Throughout film history melodrama has meant many different meanings and been attached to many different genres. By the time the 1980’s role around it became obvious that a melodrama was taking on a whole new form that had many little factors that would make it considered melodrama. To decide if a film is a melodrama or not comes to many different aspects found in melodramas of the time. A film like Steel Magnolias (1989) was a massive hit with both audiences and critics alike, and many consider the film a classic example of melodrama. The question arises at this point, which is what factors contribute to making Steel Magnolias an example of melodrama? There are at least three aspects that contribute to the point that Steel Magnolias is a melodrama,
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Of course not all of the big dramatic scenes in the movie play music over the characters depicting the emotions they are feeling at the time, but like most melodrama there are plenty of examples of it throughout the movie. Perhaps the first example of this comes near the beginning of the movie when Shelby is getting her hair done before the wedding. Music starts to drown out the conversation that the ladies are having in the salon as the camera moves closer to Shelby as she has a medical problem occur. The music emphasis the pain, and shock she is going though at that very moment. This is simply one example, but the biggest example of music playing it’s emphases on the drama and emotion comes with the funeral scene close to the end of the film. After Shelby has died we briefly see the funeral play out and we see the pain and sadness over the faces of the main cast of characters as they slowly start to leave the funeral. This is actually a recurring situation that happens in many melodrama like when Hillary dies at the end of Beaches (1988) and we see the emotions of the both CC and Victoria as the sad music plays in the background. Melodrama seems like a word that is overused for criticizing a movie these days, but as it turns out this is a genre all of it’s own and it takes a lot for a film to really be considered a melodrama. For a film like Steel Magnolias to be classified as the melodrama takes many different factors, but there are at the very least 3 factors that contribute to it fitting into the melodrama category. First of all the film depicts many instances of conflict within a family (the Eatenton family for this movie), also the film has a classic melodrama character known as the victim heroine who’s conflict resides dead center in the movies narrative. Finally the film emphasizes the dramatic
Of course not all of the big dramatic scenes in the movie play music over the characters depicting the emotions they are feeling at the time, but like most melodrama there are plenty of examples of it throughout the movie. Perhaps the first example of this comes near the beginning of the movie when Shelby is getting her hair done before the wedding. Music starts to drown out the conversation that the ladies are having in the salon as the camera moves closer to Shelby as she has a medical problem occur. The music emphasis the pain, and shock she is going though at that very moment. This is simply one example, but the biggest example of music playing it’s emphases on the drama and emotion comes with the funeral scene close to the end of the film. After Shelby has died we briefly see the funeral play out and we see the pain and sadness over the faces of the main cast of characters as they slowly start to leave the funeral. This is actually a recurring situation that happens in many melodrama like when Hillary dies at the end of Beaches (1988) and we see the emotions of the both CC and Victoria as the sad music plays in the background. Melodrama seems like a word that is overused for criticizing a movie these days, but as it turns out this is a genre all of it’s own and it takes a lot for a film to really be considered a melodrama. For a film like Steel Magnolias to be classified as the melodrama takes many different factors, but there are at the very least 3 factors that contribute to it fitting into the melodrama category. First of all the film depicts many instances of conflict within a family (the Eatenton family for this movie), also the film has a classic melodrama character known as the victim heroine who’s conflict resides dead center in the movies narrative. Finally the film emphasizes the dramatic