Ideology, Genre, Auteur

        The “Ideology, Genre, Auteur” is written by the Robin Wood a famous English film Critic. The main focus of the Ideology, Genre, Auteur” is on firms produced in the past year and the impact of these films on society and genre. Robin Wood discussed several films concerning with American society and ideology. In this “Ideology, Genre, Auteur” essay writer elaborated that the best way through which we can examine or evaluate a film is to evaluate the ideology of film(Wood, 1989). Moreover, he also claims that the nature of auteur ship in films and movies should be also evaluated.

        Robin wood emphasis in this essay on the genre of films also(Wood, 1989). According to him, one should not ignore genre while evaluating the films. To elaborate his views in detail he used the examples of two famous films “It’s a wonderful life” and “shadow of a doubt” by writers Frank Capra and Alfred Hitchcock (Wood, 1989). In the essay, he presented the outline regarding specified permeates of American capitalist ideology for the films produced under the supervision of Hollywood. Moreover, Ideology, Genre, Auteur also put light on the impact and influences of these ideology permeates on the films (only films that follow up these permeates)(Wood, 1989).

        He discussed in detail what happens and how a film gets influence when film genre is directly affected by the ideology. According to the essay, Robin wood sees the work as a whole as possible. In the essay, he wrote that a critic must aim to see the whole work while drawing discoveries and developing perceptions (Wood, 1989). In his views, the idea is not easy to obtain. To get this, one must have to go into details and evaluate each position.

        Robin woods elaborate that without the structure of values critic is not possible as each critic try to evaluate the film on the basis of structure values. In accordance with the essay, the critic who is worth reading all of the time try to define values beyond purely aesthetic ones(Wood, 1989). From the last three decades, several changes and advancements are introduced in the society that draws impact on the critics and Hollywood films also. The auteur theory evaluates and elaborates the films produced by Hollywood in the light of interest in the ideology and interest in the genre.

        English Films from Hollywood are interpenetrating with disparate approaches and producing synthetic criticism for movies and files in various ways(Wood, 1989). In the light of Robin wood views, “its wonderful life” by Frank Capra is a relatively different generic determination that raises several kinds of critical issues. Robin presented some components with which most of us are familiar. These components have a great role in providing perfect and conscious discussion on the targeted film.

        List of components by robin wood in the essay are progress/technology of city, the rosebud syndrome, marriage, nature as agrarianism/ nature as the wilderness, success/wealth, the ideal male, the erotic woman, the ideal woman, the settled husband/ father, and American as land. Basically, the list of components is presented to elaborate that how these components present the main ideology of the film (Wood, 1989). These components describe that whether the film relates to the irresolvable tensions, hopeless contradiction or film is monolithic inherently.

        In the essay, Robin wood also presented the views and quotes of other critic and writers to make the essay look more professional, authentic, and evidenced based. For instance, he discussed the seminal essays and Hop along Cassidy film to elaborate his views. According to the essay, the greatest obstacle concerning with a success-oriented and fruitful theory is that it shows a strong tendency to give treatment to the genres as discrete. Films most of the time present the situations concerning with the ideological tensions. While film also provides ideological approaches and different strategies regarding these issues and tensions. Robin presented the example of a small-town movie to elaborate his views(Wood, 1989). In the example, he discussed that movie having the contemporary setting (related to a small-town movie) in the Western area should never be divorced from the historical correlatives to be considered as best kind of movie. 

        Films present the applicable solutions and strategies for the solution of problems rather than just explaining the problematic genre only. In fact, Robin explained in the essay that while evaluating the films critics use ideological tensions also(Wood, 1989). Even ideological tensions cause to influence the genre and overall film but still, it cannot be considered as the best option to evaluate the films. In fact, critics cannot only emphases on the ideological tensions they need to consider other factors and points also as the possible influence of genre on the society. While for filmmakers he wrote in the essay that they should not compromise on the ideological tensions.

        The film must have some ideological tensions to make the film interesting.  Moreover, the presence of ideological tensions in the film gives a realistic and artistic touch to the film. Ideological tensions concerning with the sociological interest and society issues work as a medium to grab the attention of the individuals to that particular focus. According to the essay, the genre is the groundwork for the analysis of the overall film.(Wood, 1989)In accordance with the views of Robin wood in the essay, aesthetic develop interest, auteur deals with special interest and film used more than one generic source.

        Elaborating the evaluation of “It’s a wonderful life” by Frank Capra writer wrote that this film has used ideological tensions. In his views, the films remind that wandering/home antimony is not by any way or channel exclusive preserve of the Western films. Moreover, in the essay, he mentioned that "It's a wonderful life" film basically made succinctly explicit. In the film, domestic comedy and the disturbing influx of film noir are used as the central ideological tension that makes the film unique and interesting(Wood, 1989). Robin concludes that Capra film is supported by artistic personality.

        The genre made the film magnificently convincing. Essay elaborate that “It’s a wonderful life” film provide a bitter taste to many of the viewers because of the emotional effect and satisfying catharsis. In the essay, Robin also discussed the story of the film “It’s a wonderful life”. According to the Robin story of the film revolves around Mary and George(Wood, 1989). Robin discussed the contradictory connotations, ideological premises, and ideological tensions used in the story to elaborate that how a critic should thoroughly analyze the film and the genre to evaluate the film. He also discussed the structural oppositions in the film and the capitalism that influence overall film(Wood, 1989).

        Concluding and summarizing the whole essay we can say that Robin discussed the role and importance of ideology, genre, an auteur in the films and elaborated how the critic can evaluate a film in a better way by analyzing all these. he emphases that critic need to study the film ideological tensions and strategies used to deal with the tensions in detail at the time of evaluation but he/she should not only rely on ideological tensions but in fact, should try to consider other factors and points also.