Crash, Videodrome and Eraserhead are movies
I truly, deeply admire and love. Why would
anyone what to "classify" them at all?
Now I admit to knowing nothing about Blake
Snyder other than what I read on messageboards.
Does he really have a classification for all movies?
Is that somehow important? I'm not being
argumentative, I'm really curious. If you know, for
example, that I thought Eraserhead was " Dude
with a Problem" and "Monster in the House" would
that help you understand anything about that movie?
Does classifying a movie offer any personal insight?
What DOES classifying a movie (especially these
movies) do?
Snyder has a system that he instructs all of his followers
put their screenplays through. There are a certain number of beats
that need to be hit, in particular order, and each beat has a
specific purpose. Just to give you an easy example, one of his beats
is "theme stated" -- Snyder says that within the first ten pages of the
screenplay, somebody needs to literally state the theme, out loud.
As far as genres are concerned (and this is one of Snyder's arguments
that I'm not really sold on), every movie that has ever been made can
be fit into one of his genres. But these aren't genres the way that they are
typically discussed in colloqual everyday language. Like, Snyder's genres don't
include Western, or Sci-Fi, or whatever. No, his genres deal with what type of
story is being told -- insofar as what is happening to our hero.
A few examples (out of ten total):
Monster in the House -- The name is self-explanatory -- "Alien", "Fatal Attraction"
Golden Fleece -- These are movies in which our hero must go on a journey to reach some goal -- "Star Wars", "Wizard of Oz"
Dude with a Problem -- self explanatory -- "Die Hard", "Breakdown"
These genres are important (if you follow Snyder's
screenwriting philosophy) because, as Snyder argues, you will
make the story stronger by following the conventions of that genre.
For example, with the Monster in the House genre, Snyder argues
that in order for the movie to be effective, the "house" must be a
confined space. This is why so many psycho-killer movies take place
in small rural communities -- they're isolated. In "Aliens", they're stuck on
a ship. In "Jurassic Park", they're stuck on an island.
Anyway, that's about the jist of it.
EDIT: So, to really answer your question, it's important for writing a
screenplay, but for classifying movies that have already been made,
it's more for the sake of deconstructing and analyzing (or, just for
conversation's-sake).
VIDEODROME is one of my favorite movies, btw. "Long live the new flesh!"
