Genre Analysis - Brokeback Mountain, Sleepless in Seattle, The Notebook

Films very rarely adhere to just the romance genre; more common now are the ‘romcoms’ where romance is lightened by the appearance of Comedy. The romance genre is more intense with the love in the film, as opposed to the humour in ‘The Chase.’ In this essay, three films that conform almost solely to the romance genre will be compared in how they follow the conventions of the romance genre or maybe how they have altered the conventions.

Sleepless in Seattle is based in 90’s America and is a good example of a film that does follow a majority of the conventions but alters the convention in some way. According to Valerie Williamson, the romance genre begins by showing the heroine, representing her as vulnerable in some way however in this film, it is the opposite. We are introduced to the main male character, Samuel, who is seen as very vulnerable. They do this by introducing him standing in a graveyard. Beside him stands his son and a distance away is the rest of the congregation that attended this funeral. From this shot, we could infer that Sam and his son are very isolated from everyone else in their grief. We could infer that the coffin belongs to Sam’s wife, as he is stood with a child but not a partner of some sort. This is confirmed by the voiceover by Sam ‘Mommy got sick. It happened just like that. There was nothing anybody could do.’ This emphasises his vulnerability as it sounds like he feels somewhat to blame as he could be convincing himself that nothing could be done. He also says ‘it happened just like that’, which suggests he was not prepared to be a single father or considered a life after her. 

In another setting, we see that he is seen as a stereotypical male as a woman tells him about heating food up in a microwave, which could show his vulnerability of not being able to take care of him and his son properly. From this introduction, we would have expectations that the plot is about Sam falling in love again. The plot of the story is that, showing the themes of ‘love at first sight’, ‘older love’ and in the case of the woman, ‘obsessive love.’ Romantic plots explore the relationship between two people and it stereotypically begins with a clash between the lovers. In Sleepless in Seattle, there is no real clash between the lovers, but Sam does not want to meet Annie because of the distance between them. Like most romance films, it is based in the time it was filmed. This allows the audience to believe the plot as it is in a time they know well. Sleepless in Seattle was released in 1993 and conforms to that period. It is set in a modern home of the time, the work place and the graveyard. This is not always the case, as we can see in Brokeback Mountain.

Brokeback Mountain was released in 2005 but the film is set in 1963 however, this was to highlight the homophobic nature of America in that time. The romantic genre is stereotypically based on a loving relationship between a man and woman, as heterosexuality has always been considered ‘the norm’ in the film industry. Brokeback Mountain is famous for being based on the relationship between two men, showing the theme of ‘forbidden love,’ especially at that period where even African Americans were still treated publically as second-class citizens. There is no speech in the opening two minutes of the film however; we see the two main characters. The first character, Ennis, we see more of, he could still be seen as vulnerable although not as obviously so as Sam in Sleepless in Seattle. We see him in a lorry heading down the hill and fields of Wyoming (this is emphasised as a rough area through the extreme long shot) before he climbs out, the driver continuing. We can infer that he had to hitch a lift, which shows him as vulnerable as we assume he is too poor to own his own car. Through this sequence, a graphic match helps emphasise the passage of time as the mise-en-scѐne changes from a misty night to a morning. This helps to create some vulnerability, as he had to travel so far to get work. He then walks to a tatty caravan and stands outside. It doesn’t belong to him, it belongs to the man who would hire him and the other main character to work up at Brokeback Mountain; this confirms the inference that he’s poor because he has to resort to work from a boss in poor conditions shown by the long shot and the mise-en-scѐne. 



The second character, Jack, pulls up in a dirty pick-up that keeps backfiring, telling us that he is richer than the first character however still considerably poor. There is an insert here to create cause and effect as we see Ennis’s reaction, showing the idea of a clash as he did not seem to care too much about the new man. He does not come out of the car within the first two minutes but through the window, we see that he wears denim, which is more expensive than the clothes the original character is wearing. The clash in this film is because Jack is more accepting of his sexuality than Ennis when they find it out. Obstacles in the film are the connotations with being homosexual at that time; Ennis later tells a story where his father leads him to a quarry where they find two corpses of men who were killed for being gay. They both live in different parts of the country and both marry after they first meet, though they continue seeing each other in secret. It ultimately ends in ‘tragic love’ as Jack is killed for being gay just when Ennis is ready to embrace his sexuality as his wife remarries. The music begins as non-diegetic guitar sound creates a sorrowful mood though it has little content to it, suggesting the coldness of the wilderness and of Ennis. This mood is also created by the diegetic sound of a wind that is not ‘scary’ but it is not a gentle breeze.

Like Brokeback Mountain, the first two minutes of The Notebook includes no speech, allowing the mood determine the story. It opens to a sunset, the colour red is emphasised which could be associated with the heart, showing it is of a romance genre. The sunset in itself is stereotypically a romantic convention and setting. It has a soft song underneath, it conveys a blissful happiness which is a mood showed by the romantic genre. We are introduced to the two main characters, who are seen to be an elderly pair. There are a flock of birds that the male character seems to follow. This is a link to later on in the story where the female character, Allie, asks whether she was a bird in a former life. This could be seen as a romantic convention as it symbolizes he still follows her and it’s a symbol of the freedom and happiness he gives her. The film is a story in itself of how the two characters fell in love and how their relationship grows. It follows the convention as the characters clash to begin with because of their social classes, which soon becomes an obstacle as Allie’s parents disapprove of the male, Noah. Another obstacle is Allie’s dementia when she is older, which also follows the convention of a vulnerable heroine. They split because of Allie’s parents moving her away and she becomes engaged to another man before they meet again.  The film ends with her remembering and they die holding each other. The plot follows the theme of ‘forbidden love’, ‘tragic love’ and ‘sentimental love’.

These three films show the different ways of following the romance conventions, some of which are not stereotypical of the romance genre.