Genre - 'The good, the bad, and the ugly'

The film: 'The good, the bad and the ugly' is typical to its genre because it uses generic codes and conventions: Iconographies, narratives, representations and ideologies.

Iconography is shown by visual symbols that are decoded to establish genre. The audience establishes that it is a western film as it is shown to be set in the 18-19th century, it is noticeable that the location is in the middle of nowhere, its sunny, and there are mountains in the background. Each signifies what would fit into a western genre. There are even more iconographies, like; the outfits of the characters (guns, hats, belts, clicking boots), the music, even the sounds of the birds in the background to signify the 'old west'.

The narrative of the film is the idea that there is a hero and a villain. In one particular clip, three men are shown having a 'staring contest' as it were, in preparation to 'draw' (a western term for what cowboys used to typically do in western times). The audience is given the idea that there is a hero and a villain in this scene, and the one that dies is most probably the villain. The character roles are each focused on with the camera, in close focus on their faces, especially their eyes - this is a typical western camera angle, and therefore presents to the audience the idea that it is typical to have angles like this in western films.

The representation of the clip is over powering to men. There are no women in the entire scene, therefore giving the audience the idea that men are the most important part in the scene and dominate the danger rather than the women getting involved in it as well. This could relate to the stereotype in films that the woman is the 'damsel in distress'.

To be continued...