CREWS, SQUADS, SEVENS, ELEVENS AND DOZENS: THE TEAM FILM GENRE THIS article argues that there exists a genre that it terms the team film. It is not claimed that the films discussed have previously resisted generic analysis, for they also have characteristics that locate them in a wide range of other genres. Rather, it is contended that by virtue of key shared properties - including textual features, the audience expectations and interpretive strategies they provoke, and marketing practices - these films additionally may claim affiliation to, and invite understanding in terms of, a common genre. Andrew Tudor maintains that: Genre notions - except the special case of arbitrary definition - are not critics' classifications made for special purposes; they are sets of cultural conventions. Genre is what we collectively believe it to be. (Tudor 139) It should be acknowledged that what follows runs the risk of appearing...
