The ‘hero is a man who wants it all, but doesn't want to go through the normal channels to get it. A typical gangster in these stories doesn't have time to advance slowly through the ranks - he wants it all, and he wants it now’[1]. Closely examining the conventional codes of several gangster films such as Goodfellas, The Godfather, Scarface and contemporary films including The Business and American Gangster, I have analysed the everyday life portrayed by the protagonists in gangster films hence leading me to perform an investigation into how criminal lifestyles are glamorised in gangster films.
Glamorised representations of gangsters tend to be reflected in a range of gangster films, including contemporary text ‘American Gangster’. The protagonist in the film plays a lead anti-hero role of a gangster; throughout the movie Frank Lucas (Danzel Washington) enables the audience to associate the impact of his actions to implicate the role of a gangster due to the stereotypical conventions, often brutal that his character fulfils. Considering Frank is the lead mob boss of his organization, the audience are therefore likewise to understand the criminal figure allied with gangsters. The conventions of Frank’s personality in American Gangster includes him wearing ‘smart suits, murder, weapons and luxury items associated with the lifestyle such as cigars and fine liquors’[2]. Principally the way in which audiences recognise Frank’s representation as a gangster is simply by the hypodermic needle theory seeing as his glamorous lifestyle manipulates the audiences, ‘injecting messages into their minds’[3] of the luxury life an individual can live once performing the deviant role of a gangster.
In particular, during a powerful scene[4] during the film, Frank exits a café after gazing out it’s window and discovers his enemy walking along the street of the café outside. Upon catching up with him, Frank confronts him about debts that he owes but his enemy demands longer time to pay his amount outstanding. The protagonist does not approve of his command at that moment, which he then fires his hand held pistol and in cold blood kills his enemy in public. Evidently, the gangster genre iconography with the use of the gun prominently shown communicates a murdering aspect of the lead character. Given that he also fires the firearm in public illustrates how he cannot be stopped by law enforcements and effects the society in which society it is set. Again, Frank’s character is glamorised as being victorious after committing a horrific execute as he is allowed to simply vanish and enrage with impurity.
To some extent, people may agree that particular films categorised under the Gangster genre ought to be banned or certainly restricted from viewing due to the casual murdering and the criminal offences stereotypically portrayed by the lead gangsters as part of their nature. Often typical ‘conventions of a 1930’s gangster genre are smart suits, acts of violence, murder, weapons, and luxury items associated with the lifestyle such as cigars and fine liquors’[5]. Despite films aging since the 30’s, they still have an influencing effect on today’s society. The thuggish mentality the gangsters portray with their weapons (props) are in actual fact considered as being socially concerning to the people public as young as 10 years old. Children aged ‘10 and 11 will be lectured against gun and knife crime under an Operation Trident programme’[6]. This should hopefully ‘prevent them getting involved in gangs, drug dealing and violence in some areas of the capital’[7] city.
However, on the other hand others may find gangster films exceptionally entertaining due to the illegal misdeeds as well as the accessories the gangsters are affiliated with, which can connote their lives as being excitingly triumphant. Audiences are said to ‘like the concept of genre because of its reassuring and familiar promise of patterns of representation and variation’[8]. Lifestyle elements of the gangster genre are often repetitively glamorised again and again and can be used over a long period of time. For instance in a gangster film, ‘we expect to see some, or all, of the following elements, which will also properly have been in a gangster film from the 1930s: guns, villains, violence, urban meetings, mafia, beautiful women’[9].Following the concept of the Gangster genre as being appealing to some, the movies part of the genre are therefore thought as being entertaining considering they can be described as being a ‘source of information and knowledge’[10]. This is primarily because the illegal antics preformed by actors such as the way they ‘operate outside the law, stealing and murdering their way through life’[11] inform us the gangster traits. Unmistakably they are not usual norms that are considered in modern society hence empathizing on viewings. Therefore when watching gangster movies, the lifestyles portrayed by characters necessitate viewers to enterprising the uses and gratifications theory. Considering gangsters seem to break the law as part of their lifestyles, this relies innocent viewers to empathises the text by the ‘social or psychological needs’ of individuals’[12]. The uses and gratifications approach ‘springs from a functionalist paradigm in the social sciences (Blumler & Katz 1974)[13].
Again, the gangster lifestyle could perhaps be viewed as being exhilarating given that they usually tend to do whatever they feel satisfied with (e.g. not caring if breaking the law). As the gangsters seem to exploit living a wealthy and joyful lifestyle, the audience would therefore perhaps adore the behaviour that is portrayed by them considering viewers may be restricted by law to perform some of the actions of the gangsters in reality such as murders. Seeing as audience pleasure from viewing the entertaining lifestyles, clearly Richard Dyer’s ‘Theory of Utopian Solutions’[14] is intentionally perceived given that gangster films give the intention of making the text seem astounding for the viewers. ‘Dyer (1992) proposed that media texts helped make up for some of the deficiencies of modern life. Intensity; most people’s lives consist predominantly of routine, such as going to work or collage, raising family etc’[15]. Clearly media texts see to offer world where exciting things happen as a matter of course, and this is therefore pleasurable for the audience. One of the key pleasures of the media texts is seeing worlds where people can drop whatever they are doing and peruse adventures without any apparent financial cares. We also like to see ‘glamorous and exotic locations and lifestyles that contrast with our own’[16].
The criminal is always the one ‘gaining status, and this rise on the social ladder makes him, in Schatz's definition, "the perverse alter-ego of the ambitious, profit-minded American male". The expensive clothes, flashy cars, and attractive women visually signalthe criminal’s growing status he acquires’[17]. The more activities such as killing and robberies for example the gangsters usual perform, the more professional they are distinguish as being a gangster. Simply after gagsters obtain large sums of money, at that point they can afford to splurge out their black money on luxuries such as a tiger brought by Tony Montana in Scarface (1987).
A prime example of a gangster film that illustrates the main gangster to be living a glamorous lifestyle would perhaps be one of the greatest drug trafficking gangster films of all time, Scarface[18]. The films reflects the time it was directed as Miami (setting) had huge numbers of deaths leading from cocaine addition as well gang wars. Effectively the movie had in fact illustrated the life of many of the rich and famous also living within Miami at the time given that the lifestyle of Tony Montana (protagonist) is an exaggerated view of the American Dream. Unmistakably the audience is able to see the dramatic lifestyle change he face since he is a deprived individual whom suddenly becomes a multimillionaire within a period of 12 months. Semioticly viewers can distinguish how capital empowerment has changed the way Tony lives after a ‘study of signs’[19] his life includes from a materialism perspective. Living a lavish lifestyle as he has it all, the essential such as a house (mansion in his case) in addition to numerous delights such as bright coloured designer suits, jewellery, technology (T.V. in bath tub, CCTV), a tiger as a pet and performance cars.
The gangster film is all about ‘law, order and crime, but unlike any other crime and police genres, it focuses upon the figure of the gangster. Therefore, while the gangster film is about law, order and crime it commonly takes a specific angle on the subject no matter which is represented through the character and the narrative of the gangster. It concentrates as much on power and corruption and the ambiguities of law enforcement as it does on the need for justice to prevail and for the gangster to be punished. This arises from its concern with the criminal rather than the police and how it treats the social world of crime and its relation to the institutions of law and order’[20]. Unmistakably with the misdeeds represented by the gangsters and possibly the law enforcements at times, the genre therefore gives the impression that characters (not only gangsters) are victorious and rewarded in some sort of way after breaking the law. The ‘media censorship’[21] could be considered as being limited seeing as gangster films tend to promote crime. Gangsters also violate the law are seen as living a lavish lifestyle superior to the officers that obey the law correctly.
In particular, the 2001 movie ‘Training Day’[22] illustrates the protagonist’s sidekick as leading a role of undercover police detective in California but however commits offences similar to the victims he targets to arrest (street gangsters). In a city where streets are overrun by drug dealers, the narrative includes the protagonist and his sidekick to commit several crimes throughout the movie thus illustrating the law enforcement fulfilling the role of being gangsters in order to earn a few extra dollars in order to become rich similar to the stereotypical gangsters.
Gangster films ‘are morality tales: Horatio Alger or 'pursuit of the American Dream' success stories turned upside down in which criminals live in an inverted dream world of success and wealth. Often from poor immigrant families, gangster characters often fall prey to crime in the pursuit of wealth, status, and material possessions (clothes and cars), because all other "normal" avenues to the top are unavailable’[23] to them.
Overall, dating back since 1912 when first ever gangster film ‘The Musketeers Of Pig Alley’[24] was released, the ideologies have always remained the same until present releases. Corruption in Gangster films plays a key role of their lifestyles as it illustrates how the gangsters relate to a hegemony perspective; successful and dominant individuals oppose to faithful citizens. Corruption demonstrates how characters are influenced and can therefore reflect how the audience are influenced and globalised by elements in the movies and can show how far the teens are willing to go in order to achieve their aspiration (lavish lifestyles).
Glamorised representations of gangsters tend to be reflected in a range of gangster films, including contemporary text ‘American Gangster’. The protagonist in the film plays a lead anti-hero role of a gangster; throughout the movie Frank Lucas (Danzel Washington) enables the audience to associate the impact of his actions to implicate the role of a gangster due to the stereotypical conventions, often brutal that his character fulfils. Considering Frank is the lead mob boss of his organization, the audience are therefore likewise to understand the criminal figure allied with gangsters. The conventions of Frank’s personality in American Gangster includes him wearing ‘smart suits, murder, weapons and luxury items associated with the lifestyle such as cigars and fine liquors’[2]. Principally the way in which audiences recognise Frank’s representation as a gangster is simply by the hypodermic needle theory seeing as his glamorous lifestyle manipulates the audiences, ‘injecting messages into their minds’[3] of the luxury life an individual can live once performing the deviant role of a gangster.
In particular, during a powerful scene[4] during the film, Frank exits a café after gazing out it’s window and discovers his enemy walking along the street of the café outside. Upon catching up with him, Frank confronts him about debts that he owes but his enemy demands longer time to pay his amount outstanding. The protagonist does not approve of his command at that moment, which he then fires his hand held pistol and in cold blood kills his enemy in public. Evidently, the gangster genre iconography with the use of the gun prominently shown communicates a murdering aspect of the lead character. Given that he also fires the firearm in public illustrates how he cannot be stopped by law enforcements and effects the society in which society it is set. Again, Frank’s character is glamorised as being victorious after committing a horrific execute as he is allowed to simply vanish and enrage with impurity.
To some extent, people may agree that particular films categorised under the Gangster genre ought to be banned or certainly restricted from viewing due to the casual murdering and the criminal offences stereotypically portrayed by the lead gangsters as part of their nature. Often typical ‘conventions of a 1930’s gangster genre are smart suits, acts of violence, murder, weapons, and luxury items associated with the lifestyle such as cigars and fine liquors’[5]. Despite films aging since the 30’s, they still have an influencing effect on today’s society. The thuggish mentality the gangsters portray with their weapons (props) are in actual fact considered as being socially concerning to the people public as young as 10 years old. Children aged ‘10 and 11 will be lectured against gun and knife crime under an Operation Trident programme’[6]. This should hopefully ‘prevent them getting involved in gangs, drug dealing and violence in some areas of the capital’[7] city.
However, on the other hand others may find gangster films exceptionally entertaining due to the illegal misdeeds as well as the accessories the gangsters are affiliated with, which can connote their lives as being excitingly triumphant. Audiences are said to ‘like the concept of genre because of its reassuring and familiar promise of patterns of representation and variation’[8]. Lifestyle elements of the gangster genre are often repetitively glamorised again and again and can be used over a long period of time. For instance in a gangster film, ‘we expect to see some, or all, of the following elements, which will also properly have been in a gangster film from the 1930s: guns, villains, violence, urban meetings, mafia, beautiful women’[9].Following the concept of the Gangster genre as being appealing to some, the movies part of the genre are therefore thought as being entertaining considering they can be described as being a ‘source of information and knowledge’[10]. This is primarily because the illegal antics preformed by actors such as the way they ‘operate outside the law, stealing and murdering their way through life’[11] inform us the gangster traits. Unmistakably they are not usual norms that are considered in modern society hence empathizing on viewings. Therefore when watching gangster movies, the lifestyles portrayed by characters necessitate viewers to enterprising the uses and gratifications theory. Considering gangsters seem to break the law as part of their lifestyles, this relies innocent viewers to empathises the text by the ‘social or psychological needs’ of individuals’[12]. The uses and gratifications approach ‘springs from a functionalist paradigm in the social sciences (Blumler & Katz 1974)[13].
Again, the gangster lifestyle could perhaps be viewed as being exhilarating given that they usually tend to do whatever they feel satisfied with (e.g. not caring if breaking the law). As the gangsters seem to exploit living a wealthy and joyful lifestyle, the audience would therefore perhaps adore the behaviour that is portrayed by them considering viewers may be restricted by law to perform some of the actions of the gangsters in reality such as murders. Seeing as audience pleasure from viewing the entertaining lifestyles, clearly Richard Dyer’s ‘Theory of Utopian Solutions’[14] is intentionally perceived given that gangster films give the intention of making the text seem astounding for the viewers. ‘Dyer (1992) proposed that media texts helped make up for some of the deficiencies of modern life. Intensity; most people’s lives consist predominantly of routine, such as going to work or collage, raising family etc’[15]. Clearly media texts see to offer world where exciting things happen as a matter of course, and this is therefore pleasurable for the audience. One of the key pleasures of the media texts is seeing worlds where people can drop whatever they are doing and peruse adventures without any apparent financial cares. We also like to see ‘glamorous and exotic locations and lifestyles that contrast with our own’[16].
The criminal is always the one ‘gaining status, and this rise on the social ladder makes him, in Schatz's definition, "the perverse alter-ego of the ambitious, profit-minded American male". The expensive clothes, flashy cars, and attractive women visually signalthe criminal’s growing status he acquires’[17]. The more activities such as killing and robberies for example the gangsters usual perform, the more professional they are distinguish as being a gangster. Simply after gagsters obtain large sums of money, at that point they can afford to splurge out their black money on luxuries such as a tiger brought by Tony Montana in Scarface (1987).
A prime example of a gangster film that illustrates the main gangster to be living a glamorous lifestyle would perhaps be one of the greatest drug trafficking gangster films of all time, Scarface[18]. The films reflects the time it was directed as Miami (setting) had huge numbers of deaths leading from cocaine addition as well gang wars. Effectively the movie had in fact illustrated the life of many of the rich and famous also living within Miami at the time given that the lifestyle of Tony Montana (protagonist) is an exaggerated view of the American Dream. Unmistakably the audience is able to see the dramatic lifestyle change he face since he is a deprived individual whom suddenly becomes a multimillionaire within a period of 12 months. Semioticly viewers can distinguish how capital empowerment has changed the way Tony lives after a ‘study of signs’[19] his life includes from a materialism perspective. Living a lavish lifestyle as he has it all, the essential such as a house (mansion in his case) in addition to numerous delights such as bright coloured designer suits, jewellery, technology (T.V. in bath tub, CCTV), a tiger as a pet and performance cars.
The gangster film is all about ‘law, order and crime, but unlike any other crime and police genres, it focuses upon the figure of the gangster. Therefore, while the gangster film is about law, order and crime it commonly takes a specific angle on the subject no matter which is represented through the character and the narrative of the gangster. It concentrates as much on power and corruption and the ambiguities of law enforcement as it does on the need for justice to prevail and for the gangster to be punished. This arises from its concern with the criminal rather than the police and how it treats the social world of crime and its relation to the institutions of law and order’[20]. Unmistakably with the misdeeds represented by the gangsters and possibly the law enforcements at times, the genre therefore gives the impression that characters (not only gangsters) are victorious and rewarded in some sort of way after breaking the law. The ‘media censorship’[21] could be considered as being limited seeing as gangster films tend to promote crime. Gangsters also violate the law are seen as living a lavish lifestyle superior to the officers that obey the law correctly.
In particular, the 2001 movie ‘Training Day’[22] illustrates the protagonist’s sidekick as leading a role of undercover police detective in California but however commits offences similar to the victims he targets to arrest (street gangsters). In a city where streets are overrun by drug dealers, the narrative includes the protagonist and his sidekick to commit several crimes throughout the movie thus illustrating the law enforcement fulfilling the role of being gangsters in order to earn a few extra dollars in order to become rich similar to the stereotypical gangsters.
Gangster films ‘are morality tales: Horatio Alger or 'pursuit of the American Dream' success stories turned upside down in which criminals live in an inverted dream world of success and wealth. Often from poor immigrant families, gangster characters often fall prey to crime in the pursuit of wealth, status, and material possessions (clothes and cars), because all other "normal" avenues to the top are unavailable’[23] to them.
Overall, dating back since 1912 when first ever gangster film ‘The Musketeers Of Pig Alley’[24] was released, the ideologies have always remained the same until present releases. Corruption in Gangster films plays a key role of their lifestyles as it illustrates how the gangsters relate to a hegemony perspective; successful and dominant individuals oppose to faithful citizens. Corruption demonstrates how characters are influenced and can therefore reflect how the audience are influenced and globalised by elements in the movies and can show how far the teens are willing to go in order to achieve their aspiration (lavish lifestyles).
[1]http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/143685/the_independent_moviemaker_understanding.htm
[2] http://www.slideshare.net/Jthomas1/the-effect-of-gangster-culture-on-the-gangster-film-genre-presentation
[3] http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A770951
[4] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LI8PFLRSjVQ
[5] Sanders, Jon, (2009). pg. 158
[6] http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/nov/13/primary-anti-gun-workshops
[7] Ibid
[8] Rayner, Philip Wall, Peter and Kruger, Stephan. pg. 55
[9] Ibid, pg.55
[10] Wilson, Pauline and Kidd, Allan, (1998). pg.34
[11] http://www.slideshare.net/newestprod/film-genres-presentation
[12] http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/short/usegrat.html
[13] Ibid
[14] Andrews, Maggie and Stevenson, Elspeth, (2009), pg.144
[15] Ibid, pg.144
[16] Ibid, pg.144
[17] http://www.novelguide.com/a/discover/egd_01/egd_01_00212.html
[18] Scarface, 1983, Brian De Palma, U.S.A.
[19] http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Documents/S4B/sem01.html
[20] Strinati, Domonic, (2000), pg.55
[21] http://www.bbfc.co.uk/about/
[22] Training Day, 2001, Antoine Fuqua, U.S.A.
[23] http://www.filmsite.org/crimefilms.html
[24] The Musketeers Of Pig Alley, 1912, D.W. Griffith, U.S.A.
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