Stereotypes and Clichés in Genres

Action

"Now I know what a TV dinner feels like" - John McClane





In action films, the protagonist is typically a big, muscular guy who can handle danger and take on anyone. They tend to be invincible and impossible to kill, and are often captured but not killed when the antagonist has the chance. Examples of these protagonists are John Matrix from 'Commando', Rambo in the later films, and Martin Riggs of the 'Lethal Weapon' franchise, who can't even be killed by himself. Bryan Mills from 'Taken' can't be stopped, but he isn't a huge bodybuilder - he's an ex-CIA agent who has fighting skills so he doesn't need bulk, and is driven by the motivation to find his kidnapped daughter. Because of this, 'Taken' is a much more realistic thriller than something similarly plotted like 'Commando'.

An example where this cliché has been subverted is 'Die Hard's John McClane, who was introduced in the first film as a normal guy who is vulnerable and gets his feet cut on broken glass. This was innovative at the time, but has incidentally become an entire cliché of its own, along with the concept of a single location being taken over by terrorists, and the roguish protagonist who has to single-handedly stop them. Examples of this "Die Hard scenario" are 'Speed', "Die Hard on a bus", with Keanu Reeves as Jack Traven, a cop on a bus that will explode should its speed drop below 50mph; 'Sudden Death', "Die Hard in a hockey stadium", with Jean-Claude Van Damme as Darren McCord, a fire marshal at a hockey game whose daughter is kidnapped by terrorists who are holding up the stadium in an attempt to assassinate the Vice President; and 'Executive Decision', "Die Hard on a plane", with Kurt Russell and Steven Seagal on a plane loaded with a deadly nerve toxin. The antagonist is usually a foreign terrorist, either from Europe (in 80s action films) or from the Middle East (more recently). Examples of these types of antagonist would be Hans Gruber, the German antagonist in 'Die Hard', Arjen Rudd, the South African diplomat antagonist in 'Lethal Weapon 2', and the Albanian sex traffickers in 'Taken'. A typical costume for an action hero is a grubby vest (McClane's trademark) or t-shirt, very plain, either black or white. The villains will wear suits, and the women will wear dresses and skirts, very gender-specific clothing to distinguish them as the feminine counterparts of masculine male characters.

A typical action movie plot sees a young roguish cop reluctantly paired up with an ageing, by-the-books detective a few days from retirement. The earliest example of this trend would be 'Lethal Weapon' with Mel Gibson and Danny Glover, but it has since been repeated with 'Bad Boys', Will Smith and Martin Lawrence; 'Running Scared', Billy Crystal and Gregory Hines; and 'Hollywood Homicide', Harrison Ford and Josh Hartnett. The "buddy cop" genre, as it is referred to, actually began with '48 Hrs.', but in that film Nick Nolte is a cop paired with Eddie Murphy, a criminal. Additionally, the actors cast tend to be of two different races, which becomes the focus of the comedy. Examples of this casting include the pairing of Riggs, white, with Murtaugh, black, in 'Lethal Weapon'; Bruce Willis, a white actor, and Damon Wayans, a black actor, in 'The Last Boy Scout'; and Jackie Chan, an Asian actor, and Chris Tucker, a black actor, in 'Rush Hour'. 'Die Hard with a Vengeance' utilised this trend by giving McClane a partner in the form of Zeus, played by the black actor Samuel L. Jackson. 'Bad Boys' pairs Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, two black actors, which paves the way for a lot African-American humour, which features frequently in the films. Primarily the lead protagonists are male, and even focus on the relationship between two men instead of the norm of a man and a woman.

Action heroes are generally men, with women being shunned into supporting roles as wives and romantic interests, or occasionally a sexy assassin like Maggie Q in 'Die Hard 4.0'. Sometimes the plot revolves around a macho American bodyguard assigned to the helpless damsel in distress character who is being targeted and can't defend herself. On the odd occasion the woman is resistant to the man helping her, and insisting she doesn't need help, but mostly the woman is terrified and desperately needs the man to help her. 'Cobra' with Sylvester Stallone is an example of this. Rare examples of a female action hero include Ellen Ripley from the 'Alien' series, played by Sigourney Weaver, and Sarah Connor from the first two 'Terminator' films, played by Linda Hamilton. In 'Alien', Ripley is with a team of astronauts, mainly men, and is the only survivor of their attack from the xenomorph, and in 'Aliens', where she is with a troop of tough military-trained men, the only other survivor is Newt, the girl Ripley heroically saves while the men are only thinking about themselves and their own safety, a reversal of the typical gender stereotypes set in place.

 Horror

"I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti." - Dr. Hannibal Lecter







Horror is a genre that is riddled with clichés and stereotypes. For one, it features a lead antagonist who cannot be killed, even if that means the plot defies the laws of physics or biology. For example, by the end of 'Halloween', Michael Myers has been shot, stabbed and thrown out of a second-floor window, and still has managed to survive long enough to continue terrorising people in 'Halloween II', and by the end of that he's been lit on fire and burned horribly. He took a short hiatus for 'Halloween III', which went into sci-fi territory, but sure enough came back for 'Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers'. The whole story of 'Friday the 13th' is that Jason Vorhees' mother is avenging his death where he drowned in the lake, but at the end it is revealed that Jason has been living in the lake for the twenty years since he supposedly died, and in the sequels he continues the killing. Freddy Krueger from the 'Nightmare on Elm Street' franchise is already dead and exists in the dream world, so he is invincible. Even when Nancy wakes up and thinks the whole first film was a dream and her friends are still alive, a terrifying finale shows that this is in fact a dream and Freddy has lured her into a trap. 'Child's Play's Chucky is a doll possessed by a criminal, and even when he's been thrown in a fire and had his limbs shot off, he still keeps coming.

There are many clichéd storylines, such as a group of friends driving out to an isolated cabin in the woods and being haunted by demonic spirits or a deadly virus or some other horror, a la 'The Evil Dead', 'Cabin in the Woods' and 'Cabin Fever'. Sometimes the story involves a psychopathic serial killer who picks off teenagers one by one in gruesome fashion, e.g. 'Friday the 13th', 'My Bloody Valentine', 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre'. These are known as "slashers". In these kinds of films there tends to be a single survivor left at the end, often the most innocent, i.e. a virgin girl, like Neve Campbell in 'Scream' or Jamie Lee Curtis in 'Halloween'. This is such an overused character trope that it has a name - she is referred to as the "final girl".

Another story involves survivors of an apocalypse or uprising of some sort (usually zombies) holed up in an isolated location to keep alive. Examples are 'Dawn of the Dead', in which survivors of a zombie apocalypse hide in a shopping mall, and 'From Dusk Till Dawn', in which survivors are trapped in a Mexican strip club by the vampires inhabiting it. These are typical of George A. Romero's zombie films, particularly the 'Dead' series, featuring the same zombie apocalypse and each film showing how a different group of survivors tackles it. 'Night of the Living Dead' is set in a farm house; 'Dawn of the Dead' in a shopping mall; and 'Day of the Dead' in a Florida research facility. His characters are very diverse, and rarely adhere to gender or racial stereotypes. Both men and women feature equally, as well as white actors, black actors, Latino actors (such as John Leguizamo in 'Land of the Dead') etc. in roles such as scientists and military personnel. The opening scene of 'Night of the Living Dead' features a couple in a cemetery. The man is mocking the woman, but the man is the first to be bitten and the woman manages to escape to a farm house, which becomes the primary setting, where a black man is living.

The dumb blonde girl is a clichéd character and portrays a negative stereotype of teenage girls. The dumb blonde is almost always killed, often the first or one of the first victims of the killer. For example, Drew Barrymore has blonde hair and is killed in the opening scene of 'Scream'; blonde Tina is the first victim of Freddy in the first 'Nightmare on Elm Street'; Judith and Lynda, both blonde, are killed by Michael Myers in 'Halloween', and 'Halloween H20's Molly is the only blonde character to survive any film in the franchise; Helen is the blonde girl in 'I Know What You Did Last Summer' and her death is a big, elaborate sequence, one of the film's longest and most intense scenes; the murder of blonde girl Marion in 'Psycho' potentially started this trend, as it was unexpected and shocking after the first half of the film had set her up as the main protagonist. The final girls tend to be brunette, or another hair colour besides blonde, such as Sidney in 'Scream' and Laurie in 'Halloween'. Having Jason's mother as the antagonist of 'Friday the 13th' subverts the stereotype that all psychotic serial killers are men. In 'Silence of the Lambs', Clarice Starling, a woman, is being helped by Hannibal Lecter, a male serial killer, to track down Buffalo Bill, another male serial killer.

A relatively new cliché of horror is the "found footage" genre, which is supposed to appear to have been pieced together from footage filmed by the characters. The camera is a part of the story in these films. This trend started with 'The Blair Witch Project', but other examples are 'Paranormal Activity', 'Cloverfield', 'REC', 'Quarantine' and Romero's 'Diary of the Dead'. It has also since branched out into other genres like sci-fi/superhero ('Chronicle') and comedy ('Project X'). The genre has become so popular it has provoked spoofs and parodies such as 'A Haunted House' and the South Park episode 'Pandemic'.

 Comedy

"I am serious...and don't call me Shirley." - Dr. Rumack

There are some clichés in comedy that are not true of real life. For example, in comedy films a slovenly slacker such as a typical Seth Rogen character can get an attractive woman like Katherine Heigl to fall in love with him. Also, crazy things happen on road trips in movies like 'Planes, Trains and Automobiles', 'National Lampoon's Vacation', 'Dumb and Dumber', 'Little Miss Sunshine', 'Paul', 'Flirting with Disaster' etc. such as tangles with hitch-hikers or drivers falling asleep at the wheel or running into dangerous truckers, when in real life a road trip consists of sitting in a car until you reach your destination. The wife character is usually relegated to a supporting role, and is expected to be the voice of reason in her marriage to the main protagonist. These characters are never given the best lines and never gets into any of the wacky situations her husband gets into. An example of these types of wife characters could be Ellen Griswold, played by Beverly D'Angelo in the 'Vacation' series, who has to be the sensible one in her marriage to Clark (Chevy Chase).

In college comedies such as 'Animal House' and 'Revenge of the Nerds', the girls are treated more like sex objects than human beings. The headlining stars of most classic 80s comedies are men: 'Ghostbusters' starring Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis; 'The Blues Brothers' starring Aykroyd and John Belushi; 'Caddyshack' starring Bill Murray, Chevy Chase and Rodney Dangerfield; 'The Naked Gun' starring Leslie Nielsen; 'Three Amigos' starring Steve Martin, Chevy Chase and Martin Short. 'Airplane!' is one with a genuine leading lady character, Elaine, with the plot focusing on her relationship with disgraced pilot Ted Striker, but that film is a parody not intended to be taken seriously. Sigourney Weaver is the damsel in distress in 'Ghostbusters', with her character becoming possessed and needing to be saved by the men. This tradition of male-led comedies has continued to the present day with films like 'The Hangover' and 'Superbad', but has been broken in recent years with such female-driven comedies as 'Bridesmaids' and 'The Heat', with the growing star power of women who are comedy actresses and writers like Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy.

Also in 'Ghostbusters', the three main cast members (Murray, Aykroyd, Ramis) are displayed predominantly all over the posters and DVD covers, while the fourth member of the team, Winston Zeddemore, (Ernie Hudson) the black one, is never featured as much, but this is simply the way it is marketed, with the marketing team fearing a black star wouldn't sell, as in the film Zeddemore is regarded as an important member. Throughout the 1980s, the bankability of African-American stars in comedy grew with Eddie Murphy's films 'Beverly Hills Cop', 'Trading Places' and 'Coming to America'. Before Murphy, only actors like Richard Pryor and Cleavon Little could be taken seriously as black comedy actors. This opened the doors to such modern actors as Chris Rock, Kevin Hart, Tyler Perry and Chris Tucker, who are some of the biggest names in comedy right now. Mel Brooks frequently used the N word in his screenplay for 'Blazing Saddles', which in addition to being a parody of Westerns, was a smart satire of racism, particularly in the Old West, as the plot revolves around a corrupt politician who hires a black sheriff to irritate a town, but his plan doesn't work as the sheriff becomes popular, and a worthy adversary.

Male characters in comedy are usually idiotic, caught in situations an idiot shouldn't be in charge of, such as Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen), the protagonist of 'The Naked Gun' franchise, a police officer; high-ranking military officials in 'Stripes', who in real life should be smart, quick-witted and disciplined; and the four Ghostbusters, whose job it is to save New York from a supernatural attack. These days male characters are typically man-children, who are immature and can't handle any real responsibility. Examples are Dale and Saul in 'Pineapple Express', the Dude and Walter in 'The Big Lebowski', and Dante and Randal in the 'Clerks' films. Most comedic situations are inconclusive, and characters committing crimes are either never caught or face no charges, because this would turn lighthearted scenarios into serious situations too dark to be considered funny. Examples are 'Raising Arizona', where Nicolas Cage and his wife kidnap a baby and harbour fugitives; 'Horrible Bosses', where Jason Bateman, Charlie Day and Jason Sudeikis plot to murder each other's bosses; and 'Caddyshack', where Bill Murray blows up a golf course to kill a gopher. By the end of all three examples there are no legal consequences for the characters, where in reality they would be in serious trouble. Ever since Cheech and Chong made 'Up in Smoke', cannabis has been used in comedy films to show a character is lazy or flawed, such as the main cast of 'Knocked Up' or 'This is the End'.

"That rug really tied the room together."

High school comedies have the most clichés of any subgenre (with exception of possibly romcoms). The dorky girl is given a makeover and we realise she was beautiful all along: e.g. 'Mean Girls' and the goth chick from 'The Breakfast Club'. There is always an evil teacher as the antagonist, such as Richard Vernon in 'The Breakfast Club', Mr. Strickland in 'Back to the Future', and Ed Rooney in 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off'. Another antagonist could be the jocks, such as Ben Affleck and his posse in Richard Linklater's 'Dazed and Confused'. The protagonist is often chasing the "hot girl" when it turns out his friend was the girl he was in love with the whole time. 'Teen Wolf' with Michael J. Fox is probably the earliest example, with more recent films like 'American Pie' and 'Sex Drive' following suit. In romcoms, the guy always gets the girl. There are too many examples to list - it's essentially every film ever made that contains a romantic subplot. But rare examples where this is not the case tend to be the better films, for example 'Annie Hall', 'Chasing Amy' and '(500) Days of Summer'.