Film Genre Politics

Michael13

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I was having an interesting discussion with friends about films and politics. Which film genres do you think lean to the left and which lean to the right?

List of genres:

Action
Adventure
Crime
Horror
Fantasy
Sci-Fi
Comedy
Thriller
Western

(If I've forgotten some, please add them)
 
Western, Action definitely have a right wing feel to them. basically gun, police and military propaganda movies.
 
The Sci-Fi genera is progressive by nature, because it explores how advances in technology etc would challenge our traditional values and beliefs.
 
Horror is an interesting one. Often conservative in revolving around religion, good vs evil etc......but it's also quite liberal in it's depiction of sex and violence.
 
Movies have hit rock bottom.


"Happy death day"


Nuff said...
 
Action - Hard Right

Adventure - Center

Crime - Left

Horror - Hard Right

Fantasy - Left

Sci-Fi - Hard Left

Comedy - Left

Thriller - Right

Western - Right

------ADDED------

Surrealist - Hard Left

Exploitation/Vigilante - Right

Historical drama (micro) - Left

Historical drama (macro) - Right

Traumedy - Left
 
Action - Hard Right

Adventure - Center

Crime - Left

Horror - Hard Right

Fantasy - Left

Sci-Fi - Hard Left

Comedy - Left

Thriller - Right

Western - Right

------ADDED------

Surrealist - Hard Left

Exploitation/Vigilante - Right

Historical drama (micro) - Left

Historical drama (macro) - Right

Traumedy - Left


I'm interested in why you consider crime to be left and horror to be hard right?

I would have thought crime would fall into the right because it's often about the cops tracking down the criminals.
 
I'm interested in why you consider crime to be left and horror to be hard right?

I would have thought crime would fall into the right because it's often about the cops tracking down the criminals.

Horror is hard, hard right.

Black-and-white delineations between good and evil, clear traditionalist moral undercurrents (Freddy/Jason/Michael always killing the drug users and premarital sexers before the virgin heroine ultimately succeeds), capitalization on reaction, etc. All the great horror films have these qualities, ranging from capitalizing explicitly on religious anxiety (The Exorcist) to punishing sin (Jaws, Halloween, Psycho, etc. )

Crime, I was somewhat torn on. In past decades, I would have said right, but crime films have become much more nuanced and noir, moving away from the black-and-white depictions of two-dimensional evil bad guys and good guy cops. Now crime depictions are more like The Wire, which is hard left, in that they provided balance in having flaws and justifications on both sides, brought on by inequality, etc.
 
Action - Hard Right

Adventure - Center

Crime - Left

Horror - Hard Right

Fantasy - Left

Sci-Fi - Hard Left

Comedy - Left

Thriller - Right

Western - Right

------ADDED------

Surrealist - Hard Left

Exploitation/Vigilante - Right

Historical drama (micro) - Left

Historical drama (macro) - Right

Traumedy - Left


Please explain why you think Horror is far right.

I'm genuinely interested...

and what are some of your favorite horror films....

often, a lot of horror films do have social commentary...

like Dawn of the Dead (the original)...it addressed racism, classicism and consumerism.
 
Horror is hard, hard right.

Black-and-white delineations between good and evil, clear traditionalist moral undercurrents (Freddy/Jason/Michael always killing the drug users and premarital sexers before the virgin heroine ultimately succeeds), capitalization on reaction, etc. All the great horror films have these qualities, ranging from capitalizing explicitly on religious anxiety (The Exorcist) to punishing sin (Jaws, Halloween, Psycho, etc. )

.


Nevermind...

you addressed it here...interesting perspective...
 
Please explain why you think Horror is far right.

I'm genuinely interested...

and what are some of your favorite horror films....

often, a lot of horror films do have social commentary...

like Dawn of the Dead (the original)...it addressed racism, classicism and consumerism.

Personally?

Jacob's Ladder, Don't Look Now, The Exorcist, The Devil's Backbone, Misery, It Comes at Night, The Innocents, Get Out

I'm not a huge horror guy, though.

I strangely thought (upon seeing it, many many years ago) that Psycho II was extremely well done. Probably the most legitimately surprising twists.
 
Nevermind...

you addressed it here...interesting perspective...

Of course, this doesn't encapsulate all horror films (or all comedies, action movies, etc.)

Hell, Christopher Nolan's Batman movies were some of the most popular action movies of all-time and they all had extremely blatant far-left undercurrents.
 
Of course, this doesn't encapsulate all horror films (or all comedies, action movies, etc.)

Hell, Christopher Nolan's Batman movies were some of the most popular action movies of all-time and they all had extremely blatant far-left undercurrents.


Could you elaborate on this as well? (if you have time). in regards to the far left under currents..
 
Horror is hard, hard right.

Black-and-white delineations between good and evil, clear traditionalist moral undercurrents (Freddy/Jason/Michael always killing the drug users and premarital sexers before the virgin heroine ultimately succeeds), capitalization on reaction, etc. All the great horror films have these qualities, ranging from capitalizing explicitly on religious anxiety (The Exorcist) to punishing sin (Jaws, Halloween, Psycho, etc. )

Crime, I was somewhat torn on. In past decades, I would have said right, but crime films have become much more nuanced and noir, moving away from the black-and-white depictions of two-dimensional evil bad guys and good guy cops. Now crime depictions are more like The Wire, which is hard left, in that they provided balance in having flaws and justifications on both sides, brought on by inequality, etc.

That actually makes perfect sense. Never thought about it like that.
 
Horror is an interesting one. Often conservative in revolving around religion, good vs evil etc......but it's also quite liberal in it's depiction of sex and violence.
In old school slasher flicks the slutty girl was always one of the first to die. So even though there was sex it was often the pure innocent virgin who outlived everyone and defeated the slasher. Seems like a conservative message to me.

EDIT: Trotsky beat me to it.
 
Could you elaborate on this as well? (if you have time). in regards to the far left under currents..

Yeah, sure. I'm at work now, but I'll earmark it.

Also, I misspoke. BB and TDK were clearly leftist works, I actually think there's an equally if not more convincing argument to the contrary for TDKR, with its blatant criticisms of both corporate capitalism and left populism.
 
Sci-fi has long had a libertarian streak.
What makes you say that? Either way, there are left wing libertarians, in fact they were the original libertarians and right wing libertarians came afterwards, mainly in the US.
Of course, this doesn't encapsulate all horror films (or all comedies, action movies, etc.)

Hell, Christopher Nolan's Batman movies were some of the most popular action movies of all-time and they all had extremely blatant far-left undercurrents.
That's an interesting take, I've often heard the opposite in regards to the last one in particular. Bane being perceived as the prototypical Marxist revolutionary with the police and billionaire Batman restoring law and order. I don't necessarily buy that interpretation but its the one I hear more often.
 

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