The Gangster Genre as a Creation of the Necessity to Promote Civic Responsibility and Social Contentment With Ones Society

The Gangster Genre as a Creation of the Necessity to Promote Civic Responsibility and Social Contentment With Ones Society

The Gangster genre is a creation of the 20th century as it originally

took many of its plots and characters directly from the activities of

those involved in the highly influential gang culture which developed

in America during the 1920’s. As such, by the subject matter they

cover, Gangster films are restricted to portraying the negative

aspects of society, as shown by the culture of criminality they

project and the lax morals of the film’s protagonists. Looking at the

title question it becomes apparent that there are a few areas which

must first be examined before a full and satisfactory examination of

the overall question can be attempted. The factors which require this

clarification are; what constitutes civic responsibility and social

contentment? ; Why does this desire exist? ; How is this desire seen

in other genres?

Civic responsibility in this case could be seen as the politically

preferable system of norms and codes of behaviour to which it is hoped

the population of a country will ascribe themselves. This is the

preferred situation for any governmental body as it means that the

population of a country would be in consensus with the aims of the

ruling body rather than opposing them. This opposition can take many

different forms from criminal acts to full blown revolution. It may

appear very obvious that it is in a governments best interests to

promote this idea of Civic responsibility as it would help to decrease

the number of social problems within a country such as crime, it also

helps the members of ...

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...f, they felt that

a strong gangster character would cause members of the populace to

follow in their footsteps, so both in the James Cagney film and in the

eyes of the censors the Gangster could not maintain their dignity for

the good of society. It would appear however that this belief has been

lost some what by today’s media savvy society and as such the Gangster

can now stand proud, corrupt, but proud. Finally it is important to

note that with the expanse in the range of mass media it is no longer

necessary or viable to attempt to indoctrinate people through the use

of movies alone, instead it is much easier to use movies to entertain

the population and as such use these films as an escapist method of

maintaining social contentment while other media out lets and

institutions are used to promote civic responsibility.