Chapter 8 Blog Question #1

American romantic comedies have become a film genre that is loved by people everywhere. People look to comedic films as a release for the day to day grind of life. These type of Comedies make light of many of the common things people see and deal with on a day to day. They often say things people only wish they could say about the world around them. Romantic Comedy films will forever be a main stay in movie theatres across the globe.

One of the main messages and stories that romantic comedic films deal with is a person entrance and integration into society. Through the theme of comic integration, these films make evident our societies capability to take new members of the society and integrate them into the day to day happenings of our world. Films with this message typically involve a marriage or other type of ceremonial celebration of the formation of a new community out of the old. One of the most common films that illustrate this idea is It Happened One Night directed by Frank Capra. This film focuses on a marriage between two people who really love each other and a marriage that heals the divisions in society. The marriage in the film represents a unity of two different social classes. Such other modern day films with this message include, Pretty Women and While Your Sleeping. Romantic comedies help illustrate the struggle of being integrated into society.

Whether a individual is an immigrant or a citizen of a country he/she must be able to integrate into various social systems. This particular idea illustrates another of comedies central themes, reforming the social system of the work place. One the biggest film example is the film Overboard. In this film an obnoxious millionaire falls overboard, loses her memory ability, and is claimed by a lower class carpenter as his wife. After the fall overboard the millionaire develops a great appreciation for the working class life. American comedies help make light of the daily grind of the working world.

The next idea that film genre of romantic comedy illustrates is the idea of social integration, most notably the integration of immigrants. Immigrants coming to this country face a tough road in trying to become one with the day to aspects of American society. They often fine strength through their intimate relationships with others. One of the most popular modern films that brings to light this idea is My Big Fat Greek Wedding. In this family a Greek-American heroine defies her family wishes to marry a Greek American and instead marries a Caucasian non-Greek man.

Romantic comedies however, have become controversial as well. In the early years some romantic comedies were blatantly racist. Most the recognizably racists films was the picture Seven Chances. In this film the main character (Buster Keaton) desperately searches for a woman that will marry him. He runs into several prospects but quickly changes his mind about the women when it turns out one is black and the other is Jewish. Romantic comedies have been a genre of film that has not escaped controversy.

Works Cited

Belton, John. American Cinema and American Culture. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2005. 171-181