Some basics of melodrama:
"...a sub-type of drama films, characterized by a plot to appeal to the heightened emotions of the audience. Melodrama, a combination of drama and melos (music), literally means "play with music." The themes of dramas, the oldest literary and stage art form, were exaggerated within melodramas, and the liberal use of music often enhanced their emotional plots."
"Melodramatic plots with heart-tugging, emotional plots (requiring multiple hankies) usually emphasize sensational situations or crises of human emotion, failed romance or friendship, strained familial situations, tragedy, illness, neuroses, or emotional and physical hardship within everyday life. Victims, couples, virtuous and heroic characters or suffering protagonists (usually heroines) in melodramas are presented with tremendous social pressures, threats, repression, fears, improbable events or difficulties with friends, community, work, lovers, or family. The melodramatic format allows the character(s) to work through their difficulties or surmount the problems with resolute endurance, sacrificial acts, and steadfast bravery."
"Sometimes, disaster films with extensive action sequences have been categorized as melodramas, centering on the efforts of characters to escape man-made or natural disasters."
"Death has always been one of the most popular themes in melodramas, either physically or in emotional terms:
This session will feature clips from those 6 death-filled, mainstream American films from 1970 to 1997. While some may think that the melodrama has been replaced by realistic, gritty representations of American life in those decades, supplemented by a playful, pastice-laden postmodern strand of filmmaking, a closer look reveals that many Oscar-nominated blockbusters use the melodramatic mode to attain its audience effects and box-office scores. Here is a brief presentation of the 6 films, with plot synopses culled from The Internet Movie Database (IMDb):
1. Love Story (1970, directed by Arthur Hiller; written by Erich Segal):
"Love means never having to say you're sorry."
A melodrama about love, loss and forgiveness, Love Story was nominated for 8 Oscars, but only won for Best Music, Original Score.
"Harvard Law student/hockey jock (Oliver Barrett IV) meets Radcliffe music wonk (Jennifer Cavalleri), and the couple soon enter into a relationship. When the couple decide to get married, Oliver's father (Oliver Barrett III) threatens to disinherit him from the family will, leaving Oliver and Jennifer to start their marriage at rock-bottom. Jennifer and her dad (Phil Cavalleri) do what they can to bring father and son back together, but the two prefer to remain at war with one another. Years go by, and the young couple attempt to have children, only to discover that she is malfunctioning."
2. The Deer Hunter (1978, directed by Michael Cimino, who also co-wrote the script):
"You have to think about one shot. One shot is what it's all about. A deer's gotta be taken with one shot."
This war and homecoming drama about the coming-of-age of a group of young men contains hightened melodramatic scenes of gambling with one's life and sacrificing oneself for abstract ideals, only to be disappointed in one's fellow human beings. The movie won 5 out of the nine Oscars it was nominated for.
"Michael, Nick, and Steven are three buddies from the steel mill town of Clairton, Penn.They are like schoolmates, hanging out in a local bar and enjoying weekends of deer-hunting. Michael and Nick are also both in love with Linda, who seems to juggle both of the men. But their placid life is soon to be changed after they are enlisted in the airborne infantry of Vietnam. So they all celebrate a goodbye at Steven's wedding and they leave to Vietnam, where they are captured by the enemy and forced to play a game of Russian Roulette. They escape and return home, but their lives are forever changed. Nick stays in Vietnam, Michael returns to Linda, and Steven is handicapped after losing a leg in the war."
3. E.T. (1982, directed by Steven Spielberg, written by Melissa Matheson):
"E.T. phone home."
This movie about accepting Otherness and recognising that goodness may lurk in surprising places made everyone feel good about themselves in the early Reagan years where the fantasy genre was much in vogue. The melodrama of near-death and resurrection at its finest. It took four of the nine Oscars it was nominated for.
"While visiting the Earth at Night, a group of alien botanists is discovered and disturbed by an approaching human task force. Because of the more than hasty take-off, one of the visitors is left behind. The little alien finds himself all alone on a very strange planet. Fortunately, the extra-terrestrial soon finds a friend and emotional companion in 10-year-old Elliot, who discovered him looking for food in his family's garden shed. While E.T. slowly gets acquainted with Elliot's brother Michael, his sister Gertie as well as with Earth customs, members of the task force work day and night to track down the whereabouts of Earth's first visitor from Outer Space. The wish to go home again is strong in E.T., and after being able to communicate with Elliot and the others, E.T. starts building an improvised device to send a message home for his folks to come and pick him up. But before long, E.T. gets seriously sick, and because of his special connection to Elliot, the young boy suffers, too. The situation gets critical when the task force finally intervenes. By then, all help may already be too late, and there's no alien spaceship in sight."
4. Field of Dreams (1989, directed and co-written by Phil Alden Robinson, based on book by William Kinsella):
"If you build it, he will come."
A sports fantasy melodrama about second chances and spiritual victory, this movie inscribes itself in a long tradition of films about the quintessential American pastime, baseball. Ghosts galore... 3 Oscar nomiantions, but struck out in all categories.
"Iowa farmer Ray Kinsella hears a voice in his corn field tell him, "If you build it, he will come." He interprets this message as an instruction to build a baseball field on his farm, upon which appear the ghosts of Shoeless Joe Jackson and the other seven Chicago White Sox players banned from the game for throwing the 1919 World Series. When the voices continue, Ray seeks out a reclusive author to help him understand the meaning of the messages and the purpose for his field."
5. Forrest Gump (1994, directed by Robert Zemeckis, written by Eric Roth, based on novel by Winston Groom):
"Life is like a box of chocolates...you never know what you're gonna get."
This made-for-an-Oscar star vehicle in the 'happy idiot' subgenre is also an American-History-for-Dummies primer. The innocence of the protagonist makes for a brilliant twist in the powerful hero, fragile heroine paradigm. Why, oh why did Jenny have to die? This one had 13 Oscar nominations and took home 6 statuettes.
"Forrest Gump is a simple man with little brain activity but good intentions. He struggles through childhood with his best and only friend Jenny. His 'mama' teaches him the ways of life and leaves him to choose his destiny. Forrest joins the army for service in Vietnam, finding new friends called Dan and Bubba, he wins medals, starts a table tennis craze, creates a famous shrimp fishing fleet, inspires people to jog, creates the smiley, writes bumper stickers and songs, donating to people and meeting the president several times. However this is all irrelevant to Forrest who can only think of his childhood sweetheart Jenny. Who has messed up her life. Although in the end all he wants to prove is that anyone can love anyone."
6. Titanic (1997, written and directed by James Cameron):
"I'll never let go. I'll never let go, Jack."
The mother of all disaster epics, the movie humanized its tragic story by turning it into a tale of undying love, transcending such small matters as class, power, history etc. "A woman's heart is a deep ocean of secrets " Almost a clean sweep of the Oscars, winning 11 out of its 14 nominations.
"Titanic, the ship of dreams. Is also known as Unsinkable, and it was unsinkable on its departure on April 10th, 1912. And on its epic journey a poor artist named Jack Dawson and a rich girl Rose DeWitt Bukator fall in love, until one night, their fairytale love for one another turns into a struggle for survival on a ship about to founder to the bottom of the North Atlantic. Rose leaves her fiancée Caledon Hockley for this poor artist, but when the Titanic collides with the Iceberg on April 14th, 1912, and then when the ship sinks on April 15th, 1912 at 2:20 in the morning, Jack dies and Rose survives and 84 years later Rose tells the story about her life on Titanic to her grand daughter and friends on the Keldysh and explains the first sight of Jack that falls into love, then into a fight for survival. When Rose gets saved by one lifeboat that comes back, they take her to the Carpathia with the 6 saved with Rose and the 700 people saved in the lifeboats. The Carpathia Immigration Officer asks Rose what her name is and she loved Jack so much she says her name is not Rose DeWitt Bukator, but her name is Rose Dawson. She seen Cal looking for her, but he doesn't see her, and they never ended up together, her mom, Cal, and friends of the family has know choice but to think that she died on the Titanic. But in the crash of 1929, Cal is married, but then he put a pistol in his mouth and committed suicide. So Rose is an actress in the 20's, and now 84 years later Rose Calvert is 100 years old and tells her grand daughter Lizzy Calvert, Brock Lovett, Lewis Bodine, Bobby Buell, and Anatoly Mikailavich the whole story from departure until the death of Titanic on its first and last voyage, and then to Rose all Titanic and the real love of her life Jack Dawson is all an existence inside of her memory, and Titanic is to rest in peace at the bottom of the North Atlantic from 1912 until the end of time."
"...a sub-type of drama films, characterized by a plot to appeal to the heightened emotions of the audience. Melodrama, a combination of drama and melos (music), literally means "play with music." The themes of dramas, the oldest literary and stage art form, were exaggerated within melodramas, and the liberal use of music often enhanced their emotional plots."
"Melodramatic plots with heart-tugging, emotional plots (requiring multiple hankies) usually emphasize sensational situations or crises of human emotion, failed romance or friendship, strained familial situations, tragedy, illness, neuroses, or emotional and physical hardship within everyday life. Victims, couples, virtuous and heroic characters or suffering protagonists (usually heroines) in melodramas are presented with tremendous social pressures, threats, repression, fears, improbable events or difficulties with friends, community, work, lovers, or family. The melodramatic format allows the character(s) to work through their difficulties or surmount the problems with resolute endurance, sacrificial acts, and steadfast bravery."
"Sometimes, disaster films with extensive action sequences have been categorized as melodramas, centering on the efforts of characters to escape man-made or natural disasters."
"Death has always been one of the most popular themes in melodramas, either physically or in emotional terms:
- Arthur Hiller's successful but manipulative Love Story (1970) - the quintessential melodrama about young lovers (Ryan O'Neal and Ali McGraw) from different educational and societal levels - who experience a culminating, tragic, and tearjerking terminal illness...
- Michael Cimino's The Deer Hunter (1978) - with its second lethal scene of "one-shot, one-kill" Russian roulette in one of Saigon's back alleyways that kills Michael's (Robert DeNiro) steelworker/Vietnam Vet friend Nick (Christopher Walken), and the final tragic ending sequence in Pennsylvania in which all gather together for a breakfast wake, sing "God Bless America," and toast Nick ("Here's to Nick")...
- Steven Spielberg's E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982), especially the overwrought death scene of the stranded, odd-looking alien witnessed by a heart-broken 10-year old Elliott (Henry Thomas), and ET's tearful goodbyes and departure onto an awaiting spaceship...
- Phil Alden Robinson's fantasy melodrama Field of Dreams (1989) with its climactic reunion scene in which the father of Iowa farmer Ray (Kevin Costner) emerges from a cornfield to play a game of catch...
- Robert Zemeckis' Forrest Gump (1994), often interpreted as a schmaltzy, manipulative film about an IQ-challenged title character (Tom Hanks) involved in many key events of the 50s-80s, including his weepy visit to the Alabama grave of his love Jenny (Robin Wright Penn)...
- James Cameron's epic, ill-fated love-story Titanic (1997) culminating with the scene of poor boy Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio) professing his love for rich girl Rose (Kate Winslet) before sinking below the icy waters..."
This session will feature clips from those 6 death-filled, mainstream American films from 1970 to 1997. While some may think that the melodrama has been replaced by realistic, gritty representations of American life in those decades, supplemented by a playful, pastice-laden postmodern strand of filmmaking, a closer look reveals that many Oscar-nominated blockbusters use the melodramatic mode to attain its audience effects and box-office scores. Here is a brief presentation of the 6 films, with plot synopses culled from The Internet Movie Database (IMDb):
1. Love Story (1970, directed by Arthur Hiller; written by Erich Segal):
"Love means never having to say you're sorry."
A melodrama about love, loss and forgiveness, Love Story was nominated for 8 Oscars, but only won for Best Music, Original Score.
"Harvard Law student/hockey jock (Oliver Barrett IV) meets Radcliffe music wonk (Jennifer Cavalleri), and the couple soon enter into a relationship. When the couple decide to get married, Oliver's father (Oliver Barrett III) threatens to disinherit him from the family will, leaving Oliver and Jennifer to start their marriage at rock-bottom. Jennifer and her dad (Phil Cavalleri) do what they can to bring father and son back together, but the two prefer to remain at war with one another. Years go by, and the young couple attempt to have children, only to discover that she is malfunctioning."
2. The Deer Hunter (1978, directed by Michael Cimino, who also co-wrote the script):
"You have to think about one shot. One shot is what it's all about. A deer's gotta be taken with one shot."
This war and homecoming drama about the coming-of-age of a group of young men contains hightened melodramatic scenes of gambling with one's life and sacrificing oneself for abstract ideals, only to be disappointed in one's fellow human beings. The movie won 5 out of the nine Oscars it was nominated for.
"Michael, Nick, and Steven are three buddies from the steel mill town of Clairton, Penn.They are like schoolmates, hanging out in a local bar and enjoying weekends of deer-hunting. Michael and Nick are also both in love with Linda, who seems to juggle both of the men. But their placid life is soon to be changed after they are enlisted in the airborne infantry of Vietnam. So they all celebrate a goodbye at Steven's wedding and they leave to Vietnam, where they are captured by the enemy and forced to play a game of Russian Roulette. They escape and return home, but their lives are forever changed. Nick stays in Vietnam, Michael returns to Linda, and Steven is handicapped after losing a leg in the war."
3. E.T. (1982, directed by Steven Spielberg, written by Melissa Matheson):
"E.T. phone home."
This movie about accepting Otherness and recognising that goodness may lurk in surprising places made everyone feel good about themselves in the early Reagan years where the fantasy genre was much in vogue. The melodrama of near-death and resurrection at its finest. It took four of the nine Oscars it was nominated for.
"While visiting the Earth at Night, a group of alien botanists is discovered and disturbed by an approaching human task force. Because of the more than hasty take-off, one of the visitors is left behind. The little alien finds himself all alone on a very strange planet. Fortunately, the extra-terrestrial soon finds a friend and emotional companion in 10-year-old Elliot, who discovered him looking for food in his family's garden shed. While E.T. slowly gets acquainted with Elliot's brother Michael, his sister Gertie as well as with Earth customs, members of the task force work day and night to track down the whereabouts of Earth's first visitor from Outer Space. The wish to go home again is strong in E.T., and after being able to communicate with Elliot and the others, E.T. starts building an improvised device to send a message home for his folks to come and pick him up. But before long, E.T. gets seriously sick, and because of his special connection to Elliot, the young boy suffers, too. The situation gets critical when the task force finally intervenes. By then, all help may already be too late, and there's no alien spaceship in sight."
4. Field of Dreams (1989, directed and co-written by Phil Alden Robinson, based on book by William Kinsella):
"If you build it, he will come."
A sports fantasy melodrama about second chances and spiritual victory, this movie inscribes itself in a long tradition of films about the quintessential American pastime, baseball. Ghosts galore... 3 Oscar nomiantions, but struck out in all categories.
"Iowa farmer Ray Kinsella hears a voice in his corn field tell him, "If you build it, he will come." He interprets this message as an instruction to build a baseball field on his farm, upon which appear the ghosts of Shoeless Joe Jackson and the other seven Chicago White Sox players banned from the game for throwing the 1919 World Series. When the voices continue, Ray seeks out a reclusive author to help him understand the meaning of the messages and the purpose for his field."
5. Forrest Gump (1994, directed by Robert Zemeckis, written by Eric Roth, based on novel by Winston Groom):
"Life is like a box of chocolates...you never know what you're gonna get."
This made-for-an-Oscar star vehicle in the 'happy idiot' subgenre is also an American-History-for-Dummies primer. The innocence of the protagonist makes for a brilliant twist in the powerful hero, fragile heroine paradigm. Why, oh why did Jenny have to die? This one had 13 Oscar nominations and took home 6 statuettes.
"Forrest Gump is a simple man with little brain activity but good intentions. He struggles through childhood with his best and only friend Jenny. His 'mama' teaches him the ways of life and leaves him to choose his destiny. Forrest joins the army for service in Vietnam, finding new friends called Dan and Bubba, he wins medals, starts a table tennis craze, creates a famous shrimp fishing fleet, inspires people to jog, creates the smiley, writes bumper stickers and songs, donating to people and meeting the president several times. However this is all irrelevant to Forrest who can only think of his childhood sweetheart Jenny. Who has messed up her life. Although in the end all he wants to prove is that anyone can love anyone."
6. Titanic (1997, written and directed by James Cameron):
"I'll never let go. I'll never let go, Jack."
The mother of all disaster epics, the movie humanized its tragic story by turning it into a tale of undying love, transcending such small matters as class, power, history etc. "A woman's heart is a deep ocean of secrets " Almost a clean sweep of the Oscars, winning 11 out of its 14 nominations.
"Titanic, the ship of dreams. Is also known as Unsinkable, and it was unsinkable on its departure on April 10th, 1912. And on its epic journey a poor artist named Jack Dawson and a rich girl Rose DeWitt Bukator fall in love, until one night, their fairytale love for one another turns into a struggle for survival on a ship about to founder to the bottom of the North Atlantic. Rose leaves her fiancée Caledon Hockley for this poor artist, but when the Titanic collides with the Iceberg on April 14th, 1912, and then when the ship sinks on April 15th, 1912 at 2:20 in the morning, Jack dies and Rose survives and 84 years later Rose tells the story about her life on Titanic to her grand daughter and friends on the Keldysh and explains the first sight of Jack that falls into love, then into a fight for survival. When Rose gets saved by one lifeboat that comes back, they take her to the Carpathia with the 6 saved with Rose and the 700 people saved in the lifeboats. The Carpathia Immigration Officer asks Rose what her name is and she loved Jack so much she says her name is not Rose DeWitt Bukator, but her name is Rose Dawson. She seen Cal looking for her, but he doesn't see her, and they never ended up together, her mom, Cal, and friends of the family has know choice but to think that she died on the Titanic. But in the crash of 1929, Cal is married, but then he put a pistol in his mouth and committed suicide. So Rose is an actress in the 20's, and now 84 years later Rose Calvert is 100 years old and tells her grand daughter Lizzy Calvert, Brock Lovett, Lewis Bodine, Bobby Buell, and Anatoly Mikailavich the whole story from departure until the death of Titanic on its first and last voyage, and then to Rose all Titanic and the real love of her life Jack Dawson is all an existence inside of her memory, and Titanic is to rest in peace at the bottom of the North Atlantic from 1912 until the end of time."