With the impending release of Cowboys and Aliens, which I understand is based on a comic book (?), I started to think of how many other movies or TV shows combined the Western format with Sci Fi. Of course I came up with the obvious – Joss Wheedon's Firefly. But it strikes me that some genres seem to meld together very well eg romantic comedy, historical romance, sci-fi thriller. And many genres don't meld often or well eg historical thriller (although I'm sure there are some good ones). Some genres seem to be diametrically opposed eg drama and comedy – although I'm sure the two have been cominbed to good effect occasionally. Another set of oppositional genres seems to be epics and thrillers because epic implies something that is long and drawn out and thriller implies something more fast paced. What are your favorite genre-bending movies? What are the most effective and least effective attempts at combining genres?
Genre Bending
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I'm not 100% sure it counts, but if I can figure out how to make it count, I'd vote for Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man. It's western and… art house? Is that a genre? Maybe Jim Jarmusch films are their own genre. It's certainly an unusual western, anyway, and worth watching.
(If we extend to books, I'd vote for Justin Allen's _Year of the Horse_, a very clever fantasy-western. That's much less unusual the sci-fi western, but still not super common.)
I think western blends well with a lot of other genres. Wild Wild West and the amazing TV show The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. are both steampunk westerns, though the latter perhaps a little more subtly than the former. Stephen King's Dark Tower books are fantasy-westerns. The insanely good comic book Preacher might be called a religious-epic-western.
The wikipedia page for "dramedy" cites Chekhov, Ibsen, and Shaw! It seems to be a popular tone these days on TV. I think Nurse Jackie, Weeds, Californication and Entourage might all qualify for the label. Ally McBeal is another, older, one.
Star Wars is arguably sci-fi-fantasy, which isn't a natural blend (advanced tech & magic require two dimensions of suspension of disbelief) even though both are shoved together in what I lovingly call The Nerd Section at the bookstore.
One more: the Scream movies are the best example of the comedy/thriller (or "scary movie" — I don't want to say "horror" because that implies to me a supernatural element) blend.
Matt: I think I'll definitely have to give you Dead Man. And it's a great movie.
"Grosse Pointe Blank" is probably at the top of my list, successfully combining the romantic comedy/high school reunion/John Cusack genre with the hitman genre.
I do not know if you would put dark comedies such as Serious Man and Fargo in genre bending films. I do. The Coen brothers are masters at pulling off these crazy blends that I love.
Colin – Gross Pointe Blank! One of my all time faves…
I'll put in a plug for one of my favorites: Corey McAbee's criminally under-seen scifi/western/musical, The American Astronaut. http://www.corymcabee.com/americanastronaut/