With September’s “Reinvention” issue of Paste Monthly, we got a little nostalgic in considering film history, both old and recent. Specifically, we found ourselves in conversations about films that had redefined movie genres—features that came along and made us think differently about every would-be imitator that came afterward, or ushered in a new era.
Each of these films in some way represents a tidal shift—the genre they’re in was forever altered afterward, either in the way future films were made or simply in the way audiences reacted to them or held expectations for them. Here are 12 films that reinvented their genres, presented in chronological order.
1. It Happened One Night, 1934
Genre: Romantic comedy
Frank Capra’s screwball romantic comedy really established the quintessential format for the lighthearted American romantic movie: Base it around a couple of stars with a great on-screen connection (even though Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert apparently didn’t get along too well behind the scenes), add some witty banter and a bit of raciness, and you’re most of the way there. The greatest contribution of It Happened One Night was likely in allowing Colbert’s comedic sensibilities and capability as a character to shine just as brightly as Gable’s—in that, it’s a surprisingly progressive film for its day. She of course gets the most famous and influential moment, when she shows up the know-it-all Gable by showing a little leg to successfully hitch a ride. That one moment has echoed through the romantic comedy genre ever since. Thankfully, it came about just before the MPAA began enforcing the Hays Code, or else that classic moment might never have left the cutting room floor.
2. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, 1937
Genre: Animated film
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was by no means the first major animated film, but it was the first full-length cel animated feature, and every animated feature afterward is its scion. Before Snow White, “cartoons” were simply part of the filler and previews one might see before an actual feature. Disney’s animation team showed what could be accomplished with an entire staff of talented artists working for an extended period on a united goal, and the film’s massive box office success proved that animated features were a valid and potentially lucrative business. Regardless, “animated film” implied an entirely different meaning in the post Snow White film industry.
3. Django, 1966
Genre: Western film
The Sergio Leone “man with no name” trilogy rightly gets all the attention as far as Italian spaghetti westerns go, but the original Django is the film you really want to show someone if you’re trying to codify what made spaghetti western a departure from the American western tradition. These were sure as hell not the singing, white velour-wearing cowboys of the Gene Autry era, nor were they the classic Western cowboys/sheriffs of films like Rio Bravo. These were dark, gritty, dirt-crusted gunfighters out for vengeance and blood, and Django himself is the quintessential spaghetti western avenger. There’s a reason why the character name was ripped off in more than 30 sequels)—he’s just the ultimate Italian western badass. The scene where he reveals what’s in the coffin he’s been dragging behind him through the entire film is an all-time classic—once you’ve seen that, it’s hard to accept the character archetype of the noble, selfless Western sheriff ever again.
4. Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, 1971
Genre: Independent film/Black cinema
The genre that Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song reinvented was really that of independent filmmaking in general, even as it was at the same time the foundational film in establishing the idea of “blaxploitation.” It’s just a movie that no major studio of the day would have touched with a 10-foot pole—too scandalous, too sexual, too unorthodox and starring a predominantly black cast, it didn’t look like anything else one would see in theaters at the time. The film’s statement, as much as any of its social ones, was that a market did exist for these films. Despite being initially screened in only two theaters, it went on to make $4.1 million in its first theatrical release on a practically nonexistent budget, spurring a new generation of low-budget action films centered around black protagonists.
5. King Boxer, aka Five Fingers of Death, 1972
Genre: Kung fu film
Five Fingers of Death, as it was largely known in the U.S., is a turning point in the history of the kung fu genre, but one that has been overshadowed. Bruce Lee’s Enter the Dragon hit American cinemas later the same year and became a huge success, but the reason it found a market of new martial arts cinema fans was thanks to the sleeper success of Five Fingers of Death, a movie that no one in the American market saw coming. It was representative of a shift in the Hong Kong market for martial arts films, which had been dominated by more elaborate, historical and mythology-based wuxia pictures in the preceding years such as One-Armed Swordsman. The new generation, on the other hand, were more modern in their settings if not their storytelling, with a focus on hand-to-hand combat and secret techniques such as protagonist Chi-Hao’s “iron fist.” Regardless, this was the film that truly launched the early-to-mid ’70s kung fu craze in the United States, and spurred on the creation of new films back in Hong Kong, which had discovered a lucrative new American market.
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