Ideology Genre Auteur 
Summary of Ideology, Genre, Auteur
By Robin Wood
In Robin Wood’s essay: Ideology, Genre, Auteur, Wood revisits Hitchcock’s films and analyses the different characteristics in the films. Wood focuses mostly on Shadow of a Doubt and It’s a Wonderful Life in which he compares and describes the different values of Hollywood cinema. One of Wood’s major points to hear two opposing views. Wood stresses that a critics job should be to look at a piece as a whole rather than at the particular aspects of one of the theories or too superficially, like a genre. Wood, however, then demonstrates what a proper critic should be like, by analyzing and comparing every single aspect, characteristic, and plot details in Shadow of a Doubt and It’s a Wonderful Life.
The values that Wood presents are constantly displayed in films like Hitchcock’s. The values include right of owner ship, honest work ethics, a family in which the mother follows and teaches the kids values and the male is dominant. Another big value Wood discusses is control by upper power, either by equal division of land or belief that in America everyone can be happy and they are if they serve the dominant power. Wood describes the value of wealth being shameful, that money corrupts, and those who are poor are happier. And finally he describes the ideal male (man of action) and female (dependable companion) and their opposites: dull father and erotic woman who betrays the hero.
Wood’s main point is very similar to Robert Ray’s argument in The Thematic Paradigm. Robert Ray and Wood both try to explain how the American society very much like most of the movies described in both essays want conflicting desires. People see two opposite options, want them both, and believe that they can. Wood’s essay describes the ideological contradictions presented in Hitchcock’s films. Two main characters are opposing each other creating ideological tensions. These tensions spur from the proximity of the characters and the different
By Robin Wood
In Robin Wood’s essay: Ideology, Genre, Auteur, Wood revisits Hitchcock’s films and analyses the different characteristics in the films. Wood focuses mostly on Shadow of a Doubt and It’s a Wonderful Life in which he compares and describes the different values of Hollywood cinema. One of Wood’s major points to hear two opposing views. Wood stresses that a critics job should be to look at a piece as a whole rather than at the particular aspects of one of the theories or too superficially, like a genre. Wood, however, then demonstrates what a proper critic should be like, by analyzing and comparing every single aspect, characteristic, and plot details in Shadow of a Doubt and It’s a Wonderful Life.
The values that Wood presents are constantly displayed in films like Hitchcock’s. The values include right of owner ship, honest work ethics, a family in which the mother follows and teaches the kids values and the male is dominant. Another big value Wood discusses is control by upper power, either by equal division of land or belief that in America everyone can be happy and they are if they serve the dominant power. Wood describes the value of wealth being shameful, that money corrupts, and those who are poor are happier. And finally he describes the ideal male (man of action) and female (dependable companion) and their opposites: dull father and erotic woman who betrays the hero.
Wood’s main point is very similar to Robert Ray’s argument in The Thematic Paradigm. Robert Ray and Wood both try to explain how the American society very much like most of the movies described in both essays want conflicting desires. People see two opposite options, want them both, and believe that they can. Wood’s essay describes the ideological contradictions presented in Hitchcock’s films. Two main characters are opposing each other creating ideological tensions. These tensions spur from the proximity of the characters and the different