Thursday, February 11, 2016

Romantic Comedies are Alright

Aristotle's dramatic comedies revolve around a character's positive assent in which the reader is able to learn general human truths along the way. I think the best contemporary examples of these are romantic comedies.  One of my favorite romantic comedies is Sleepless in Seattle. It's a wonderful movie. I can't help laughing at goofy Sam (played by Tom Hanks) or breaking out into smile with Jonah as his dad finds love. I think it's a wonderful movie, but I'm not sure that it has any revolutionary message on general truths concerning the human condition. I think that dramatic comedies were revolutionary before romantic comedies became a genre consisting of a general formula providing new ways to rehash the same morals.

5 comments:

  1. It's been said that all movies are just a new spin on seven different stories, but you do have a point. Rom Com's are becoming increasingly stale. Good post.

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  2. I have always liked the Romantic Comedy genre, but I do agree with you that today's films have no original ideas.

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  3. I also think that dramatic comedies are more appealing than romantic comedies. Romantic comedies are most likely more prevalent now because, even according to Aristotle's definition, comedies involve the, "high-spirited celebration of human sexuality," which probably makes writing a romantic comedy much easier than writing a dramatic one.

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  4. I agree that there is a definite stereotypical formula to a Romantic Comedy. I do think that occasionally, there are some themes which can be found in the films, it just demands looking deeper into the progression of the characters and it is not always explicitly stated.

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  5. I think it is fair to say that a lot of romantic comedies these days lack the underlying messages that make some dramatic comedies so endearing. Not that you were saying this but I do think that there is still a lot of good comedy, whether it be dramatic or comedic, that have interesting messages.

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