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The Change of the Gangster Genre Essay example

Decent Essays

The Change of the Gangster Genre

The two films that I have chosen to analyze are Carlito's Way (1993) and Out of Sight (1998) both films are of the gangster/crime genre. Genre means what type anything belongs to, or what kind of category something can be placed in.

The gangster films belong to the crime genre. The most popular gangster films made were in the 1930's, during this period America was going through the depressions and audiences wanted the characters of these gangster films to gain money, wealth and power during a time of economic decline. The gangster characters in the films were seen as living the American dream but not lawfully or legally. But audiences could relate to these …show more content…

He keeps trying to break away but always seems to be back where he originally put himself. Carlito Brigante's intention is to go straight but his past keeps haunting him. David Koepp's screenplay has the depth it needs when an ex-druglord must endure when trying to escape his violent past. The editing and Stephen Burum's camerawork are a visual splendor for the emotional story.

Al Pacino also narrates his own film which makes the viewer be on his side a lot of the time as we only se his views and life through Carlito's eyes.

Carlito is dressed quiet smartly in black suits and ties whereas his other gangster mates sometimes dressed in colourful clothes, totally keeping them and Carlito apart. The start of the film starts with weird and unusual camera angle's on Pacino as Carlito is passing out looking at a picture of Hawaii and the word Paradise and palm trees which we saw in Scarface so this is self referential cinema. This use of palm trees connotes paradise and trying to tell Carlito that heaven is a bit too far for him to reach. There is a scene where Carlito is having flashbacks of him in white suit and dancing, this connotes innocence and having fun when he was younger which he later regrets.

There are a lot of scenes in Carlito's club and other sleazy clubs where the camera just pans around the club showing the audience of what his life is all about.

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