The history and form of the Hollywood sequel, 1911-2010

• Main Author: Henderson, Stuart
• Published: University of Warwick 2011
• Subjects: 791.4; PN1993 Motion Pictures
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.560159

Whilst the prominence of the sequel in contemporary American cinema is inarguable, little attempt has been made to identify its formal characteristics or to provide a comprehensive account of its historical development over the past century. Offering a corrective to this oversight, this thesis addresses three key research questions: what are the formal characteristics of the sequel in all its variations in American cinema?; to what extent have these formal characteristics changed over time?; and how are these changes related to the shifts in the economic and industrial structures of the American film industry? Drawing on a wide range of sources, the first four chapters trace the historical development of the sequel, from silent era features such as The Son of Sheik (1926) through to contemporary franchises. Building upon this historical context, the second half of the thesis is dedicated to an examination of the Hollywood sequel’s formal characteristics. Initially concerned with the manner in which the sequel form differs from and challenges the notions of closure which inform the Classical Hollywood paradigm, these chapters progress to a consideration of the dynamic between genre, stars, character and narrative as it plays out in sequels ranging from Bride Of Frankenstein (1935) to Rooster Cogburn (1975) and Rambo (2008). In placing equal emphasis on history and aesthetics, the thesis ultimately aims to both develop a typology of the sequel form, and to build a more complete picture of the many ways in which Hollywood has sought to repeat its previous successes, the historically specific conditions which have governed these repetitions, and the compositional norms which have resulted.