Unit 8 1980s

Many Romantic Comedies today follow many of the tropes that were set by their predecessors. One of the comedies that established the genre that we know today is When Harry met Sally. This film practically set the standard that this generations knows as romantic comedies, that are followed today by all of Hollywood; not giving rise to anything new for the genre. A film from a more modern context I chose to compare it too is Hope Springs, with Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones. A scene similar to the dinner scene where Sally fakes her orgasm is where, Meryl and Jones’ characters are in a movie theater and she performs a sex act on him, and they get caught. These scenes are similar in the fact that both are sexual in nature and you feel a tad voyeuristic watching them. The main difference being that in Hopes Springs the characters are actually doing the act in a public setting, which makes it all the more awkward when they get caught in the act. Another scene similar for both is the endings. In the end of Harry met Sally they profess their love for each other, and Hopes Springs ends with the couple renewing their vows. While both involve acts of love, Hope Springs’ ending reunites a couple who nearly destroyed their marriage through bitterness.