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40-571: Beyond Rangoon is a 1995 drama film directed by John Boorman about Laura Bowman (played by Patricia Arquette ), an American tourist who vacations in the country of Burma (now known as Myanmar) in 1988, the year in which the 8888 Uprising takes place. The film was mostly filmed in Malaysia , and, though a work of fiction, was inspired by real people and real events. Bowman joins, albeit initially unintentionally, political rallies with university students protesting for democracy , and travels with

80-462: A better understanding of the film. According to the taxonomy, combining the type with the genre does not create a separate genre. For instance, the "Horror Drama" is simply a dramatic horror film (as opposed to a comedic horror film). "Horror Drama" is not a genre separate from the horror genre or the drama type. Crime dramas explore themes of truth, justice, and freedom, and contain the fundamental dichotomy of "criminal vs. lawman". Crime films make

120-487: A financial success only in France (where it opened number one and gained 442,793 visitors), though it was screened in many European countries. Film critic Tullio Kezich compared the film to Rossellini's classic, Paisà , regretting that it was marred by certain directorial touches. Beyond Rangoon holds a 37% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 35 reviews, with an average rating of 5.0/10. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave

160-474: A harrowing river crossing into Thailand under mortar fire and reach a refugee camp. Having found a new purpose in life, Laura begins helping at the camp's hospital. Critical reaction was mixed. Richard Corliss of Time , Peter Travers of Rolling Stone , and Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly wrote negative reviews, while the critic for The New Yorker called the film a "fearless masterpiece" and Andrew Sarris declared himself "awestruck" by

200-685: A more central component of the story, along with serious content.  Examples include Three Colours: White (1994), The Truman Show (1998), The Man Without a Past (2002), The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2011), and Silver Linings Playbook (2012). Coined by film professor Ken Dancyger , these stories exaggerate characters and situations to the point of becoming fable, legend or fairy tale.  Examples: Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) and Maleficent (2014). Light dramas are light-hearted stories that are, nevertheless, serious in nature.  Examples: The Help (2011) and The Terminal (2004). Psychological dramas are dramas that focus on

240-400: A particular setting or subject matter, or they combine a drama's otherwise serious tone with elements that encourage a broader range of moods . To these ends, a primary element in a drama is the occurrence of conflict —emotional, social, or otherwise—and its resolution in the course of the storyline. All forms of cinema or television that involve fictional stories are forms of drama in

280-633: A person's life and raises their level of importance. The "small things in life" feel as important to the protagonist (and the audience) as the climactic battle in an action film, or the final shootout in a western.  Often, the protagonists deal with multiple, overlapping issues in the course of the film – just as we do in life.  Films of this type/genre combination include: The Wrestler (2008), Fruitvale Station (2013), and Locke (2013). Romantic dramas are films with central themes that reinforce our beliefs about love (e.g.: themes such as "love at first sight", "love conquers all", or "there

320-506: A pistol from one of the crew. At a clinic, Laura finds the drugs she needs, but has to shoot a soldier to keep from being raped. When they arrive in Rangoon, the city is in the throes of a full-scale revolt. When Laura attempts to get into the US embassy, the military tries to arrest her for helping Ko, but the student demonstrators rescue them. After they witness soldiers killing civilians, they get put on

360-457: A specific approach to drama but, rather, consider drama as a lack of comedic techniques.  Examples: Ghost World (2001) and Wuthering Heights (2011). According to the Screenwriters' Taxonomy, all film descriptions should contain their type (comedy or drama) combined with one (or more) of the eleven super-genres. This combination does not create a separate genre, but rather, provides

400-459: A trip to Burma after Laura's husband and son were murdered during a home invasion and Laura had gone into a deep depression. One night, unable to sleep because of nightmares, Laura leaves her hotel in Rangoon and gets caught up in an anti-government protest. She is very impressed by the bravery of Aung San Suu Kyi . When her tour group leaves the country, Laura cannot leave with them as her passport

440-437: A truck heading for the border. Near the border, the group has to abandon their truck and make a run through the jungle. There they meet up with a group of Karen rebels. Laura has a dream where her son Danny tells her she has to let him go. Ko urges Laura to do so, telling her, "All things pass, Laura. They are shadows as we are shadows. Briefly walking the earth, and soon gone." The next day, Laura and her group of refugees make

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480-447: Is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction ) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-genre, macro-genre, or micro-genre, such as soap opera , police crime drama , political drama , legal drama , historical drama , domestic drama , teen drama , and comedy-drama (dramedy). These terms tend to indicate

520-526: Is a final fight to the death; the idea of the protagonists facing death is a central expectation in a war drama film. In a war film even though the enemy may out-number, or out-power, the hero, we assume that the enemy can be defeated if only the hero can figure out how.   Examples include: Apocalypse Now (1979), Come and See (1985), Braveheart (1995), Life Is Beautiful (1997), Black Book (2006), The Hurt Locker (2008), 1944 (2015), Wildeye (2015), and 1917 (2019). Films in

560-751: Is a graduate of the University of Michigan . Gleiberman's work has been published in Premiere and Film Comment , and collected in the film criticism anthology Love and Hisses . Gleiberman reviews movies for NPR and NY1 . He is a member of the New York Film Critics Circle . He is one of the critics featured in Gerald Peary 's 2009 documentary film For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism . Gleiberman's autobiography, Movie Freak ,

600-476: Is shot and killed. Laura gets Ko into the car and they leave, pursued by the soldiers, but Ko is shot and wounded. They end up crashing into the Irrawaddy River , but manage to get away from the soldiers. They get on a raft taking bamboo to Rangoon. Laura, who is a doctor, operates on Ko to remove the bullet. The next day, the raft stops at a village. Laura goes to find drugs to treat Ko. She reluctantly accepts

640-421: Is someone out there for everyone"); the story typically revolves around characters falling into (and out of, and back into) love. Annie Hall (1977), The Notebook (2004), Carol (2015), Her (2013) , and La La Land (2016) are examples of romance dramas. The science fiction drama film is often the story of a protagonist (and their allies) facing something "unknown" that has the potential to change

680-622: Is that in a documentary it uses real people to describe history or current events; in a docudrama it uses professionally trained actors to play the roles in the current event, that is "dramatized" a bit. Examples: Black Mass (2015) and Zodiac (2007). Unlike docudramas, docu-fictional films combine documentary and fiction, where actual footage or real events are intermingled with recreated scenes. Examples: Interior. Leather Bar (2013) and Your Name Here (2015). Many otherwise serious productions have humorous scenes and characters intended to provide comic relief . A comedy drama has humor as

720-755: The western super-genre often take place in the American Southwest or Mexico, with a large number of scenes occurring outdoors so we can soak in scenic landscapes. Visceral expectations for the audience include fistfights, gunplay, and chase scenes. There is also the expectation of spectacular panoramic images of the countryside including sunsets, wide open landscapes, and endless deserts and sky.   Examples of western dramas include: True Grit (1969) and its 2010 remake , Mad Max (1979), Unforgiven (1992), No Country for Old Men (2007), Django Unchained (2012), Hell or High Water (2016), and Logan (2017). Some film categories that use

760-489: The Apes (1968), A Clockwork Orange (1971), Blade Runner (1982) and its sequel Blade Runner 2049 (2017), Children of Men (2006), Interstellar (2014), and Arrival (2016). In the sports super-genre, characters will be playing sports. Thematically, the story is often one of "Our Team" versus "Their Team"; their team will always try to win, and our team will show the world that they deserve recognition or redemption;

800-407: The audience jump through a series of mental "hoops"; it is not uncommon for the crime drama to use verbal gymnastics to keep the audience and the protagonist on their toes.   Examples of crime dramas include: The Godfather (1972), Chinatown (1974), Goodfellas (1990), The Usual Suspects (1995), The Big Short (2015), and Udta Punjab (2016). According to Eric R. Williams ,

840-412: The broader sense if their storytelling is achieved by means of actors who represent ( mimesis ) characters . In this broader sense, drama is a mode distinct from novels, short stories , and narrative poetry or songs . In the modern era, before the birth of cinema or television, "drama" within theatre was a type of play that was neither a comedy nor a tragedy . It is this narrower sense that

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880-533: The characters' inner life and psychological problems. Examples: Requiem for a Dream (2000), Oldboy (2003), Babel (2006), Whiplash (2014), and Anomalisa (2015) Satire can involve humor, but the result is typically sharp social commentary that is anything but funny. Satire often uses irony or exaggeration to expose faults in society or individuals that influence social ideology.  Examples: Thank You for Smoking (2005) and Idiocracy (2006). Straight drama applies to those that do not attempt

920-473: The course of the film. Thematically, horror films often serve as morality tales, with the killer serving up violent penance for the victims' past sins.  Metaphorically, these become battles of Good vs. Evil or Purity vs. Sin.  Psycho (1960), Halloween (1978), The Shining (1980), The Conjuring (2013), It (2017), mother! (2017), and Hereditary (2018) are examples of horror drama films. Day-in-the-life films takes small events in

960-481: The family as a whole reacts to a central challenge. There are four micro-genres for the family drama: Family Bond , Family Feud , Family Loss , and Family Rift . A sub-type of drama films that uses plots that appeal to the heightened emotions of the audience. Melodramatic plots often deal with "crises of human emotion, failed romance or friendship, strained familial situations, tragedy, illness, neuroses, or emotional and physical hardship". Film critics sometimes use

1000-529: The film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale. Beyond Rangoon is an original soundtrack music album that was mostly composed by Hans Zimmer . The album was released in 1999 to mixed reviews. Hans Zimmer highlights on South-East Asia tradition where he employs pipes, wood flutes, and native rhythms with vivid effects to demonstrate the character of the students' strike in 1988, Burma and their fleeing Rangoon after martial law imposed. Drama (film and television) In film and television , drama

1040-409: The film and television industries, along with film studies , adopted. " Radio drama " has been used in both senses—originally transmitted in a live performance, it has also been used to describe the more high-brow and serious end of the dramatic output of radio . The Screenwriters Taxonomy contends that film genres are fundamentally based upon a film's atmosphere, character and story, and therefore

1080-459: The film) after several years under strict house arrest. The celebrated democracy leader thanked the filmmakers in her first interview with the BBC . Suu Kyi was re-arrested a few years later, but Beyond Rangoon had already helped raise world attention on a previously "invisible" tragedy: the massacres of 1988 and the cruelty of her country's military rulers. Andy Bowman persuades her sister Laura to go on

1120-548: The film. Roger Ebert awarded the film three stars out of four, praising Arquette's performance and acknowledging the political repression in Burma. Distributed by Columbia Pictures , the film was not a theatrical success in America, which John Boorman partially attributed to interference by the Burmese government as well as Malaysia which was where the film was shot on location. The film was

1160-416: The future of humanity; this unknown may be represented by a villain with incomprehensible powers, a creature we do not understand, or a scientific scenario that threatens to change the world; the science fiction story forces the audience to consider the nature of human beings, the confines of time or space or the concepts of human existence in general. Examples include: Metropolis (1927), Planet of

1200-416: The hallmark of fantasy drama films is "a sense of wonderment, typically played out in a visually intense world inhabited by mythic creatures, magic or superhuman characters. Props and costumes within these films often belie a sense of mythology and folklore – whether ancient, futuristic, or other-worldly. The costumes, as well as the exotic world, reflect the personal, inner struggles that the hero faces in

1240-408: The labels "drama" and "comedy" are too broad to be considered a genre. Instead, the taxonomy contends that film dramas are a "Type" of film; listing at least ten different sub-types of film and television drama. Docudramas are dramatized adaptations of real-life events. While not always completely accurate, the general facts are more-or-less true. The difference between a docudrama and a documentary

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1280-529: The legal system. Films that focus on dramatic events in history. Focuses on doctors, nurses, hospital staff, and ambulance saving victims and the interactions of their daily lives. Focuses on teenage characters, especially where a secondary school setting plays a role. Owen Gleiberman Gleiberman was born in Lausanne , Switzerland, to Jewish-American parents. He was raised in Ann Arbor, Michigan , and

1320-530: The story does not always have to involve a team. The story could also be about an individual athlete or the story could focus on an individual playing on a team. Examples of this genre/type include:  The Hustler (1961), Hoosiers (1986), Remember the Titans (2000), and Moneyball (2011). War films typically tells the story of a small group of isolated individuals who – one by one – get killed (literally or metaphorically) by an outside force until there

1360-514: The story." Examples of fantasy dramas include The Lord of the Rings (2001–2003), Pan's Labyrinth (2006), Where the Wild Things Are (2009), and Life of Pi (2012). Horror dramas often involve the central characters isolated from the rest of society. These characters are often teenagers or people in their early twenties (the genre's central audience) and are eventually killed off during

1400-482: The student leader U Aung Ko throughout Burma. There, they see the brutality of the military dictatorship of the Ne Win Regime and attempt to escape to Thailand . The film was an official selection at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival . The film may have had an impact beyond movie screens, however. Only weeks into its European run, the Burmese military junta freed Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi (depicted in

1440-578: The term "pejoratively to connote an unrealistic, pathos-filled, camp tale of romance or domestic situations with stereotypical characters (often including a central female character) that would directly appeal to feminine audiences". Also called "women's movies", "weepies", tearjerkers, or "chick flicks". If they are targeted to a male audience, then they are called "guy cry" films. Often considered "soap-opera" drama. Focuses on religious characters, mystery play, beliefs, and respect. Character development based on themes involving criminals, law enforcement and

1480-488: The word "comedy" or "drama" are not recognized by the Screenwriters Taxonomy as either a film genre or a film type. For instance, "Melodrama" and "Screwball Comedy" are considered Pathways,  while "romantic comedy" and "family drama" are macro-genres. A macro-genre in the Screenwriters Taxonomy. These films tell a story in which many of the central characters are related. The story revolves around how

1520-452: Was banned from teaching because of his support for the anti-government activities led by his former student Min Han. She has a breakdown and tells Ko what happened to her family. The next morning, they learn that the 8888 Uprising began the previous day. Ko takes Laura to a station to get a train back to Rangoon. She sneaks on board, but the soldiers start beating Ko, and when Min Han intervenes, Han

1560-596: Was published by Hachette Books . He and his wife Sharon live in New York City with their three daughters. In 2016, Gleiberman incited controversy over a piece on the film Bridget Jones's Baby , in which he denigrated the physical appearance of actress Renée Zellweger . Actress and MeToo activist Rose McGowan penned an op-ed in The Hollywood Reporter defending Zellweger and criticizing Gleiberman. This article about an American journalist born in

1600-416: Was stolen the previous night. While staying behind waiting for her new passport, she meets U Aung Ko, who acts as an unofficial tour guide and drives an ancient Chevy . He takes Laura out into the countryside to a Buddhist monastery. The car develops problems, but fortunately they are able to coast to the house of some of Ko's friends and former students. Laura learns that Ko used to be a college professor, who

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