Crime and Gangster Films
The gangster genre rose in popularity during the 1930s and most historians locate the beginning of its classical phase at this time. The gangster films became an excellent system to exhibit cinema’s sound capacities: ballistic machine gun fire, screeching tires and sharp streets electrified the screen. The rise also coincided with historical conditions of Prohibition, such as notorious real gangsters, like Al Capone, and violent outbreak, such as the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre in 1929.
They are developed around the malignant actions of Gangsters such as bank robbers, underworld bosses, or ruthless criminals who disobey the law, violently murdering and stealing their way through life. Gangster stories often highlight the life of a gangster figure or victims of the gangster. They sometimes also portray the rise and fall of gangsters through their personal power struggle and conflict with the law, or competing gangsters. Headline-grabbing situations, real-life gangsters, or crime news have often been used in crime films.
Gangster/crime films are usually set in large, jam-packed cities, to provide a view of the covert world of the gangster: contraband, dark nightclubs or streets with flashy neon signs, super cars, tons of cash, bars, run down homes or boarding houses. Unusual locations for crimes often add an element of adventure and wealth. Writers conjured up appropriate gangland lingo for the tales, such as “tommy guns” or “molls. ” Film gangsters are usually selfish, street-smart, corrupt, and self-destructive.
Rivalry with other criminals in gangster warfare is often a significant plot characteristic. Crime plots also include questions such as how the criminal will be seized by police, detectives, special agents or legal authorities, or mysteries such as who stole the valued object. They rise to power with a tough cruel facade while showing an ambitious desire for success and recognition, but underneath they can express sensitivity and gentleness. Howard Hawk’s Scarface: The Shame of A Nation was a brutal film in the crime genre.
The star was Paul Muni as a hoodlum in the Prohibition-Era Chicago. The film depicted twenty eight deaths and was the first movie to use a machine gun. This violent production caught the attention of the Hays Code. Ultimately, the debate lead to the new Hays Production Code which censored such violent acts in films. After this censoring, the focus went more on the good side of the law. They glorified the cops, federal agent, and detectives, while putting a gray shade on them as though they were good gangsters.
They would use brutal methods to capture criminals. The end of the Second World War and the loosening of censor codes gave the blood and violence back to the crime and gangster genre. Arthur Penn’s Bonnie and Clyde set new standards for violent behavior. The film’s graphic finale showed the very sadistic end of the gangster lovers. Directors also took a new take on the expected image of the gangsters. The Mafia had taken over and gangster films were never the same.
If the 1930s were about the rise and fall of the gangster, the 1970s Mafia were about the rise and continuous rise of the Mafia family. The American dream had been achieved by the previous ‘losers’. Francis Ford Coppola’s directed Mario Puzzo’s bestselling novel The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, and eventually The Godfather Part III. It was a classic particularly in its rich portrayal of the Mafia family. The films showed a different side of the gangland as a tightly knit family that is run more like a business than a vague operation.
Other 1970s films showed the other side of the force in the violent and abusive tactics of the detectives trying to catch criminals. Clint Eastwood starred as the detective known as “Dirty” Harry Callahan who took down criminals with an over-sized Magnum. Gangster stories are a barometer of our society. Although, we try desperately to ignore the dark side to what we wish to be a civilized society, gangster and crime films show us the thinness of that civility. . Gangsters and criminals, and the way we portray them on film, show how we are really close to that beast inside.
