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Abstract(s)
Spielberg’s dramatic films usually engage in an aesthetic of excess that is redolent of melodrama in general, the ultimate goal of which is to bring the audience to tears. Following Steve Neale’s rationale in “Melodrama and Tears (1986), I argue that Saving Private Ryan, the ultimate war movie, is a “male weepie,” a variety of melodrama destined to make audiences cry, but starring a male protagonist instead of a woman. I focus on the generic hybridity of the film, reconciling Jeanine Basinger’s paradigm of the combat movie, with the emotion and sentiment the film contains and how this affects the viewer’s reception of it. In other words, it is a question of coordinating the conflict between good and evil, from a family-based and symbolically mothering perspective, with the hyperbolic dimension and the breath-taking action of combat-riddled films. From a cognitive perspective, it could be said that this article strives to approach the “rules of engagement,” not of the enemy but of the audience.
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Keywords
Genre films War movies Melodrama Male weepie Saving private Ryan
Citation
Publisher
Presses Universitaires de la Méditerranée