A gangster film or gangster movie is a film belonging to a genre that focuses on gangs and organized crime. It is a subgenre of crime film, that may involve large criminal organizations, or small gangs formed to perform a certain illegal act. The genre is differentiated from Westerns and the gangs of that genre.
In the 1970s, as genre theory came to the focus of academic study and the creation of a more specific taxonomy of genres was defined, gangster films started being distinguished from other subgenres, especially that of western. The genre has been predominantly defined by its historical, ideological, and sociocultural context.[4] Three main categories of gangster films can be distinguished, according to Martha Nochimson: films that follow the escapades of outlaw rebels, such as Bonnie and Clyde, melodramas of villain gangsters against whom the in-story victims and the audience identify, such as Key Largo and, most predominantly in the genre, films following an outsider, immigrant gangster protagonist, with whom the audience identifies.[5]
The first Japanese films about the Yakuza evolved from the Tendency films of the 1930s. They featured historical tales of outlaws and the abuses suffered by the common people, often at the hands of the corrupt powers that be.[6] The so-called "Chivalry movies" of the 1960s gave way to the violent realism of Kinji Fukasaku, whose 1973 Battles Without Honor and Humanity would inspire future filmmakers across the globe.
In 1931 and 1932, three of the most enduring gangster films were ever produced. Scarface, Little Caesar and The Public Enemy remain as three of the greatest examples of the genre. However, starting in the mid-1930s, the Hays Code and its requirements for all criminal action to be punished, and all authority figures to be treated with respect, made gangster films scarce for the next three decades.
Politics combined with the social and economic climate of the time, influenced how crime films were made, and how the characters were portrayed. Many of the films imply that criminals are the creation of society, rather than its rebel,[7] and considering the troublesome and bleak time of the 1930s, that argument carries significant weight. Often the best gangster films are closely tied to the reality of crime, reflecting public interest in a particular aspect of criminal activity. Thus, the gangster film is in a sense, a history of crime in the United States.[8]
The institution of Prohibition in 1920 led to an explosion in crime, and the depiction of bootlegging is a frequent occurrence in many early mob films. As the 1930s progressed, Hollywood also experimented with the stories of rural criminals and bank robbers, such as John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson, and Pretty Boy Floyd. The success of these characters in film can be attributed to their value as news subjects, as their exploits often thrilled the people of a nation who had become weary with inefficient government and apathy in business.[9] As the newly formed FBI increased in power, there was a shift to favour the stories of the FBI agents hunting the criminals, instead of focusing on the criminal characters. In 1935, at the height of the hunt for Dillinger, the Production Code office issued an order that no film should be made about Dillinger, for fear of further glamorizing his character.
Many of the 1930s crime films dealt with class and ethnic conflict, notably the earliest films, reflecting doubts about how well the American system was working. As stated, many films pushed the message that criminals were the result of a poor moral and economic society, and many criminal protagonists are portrayed as having foreign backgrounds or coming from the lower class. Thus, the film criminal is often able to evoke sympathy and admiration from the viewer, who often shift the blame from the criminal's shoulders, onto a cruel society in which success is difficult.[10] At the end of the 1930s, crime films became more figurative, representing metaphors, as opposed to the more straight forward films produced earlier in the decade, showing an increasing interest in offering a thought provoking message about criminal character.[11]
With the abolition of the Hays Code in the late 1960s, studios and filmmakers found themselves free to produce films dealing with subject matter that had previously been off-limits.[2] Early examples include Arthur Penn's 1967 depression-era tale of Bonnie and Clyde. In 1973's Mean Streets, Scorsese directed a cinema vérité story of a young aspiring mobster and his problem-gambler friend, played by Robert De Niro. In 1974, Sam Peckinpah directed Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, about the Mexican mob, family honor, and the opportunistic Bennie (Warren Oates), friend of the eponymous Alfredo Garcia, looking to make a big score when the chance drops in his lap.
Bonnie and Clyde was one of 1967's biggest box office hits and garnered 2 Academy Awards and 8 other nominations, including best picture. It, along with the others, were overshadowed by Francis Ford Coppola's Godfather saga.
The Godfather pioneering Italian-American Mafia films
In 1972, Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather was released. The epic story of the Corleone family, its generational transition from post-prohibition to post-war, its fratricidal intrigues, and its tapestry of mid-century America's criminal underworld became a huge critical and commercial success. It accounted for nearly 10% of gross proceeds for all films for 1972.[12] It won the Oscar for Best Picture, as well as the award for Best Actor for Marlon Brando[13] and is widely considered one of the greatest American films of all time. In 1974, The Godfather Part II became the fifth-highest-grossing film of the year and garnered 11 Academy Award nominations. It again won Best Picture. Coppola won Best Director and Robert De Niro won best supporting actor for his portrayal of a young Vito Corleone.
The lesson of the films' successes was not wasted on Hollywood. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the studios issued a steady flow of films about Italian American gangsters and the Mafia. Some of these were critically acclaimed. Scorsese's Goodfellas about Henry Hill's life and relationship with the Lucchese and Gambino crime families, was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director and won the award for Best Supporting Actor for Joe Pesci's performance. Italian-American film Once Upon a Time in America directed by Sergio Leone about David "Noodles" Aaronson played by Robert De Niro is considered one of the best gangster films of all time.[14]
In the 1990s there were several critically acclaimed mob films, many of which were loosely based on real crimes and their perpetrators. Many of these films featured long-time actors, well known for their roles as mobsters such as Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci and Chazz Palminteri.
In 1990, Goodfellas, directed by Martin Scorsese, starred Ray Liotta as real-life associate of the Lucchese crime familyHenry Hill. It was one of the most notable gangster films of the 1990s. Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci also starred in the film, with Pesci earning an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. The film was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, making Goodfellas one of the most critically acclaimed crime films of all time.
In 1990, The Godfather Part III was released. Al Pacino reprised his role as the iconic Michael Corleone. The film served as the final installment in The Godfather trilogy, following Michael Corleone as he tries to legitimize the Corleone family in the twilight of his career.
In 1993, Pacino starred in Carlito's Way as a former gangster released from prison who vows to go straight.
In 1995, following their collaboration in Goodfellas, Scorsese, De Niro and Pesci teamed up again to make Casino, based on Frank Rosenthal, an associate of the Chicago Outfit, that ran multiple casinos in Las Vegas during the 1970s and 1980s. The film was De Niro's third mob film of the 1990s, following Goodfellas (1990) and A Bronx Tale(1993).
Apart from telling their own tales of African American gangsters in syndicates, films like Black Caesar feature the Italian mafia prominently. Often the blaxploitation films of the 1970s such as Shaft tell the tale of African American gangsters rising up and defeating the established white criminal order.[20] African Americans were under-represented in filmmaking roles during much of the 20th century. It took African American producers and directors of the 1990s like John Singleton, Spike Lee and the Hughes Brothers to begin exploring the criminal lifestyle in American urban communities, telling stories of drugs, gang culture, gang violence, racism and poverty in African American communities.[21] Examples of films from the 1990s fitting the African-American gangster genre include Boyz N The Hood, Menace II Society and New Jack City. [22][21]
Cocaine and the cartels
Brian De Palma's 1983 remake of Scarface stars Al Pacino as Tony Montana, a Cuban exile and ambitious newcomer to Miami who sees an opportunity to build his own drug empire. Abel Ferrara's 1990 King of New York tells the story of Frank White, (Christopher Walken) and his return to New York City from prison. He navigates both the traditional Italian mafia authorities as well as the new cartels, as they are producing, smuggling and distributing cocaine in an uneasy business alliance.
All three of the films were domestic successes, and Borsalino was popular elsewhere in Europe. None of them, however, broke through in the United States.
The 1947 adaptation of the Graham Greene novel by the same name, Brighton Rock, is a stark portrayal of a young gang leader and the racketeers in Brighton. It has been recognized as one of the greatest UK films ever by the British Film Institute.
The late 1960s to early 70s saw a brief boom in British gangster films, alongside spy films and heist films, mirroring similar trends in Hollywood, Italy and elsewhere. Some films from this era took a lighthearted comedic approach to crime stories, like The Italian Job (1969), while others like Villain and Get Carter (both 1971) had a much darker neo-noir tone, a more fatalistic story, and a more gritty and violent portrayal of gangster life.
The ninkyo eiga (chivalry films) were replaced in the late 1960s and early 1970s by a new style, pioneered by Kinji Fukasaku and inspired by the French New Wave and American Film noir called Jitsuroku eiga (true record films).[29] The new style is considered to have begun with Fukasaku's Battles Without Honor and Humanity (1972), a violent, realistic portrayal of post-war gangs in the ruins of Hiroshima.
The Hong Kong gangster film genre began with 1986's A Better Tomorrow, directed by John Woo and starring Chow Yun Fat.[32] Woo's tale of counterfeiters portrays a gangster who balances "Kung Fu honor" and the materialistic goals of the Triads.[32] It was the all-time biggest grossing Hong Kong film at the box office and was critically acclaimed. Woo followed with a string of successes, including The Killer, Bullet in the Head, and Hard Boiled.
Soviet propaganda has always said that organized crime exists only in the West. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, people of Russia had to face the fact of what they used to previously read only in newspapers. Gang wars accompanied the formation of a free market in Russia. This decade in Russia received the name of the "Dashing 90s" (Russian: Лихие 90-е, translit.Lihie devyanostye).[33]
In 1997, director Aleksei Balabanov released Brother which acquired cult status, and started to return interest of local people to Russian cinema, which had been in crisis since the early 1990s. In 2000 came the sequel Brother 2, which was even more successful. In 2001, actor Sergei Bodrov Jr., who played a major role in both of those films, released Sisters, which was his directorial debut. Other notable films of those years were Antikiller (2002) by Yegor Konchalovsky and Tycoon (2002) by Pavel Lungin.[33][34]
In 2004, Pyotr Buslov, a young 26-year-old director, released Bimmer, which instantly became a hit. This movie about four friends was made in the road movie style. In 2006, Buslov released the sequel Bimmer 2 [ru]. In 2005, Aleksei Balabanov returned to the theme of gangster cinema and filmed a black comedy Dead Man's Bluff. In 2010, Balabanov returned to the theme of bandits in The Stoker. In 2010, The Alien Girl was released by Anton Bormatov.[33]
Russian television shows a lot of series about bandits, however, they are mostly of poor quality. A great success was the 2002 mini-series Brigada, which received cult status.[33]
^Thornton, S.A. (30 October 2007). "5. The Yakuza Film". The Japanese Period Film: A Critical Analysis. McFarland. pp. 94–95. ISBN978-0-7864-3136-6. Retrieved 28 June 2017.
^John Baxter, The Gangster Film (London: C. Tinling and Co. Ltd, 1970), p. 7.
^Schatz, Thomas (2004). "The New Hollywood". Hollywood: Critical Concepts in Media and Cultural Studies. Motion Picture Industry. Vol. I. Taylor & Francis. pp. 292–293. ISBN978-0-415-28132-4.
^Singleton, John, 1968–2019, screenwriter. film director. Nicolaides, Steve, film producer. Fishburne, Laurence, III, 1961– actor. Ice Cube (Musician), actor. Gooding, Cuba, Jr., 1968– actor. Long, Nia. actor. Chestnut, Morris. actor. Ferrell, Tyra. actor. Bassett, Angela. actor. King, Meta. actor. Mayo, Whitman, 1930–2001, actor. Clarke, Stanley. composer (expression), Boyz n the hood, OCLC773206256{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
^David Pettersen (2017). "Maurice Tourneur's Justin de Marseille (1935): transatlantic influences on the French gangster". Studies in French Cinema. 17: 1–20. doi:10.1080/14715880.2016.1213586. S2CID164162108.
^Sharp, Jasper (13 October 2011). "Fukasaku Shinji". Historical Dictionary of Japanese Cinema. United Kingdom: Scarecrow Press. pp. 64–65. ISBN978-0-8108-7541-8. Retrieved 27 June 2017.
Cortés, Carlos E. “Italian-Americans in Film: From Immigrants to Icons.” MELUS, vol. 14, no. 3/4, 1987, pp. 107–126. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/467405.
Schatz, Thomas (2004). "The New Hollywood". Hollywood: Critical Concepts in Media and Cultural Studies. Motion Picture Industry. Vol. I. Taylor & Francis. pp. 292–293. ISBN978-0-415-28132-4.
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