The History of the Drama Genre

The Drama genre covers a broad spectrum of films. It is usually a more serious representation or realistic characters facing conflict with themselves, others or some particular issue. Many sub-genres can sprout from the roots of a Drama, examples of these are romance, crime, comedy, tragedy and thrillers.

Dramas usually include current issues that are largely affecting groups of people, such as: Racism, Discrimination, Mental illness, Corruption or other important issues in the public eye. In the past, when censorship was more common, these kinds of films would largely blame the individual for their problems instead of society or any other causes. The development of Drama films throughout time reflect the realism of life and it's troubles, in the 1950's people began to enjoy more realistic portrayals of characters as this made stories more believable. Dramas also taught audiences about issues at the time and how it effected the different classes of people, an example of one of these issues is the Depression.

Dramatic, well-known actors also rose up during this period. Marilyn Monroe and Bette Davies, are probably amongst the most recognised. In the 1960's Dramas began to focus a lot more of the concept of war and sport.

During the 1970's, more modern directors made some of their first iconic films. An example of one of these is Francis Ford Coppola directing the Godfather in this period of time. During the 80's and 90's, Drama began to focus on much more emotional themes, however, common themes such as war continued to develop. Some of the films directed and released during this time are Das Boot (directed by Wolfgang Petersen), and E.T which was directed by Steven Spielberg. The 90's brought forward some more comical Dramas, a well-known example of this is Forrest Gump. Drama was also brought to a younger target audience as Disney went on to release the Lion King.