ABSTRACT
Chapter 4 explores who genre films are made for and speak to. It begins by providing context for understanding film genres as ritual and myth and then proceeds to discuss myth as ideology in the cultural context. Questions of national cinema and genre are considered, with the international cycle of zombie films providing a specific example. The chapter then turns to the politics of cultural identity and representation in film generally and genre movies specifically. The discussion emphasizes depictions of race and gender in genre movies and how such representation has changed over time. Thelma and Louise and Do the Right Thing are historicized as pivotal films in the evolving history of representation in popular film.
