Not unless you have a low opinion of Westerns.
I guess Rocky defines the sports underdog movie, Seven Samurai for films about assembling a team of badasses, Love Story for romance and The Third Man for noir? I'd nominate Iron Mam for Superhero film. There's a lot I'd like to challenge ( Clockwork Orange for dysotopia, really?) but I'm too tired now.
Edit: Sorry, I think I sounded a bit rude. But this is a great idea for a thread.(Too tired/lazy for pot holes but sincerity mode)
edited 14th Oct '11 8:34:08 PM by C0mraid
Am I a good man or a bad man?The Searchers was a great film, but it also had enough Deconstructed Tropes that I'd be reluctant to call it the defining film of the genre.
edited 14th Oct '11 10:13:33 PM by MetaFour
That's a long list but you should be more specific on what "define each genre" means. Does that mean the pinnacle of the genre (Most Triumphant Example)? The entry that everyone copies (Trope Codifier)? The one that lays out the foundations (Trope Maker)? I would go by trope maker, the film that laid out the elements that became standard for the genre.
I would say Stagecoach is what defined the western and made it last some 25-30 years in that form (as well as established the dynamic pairing of John Ford and John Wayne) before The Man with No Name reinvented it. The Searchers is one of the best westerns ever made but I don't think it really changed the way people looked at westerns.
Slapstick belongs to The Three Stooges, Chaplin was comparatively a much more serious and ambitious filmmaker with some dramatic undertones to a lot of his movies. How many people would recognize the The Tramp before any of the Stooges antics?
The Fantasy genre also owes everything to Conan The Barbarian, The Lord Of The Rings films are excellent but they are far too recent to define a genre.
I basically named what I thought was the most famous film in each genre.
I've also never seen The Searchers, so I didn't know it deconstructed so many tropes.
A fistful of me.For Documentary, I nominate Restrepo.
WHAT!? WE DON'T HAVE A PAGE ON RESTREPO!?
edited 15th Oct '11 6:25:40 AM by Pyroninja42
"Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person that doesn't get it."I've also never seen The Searchers, so I didn't know it deconstructed so many tropes.
I have, and i didn't.
And for me - Wuxia - Hero. But Zhang Yimou has said that the visuals are not something most wuxia would have - hopefully that's changed since 2002.
edited 15th Oct '11 6:38:45 AM by EgregiousEric
Pages Needing Imagesi dont think The Godfather is the dramatic magnum opus
and for romance
Casablanca
edited 15th Oct '11 6:32:28 AM by CommanderObvious
This level of trolling is reasonable for Commander Obvious. What do you think of this, everyone?
What would you nominate instead of The Godfather, then?
And I hadn't thought of Casablanca. I'm adding that now.
edited 15th Oct '11 7:05:01 AM by RL_Nice
A fistful of me.while drama is a broad and vague category
i think of To Kill a Mockingbird as a milestone for dramatic films
The Dark Knight DOES NOT DEFINE SUPERHERO GENRE
Try [[Batman]],no dark superhero film would exist without it,nor would any of Nolan's "Look into the mind of Bruce Wayne" stuff exist without the casting of Michael Keaton.
And what else do people falsely laud The Dark Knight for,oh yes deconstruction. Sorry, Nolan did not start that,...MNightShyamalan did
edited 15th Oct '11 9:37:29 AM by terlwyth
I love The Third Man, but I would say The Maltese Falcon or The Big Sleep are more defining Noir films.
You can get what you want and still not be very happy.I would say the three most genuinely influential superhero films are Superman The Movie, Batman and XMen. Superman for giving the genre the care and love it needed to be a great movie, Batman for treating the material seriously and giving a downright evil villain and X-Men for handing these kinds of projects to established indie filmmakers who ignore the more typical hollywood glitz.
The Dark Knight is an excellent movie but it is almost outside the genre altogether.
The Thin Blue Line defines documentaries. The movie even freed a guy wrongly accused of murder.
More Buscemi at http://forum.reelsociety.com/![]()
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seconding The Maltese Falcon
its the classic textbook example
If we're including Western Animation as its own genre, what about Anime? I think Hayao Miyazaki warrants for Most Definitive Anime films.
You are displaying abnormally high compulsions to over-analyze works of fiction and media. Diagnosis: TV Tropes Addiction.
Spirited Away
obviously
even though it's overrated as hell
For Film Noir, while The Maltese Falcon is definitely the proto-typical (Trope Maker) film, the archetypal (Trope Codifier) film is Double Indemnity. Everything "film noir," morally questionable protagonist, crime centered-story, chiaroscuro, venetian blinds, the femme fatale, and narration are there in greater extent than The Maltese Falcon (Sunset Boulevard would be a sort of Deconstruction).
Also, I think Rocky Horror ought to be on that list somewhere.
edited 16th Oct '11 7:26:36 PM by Eschaton
The second Superman movie was good, too.
The third and fourth movies never happened.
Don't you try anything, you baked good you.The problem with the Superman movies is that, while entertaining, they completely (AND I MEAN COMPLETELY) fall apart from lethal dose of Fridge Logic when looked at with just even the smallest amount of scrutiny.
Like horizontally flying ICB Ms? The fuck?
"Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person that doesn't get it."![]()
So.. The Silver Age Of Comic Books at a glance? That makes the film even more suitable as a genre definer for superhero movies.

Your Mileage May Vary, of course.
* Indicates a film I haven't seen, but put up because of its reputation.
edited 15th Oct '11 12:30:10 PM by RL_Nice
A fistful of me.