy is a genre that offers filmmakers and audiences alike a great degree of flexibility in terms of symbols and motifs. Audiences are free to interpret a fantasy film and its protagonist’s motives liberally. However, the cornerstone of the fantasy genre is “situations that break the limitations of the real world,” (“Movie Genres,” p. 12). In The Wizard of Oz, the limitations of the real world are broken down after an ordinary farm girl named Dorothy is knocked unconscious after a tornado. The directors capitalize on the new Technicolor technology, using color film to render the fantasy/dream sequence and black and white for the Kansas sections. Ironically, Dorothy’s fantasy world is realer and more vivid than her “real” life. The Wizard of Oz therefore...
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