Musketeers of Pig Alley as a Historical Source on Gangsters

In the book, Gang Leader for a Day, a rogue sociologist passionately dives into the lives of one of Chicago’s toughest housing projects in an attempt to develop an insight as to how the urban impoverished lived. Throughout the text it becomes clear that a conflict paradigm is being reflected. A conflict society is based on social inequality, in which some individuals benefit and thrive more than others, which tends to lead to conflict and thus change. This is evident both in the housing projects where a gang known as the “Black Kings” take over and also in the surrounding neighborhoods where the more elite citizens, including persons from the authors university, shy away from associating with the nearby poor black nearby public, thus

The film “Goodfellas” represents a clear in depth view of achieved deviant statuses within a large counter culture. The film details the lives of organized criminals, and their roles as gang members. The film is set in Brooklyn New York during the mid-nineteen fifties through the late eighties. This film expresses socialization, ethnocentrism, social sanctions, and three sociological perspectives.

The debate over Casablanca and Citizen Kane has been a classic argument between film critics and historians alike because both of these pieces contain great cinematographic value, and are timeless pictures that have managed to captivate audiences well beyond their era. However, the real question at hand is which film is the greatest? Which film transformed the future of American film making? It is these questions that I as many others have, will attempt to answer in the following essay as I explain why I believe Citizen Kane has achieved the status of greatest film ever made.

In the 1920’s, constant objections from organizations who reprimanded alcohol led to the ratification of the 18th Amendment- the nationwide constitutional ban on the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcohol. This authorization was thought to assist in the decrease of crime and the emptying of prisons, but rather increased consumption and deaths from other substances and poisonings. The stock market crash of 1929 was another event that occurred during this failed attempt of rehabilitation. Breweries, bar-owners, truckers, and many other jobs were lost during this time and increased the unemployment rate dramatically during the Great Depression. The utopian dream of prohibiting alcohol for the good of the people was quickly

Gregory Boyle, the author, said, “A spacious and undefended heart finds room for everything you are and carves space for everybody else.” In the novel, actual accounts from gang members evoke heartfelt and sincere feelings. Additionally, their life experiences widen my outlook on the gang members. The harsh circumstances each individual experienced was heartbreaking and miserable. Men and women are unable to escape their past incidents without Gregory Boyle’s help. Gregory Boyle, a courageous and sincere person, was able to transform people’s lives dramatically. The gang member’s realization to change evokes blissful and content feelings. Overall, the factual stories of the gang members were genuine and cordial.

Early American History was a time where slavery, immigration and neighborhood boundaries issues occurred. Where most Americans had left their homes in search for economic opportunity or where the British had Invaded the US again. History now is similar to early American history because of the gangs, violence, and chaos.

Just like in every other business legal or not legal if there is demand, be rest assured there will be a supply. The result was bootlegging “alcoholic liquor unlawfully made, sold, or transported, without registration or payment of taxes.” (random house, 2015) Bootlegging helped open the door for more organized crime such as opening speakeasies, which were private illegal stores and clubs that sold alcohol. These activities turned out to be a very lucrative business in the black market sector, thus creating large organized crime groups, more criminal and violent activities. This was especially true in the larger cities, such as Chicago were one man named Al Capone ruled the city “One of the most famous American gangsters, Al Capone, also

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.

The Portrayal of the Gangster Genre in American and British Cinema in 'Goodfellas' by Martin Scorcese and 'Layer Cake' by Matthew Vaughn

America’s obsessions with the mafia and mafia-style films have existed for decades. The ability for an audience to connect on a deep level with a character of shady morals and seedy behavior is a requirement for gangster films to be successful. Hollywood has been able to successfully take real life mobsters and make them larger than life on the big screen. Though not all mafia films created are taken directly from real life, most movies have some essence of reality buried within the plot. To understand this obsession with the mafia, it is necessary to understand the beginning of the Mafia’s presence in America.

The way in which gangster figures are portrayed with consideration to gender roles and ethnicity within each film will be analysed. ‘The Godfather’, ‘Pulp Fiction’ and ‘Scarface’ are being explored because they are three movies known for being inspirational in establishing the gangster genre conventions at various points in film history. ‘Scarface’ was highly influential within this genre and when it was released there was not the same censorship as there is in the 21st century. The representation of gangster figures has been a controversial topic throughout the 20th and 21st century and Dr Fran Mason argued that ‘The gangster film has…been considered to be a subversive form of filmmaking’. Whether it was because of how Italians were portrayed

Already five minutes into the film we have the exposition. The time period is set in the late 1960’s early 1970’s. The audience is given narrative economy that sets up the time period as well as the location, Harlem, New York. Along with just the basic time and place we clearly see that Frank Lucas is the protagonist. We learn from the start that he can be violent. This builds his characters, he has the will to be dominant and gets power, just as he wants power. From the beginning we are lead to believe Frank will do anything it takes to get what he wants even if that means burning a man alive. We learn right away this film is about gangsters, about crime, and it is about struggle for power.

Sound and music have long since been staples of the gangster genre, used both to add more tension in suspenseful scenes, or to immerse an audience in the time period of the film. These examples and many like it are most notably used in the 1990 Gangster film Goodfellas by Martin Scorsese, who uses these to set the atmosphere of each scene, and reinforce the running narrative of the film. Goodfellas retells the story of American born gangster Henry Hill, and the rise and fall of him and his way of life from the ‘50’s through the ‘80’s. I picked Goodfellas as the focal point of this essay because of it’s use of music and sound to set it’s story’s atmosphere both visually, and through auditory means.

The Public Enemy by William Wellman (1931) is a renowned gangster film that paved the way for an emerging genre whilst maximizing the use of sound technology of which the effects were still reverberating around Hollywood in the 1930’s to amplify and exaggerate the narrative as well as other elements such as mise-en-scene but also to assault audience with a new experience. The emergence of an all-talking gangster film that capitalized upon and left a lasting impression on the audience and on society as it commented on social and economic issues that surrounded the American people such as race and social status. However, at the time when The Public Enemy was released in 1931, Hollywood was beginning to feel the effects of the Wall Street Crash, which meant that they began producing films that their audience wanted to see and that we’re affordable which lead to the rise of the gangster genre, which flourished for the next few years. Ruth Vasey’s assessment of The Public Enemy is incredibly insightful into how sound impacted the film and its audience but also how sound was used in correlation with the other elements of the film to create its visceral impact on the audience. However with the introduction of sound, more obstacles we’re discovered such as the issue of censorship as it had a “perceived capacity to undermine middle-class vales”.

Sullivan’s Travels is was a great final film to discuss for this class because it raises the question of what film should be used for. Throughout the film the viewers are forced to consider what film, as an artistic medium, ought to be used for. The film effectively highlights the objectives of corporate industry and contrasts these with the effects of a society rooted in capitalist principles. In doing so the film draws light to the concept of glamorization of the other. It highlights the cyclical structure of social inequity and consequently offers a critique of the judicial system.