Introduction
Gangster films are the most complex category of films that mirror our views on the moral justice. Crime films centered on criminal activities such as hoodlums, alcohol during prohibition, bank robbery, and petty theft. Admittedly, the criminal activities that featured in the gangster films got executed against the laws, and they were carried out with no regard to the safety of human life. They evolve around gangsters who were motivated to seek power and wealth.
The earliest gangster films in the United States can be traced back to the silent epoch of 1897-1927 when the country was experiencing the progressive era (Kolker 67). The crime films during this period capitalized on the social conditions that were being encountered in the United States such as the immigration and urbanization that resulted in increasing of organized crimes, distrust of the government and social anarchy. Apparently, the proliferation of gangster activities and the social disorder led to the emergence of crime films. Importantly, the gangster films of the 1920s and late 1930s led to significant influence to the American cinema gangster mythology. These mythical gangster films were driven in a manner that could reach their epitome where ironically, they got doomed. The characters of these films were described as both heroes and criminals depending on the way the society viewed them. The gangster activities depicted in these early films were as a result of a failed United States economic
The gangster genre within films in America has accomplished numerous positive criticisms and constant willing audiences due to containing outstanding spectacles and mind-blowing action. The Godfather, being second on the IMDb Top 250 Movies, has set a new popular concept to life within the Mafia from their point of view. Doing so, creating a positive association. Yet within Italy, the same topic contains a complete different view. Movies such as I Cento Passi demonstrate unenthusiastic view by those whom are outside yet negatively affected by those members. Unlike American films, the gangsters are not as often viewed at the protagonist and are the main causes for the problematic events. But how different is Italian Mafia and American
When discussing American culture, the influence and interplay of film cannot be understated. We are a nation consumed with the media. Today, the movie business is one of the highest grossing businesses there is. We hold movie stars up as though they are super human. We closely watch their style, their dating lives, their party habits, and even their favorite restaurants, among many other things. We rely on movies to lift us up, teach us about other cultures and time periods, and even to teach us about our own culture. Often, movies reflect the time period they are filmed in and directly reflect the social tensions of that time and the film noir genre is no different. One of the most famous film noir movies out there, The Maltese Falcon,
The movie begins in New York, in 1843, with a gang fight. Bill "the butcher" Cutting's gang of "nativists" have challenged the "dead rabbits" (a gang of mostly Irish immigrants) to a fight to settle once and for all who is the most powerful gang in the area. After an intense battle the "nativists" win by killing the leader of the "dead rabbits", also Amsterdam's (the main character's) father.
American cinema flourished due to their movies about Italian Americans being portrayed as mafia. “ Our national obsession for violence, and blood and our out-of-control appetite for wealth and power is siphoned off and projected onto Italian organized crime.” This quote clearly stated that due to the Americans obsession to watch violence and blood, Italian Americans became the main target for them to achieve that due to their history. However, they ignore the fact that it was only a certain percentage of Italian Americans that were part of the mafia while the rest Italian Americans were immigrants struggling to survive past those stereotypes. “ According to the
The 1920s was a “time of great criminal activity, with prohibition laws in America and the world in an economic depression” (Nash, 1). Organized criminals such as American mobsters thrived during this time. Al Capone, Bonnie and Clyde, and John Dillinger were the most well-known of the gangsters at the time, many of the common people looked to these criminals as “heroes”. There were a tremendous amount of people who turned to criminal activity; mostly because jobs were scarce and
For the most part main stream America accepted gangsters. It was a necessary evil to get the alcohol they craved (Bergreen 231). Until that is, the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre in 1929. “ Crime in Chicago has been so psychologically successful, that it takes such a romantically excessive episode as the recent St. Valentine’s Day Massacre to stir the citizens at all “(Bergreen 319). Seven of Bugs Moran’s (a chief rival of Capone) men were slaughtered in warehouse on Clark Street in Chicago. The five killers, two
Film Noir was a result of it's time - The war had just ended and It was time where prohibition had influenced an abundance in crime and corruption. Film noir serves to highlight the darkest aspects of human beings. Society is making the machinery of it's own destruction.
To define a film by a certain genre, there are several elements and signatures that a film will display in order to signify its place amongst the genre. A film from the gangster genre is characterized by violence and lawlessness of american capitalism and The American Dream. The short lived classical era of the gangster genre in Hollywood is also greatly influenced by the production code which manifested the iconic moral narrative of the gangster genre. William A. Wellman’s 1931 film The Public Enemy can be considered a film of the gangster genre when one examines the conflict with the American dream, the rise and fall of the protagonist Tom Powers, as well as the visual storytelling employed to support the narrative.
Directed by the legendary director Martin Scorsese, along with splendid performances of the duo Leonardo DiCaprio and Daniel Day - Lewis, Gangs of New York is an excellent film illustrated the chaotic peril of 1860s New York City based on actual historical events. Build upon the nonfiction novel by Herbert Asbury, The Gangs of New York: An Informal History of the Underworld, the movie depicted the conflict between the Americans and the Irish immigrants due to the rising wave of immigration to America. Although the movie is overall very intriguing, and gave an in-depth insight into the modern gang of New York City in the 19th century, it omits certain events in history for the purpose of entertainment.
“American Gangster” is based on the true story of Frank Lucas’ life. It is the story of how he cut out the middleman in the heroin business and the story of how Ritchie Roberts caught him. Throughout the film we see the parallel between a cop and a criminal as we inch forward to see their lives finally meet.
The gangster movie genre is one of the most popular among the modern movies and some of the best film directors have produced some very excellent gangster movies. For my first film analysis, I decided to analyze my favorite gangster movie of all time. The movie that I analyzed is called “Scarface” and is directed by Brian De Palma. It was released in 1983 and is still a super hit movie today. Let me go through a short summary of the movie.
The characters are usually materialistic, street-smart and self-destructive (Dirks, 2018) this is expressed in the film Goodfellas (1990) which is based off the portrayal of the life of Henry Hill, an FBI informant. In the Do you think I’m funny scene, the mobster who was loud and speaking the loudest fell into the cliché character category as his behavior was self-destructive and boisterous. The gangster’s success is typically followed by his failure (Wilson, 2015). The gangster film provides a critical perspective on the American Dream that warns humans of the consequences associated with consumerism and greed (Hoffman, 2014). This genre involves a lot of brutality (Hoffman, 2014) which in the scene of Goodfellas is exhibited when a bottle was smashed on the head of a waiter who was speaking to the mobster.
The Popularity of Gangster Films in the Early Nineteen-Thirties The late 1920s in America was a particularly tumultuous period of time for the country. The Wall Street Crash in 1929 had led to high levels of unemployment and dissatisfaction within the country. The Depression (1929-1934), which was a direct result of The Wall Street Crash, led to a breakdown of industry and commerce within the country and weakened its global position as a superpower. People began to realise that the ideal which had been frequently promoted by governmental propaganda of The American Dream which suggested that "success, in the democratic and classless society guaranteed by the
The film, American Gangster, directed and produced by Ridley Scott is a drama based on the biography of Frank Lucas. In the movie, Frank Lucas constructs his own business of illegal work after his boss, Bumpy Johnson, passes away. Frank builds a heroin business, following in the footsteps of Bumpy, and becomes the most powerful crime boss in Manhattan. Furthermore, because of Frank’s immoral ways, he gets caught by the police and is sentenced to 15 years in prison. As the movie progresses I form a couple assumptions of what could happen in the short term and long term. First off, when Frank Lucas attains his heroin I believe that in the short term he will succeed. Frank has established a vast amount of insights into the drug business from Bumpy, and from what he has learned he will take in and apply it to his situation. However, all immoral acts will have to be put to an end, so in the long term, Frank’s heroin business will be caught. If Frank’s business is the biggest thing in Manhattan then the police are bound to question where are all the illegal drugs coming from, how, why, and who. The police were already hunting him down so it was inevitable for him to get out of his illegal mess.
Crime film is a genre in which the film revolves around the action of a criminal . A Crime film will always revolve around the criminal, showing his rise and fall. Some Crime films will have a storyline that follows the criminal's victim.This genre tends to be fast with a touch of mystery – this mystery can come from the plot or from the characters . Crime genre in Bollywood is mostly based on real stories of gangsters as Mumbai has been a hub for underworld and smuggling since a long time. The representation of criminals shown in commercial Bollywood cinema is completely different from Hollywood cinema. In some Hollywood movies crime and mafia is shown to be inherited where as the criminals in bollywood are shown entering the crime because of situations that led them. Underworld has been connected to Bollywood since a long time. Many gangsters like haji mastan in the past have been in good touch with Bollywood celebrities like dilip kumar. Whenever we talk about crime in Bollywood Daud Ibrahim