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How media influences perceptions of crime
How media influences perceptions of crime
How crimes are portrayed by the media
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Recommended: How media influences perceptions of crime
The Portrayal of the Gangster Genre in American and British Cinema in 'Goodfellas' by Martin Scorcese and 'Layer Cake' by Matthew Vaughn
The media has a vital role in the characterization of the gangster
genre and presents a particular image with which the audience forms
certain associations and expectations. For example, the use of
transport, clothing, language and weapons are key paradigms that are
executed to ensure that the gangster genre is presented the way one
would expect it to be. In terms of the characters and storyline,
generally gangsters are presented as wealthy, respected males with the
power to live life to the fullest through criminal means.
The way in which media representations of gangsters differ in American
and British cinema will be examined with reference to Martin
Scorcese’s 1990 film “Goodfellas” and Matthew Vaughn’s 2004 release,
“Layer Cake”. The aspects that will be looked at include the overall
storyline and the influence of the culture to which the gangsters
belong to, with reference to the commonly held stereotypes the
audience have grown to expect from this particular genre. Generally,
one expects a lot of violence and deceit which often leads to the main
character dying or managing to achieve some sort of redemption.
Overall, there are a variety of aspects covered within this particular
genre, such as themes of love, hate, friendship, betrayal, loyalty and
revenge.
The first film looked at is Goodfellas (1990) directed by Martin
Scorcese, a stylistic, hard-hitting true mobster story about three
‘wise guys’. The film is based upon the non-fictional book ‘Wise guy:
life in a mafia family’ by Nicholas ...
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...ny years now and there are a
multitude of similarities between films of this category. It is due to
the media’s provision of imagery that audience members are able to
identify gangsters and understand how they are supposed to act and
regardless of the cultural setting, the ideas remain the same to the
point where one can almost predict what will potentially happen and
when. Although film makers are able to keep the audience on their toes
and add compelling twists to their storylines it does not alter the
fact that, like most other genres, the main themes become easily
identifiable and therefore contain an element of predictability.
Bibliography
Books
‘Wise guy’: life in a mafia family, Nicholas Pileggi (1990)
Websites
www.mediaknowall.com
www.imdb.com
http://goodfellas.martin-scorsese.net/
Like most things captured on film for the purpose of being marketed, the richness of gangster life, with sex, money, and power in surplus, is glorified, and thus embraced by the audience. And as a rule, if something works Hollywood repeats it, ala a genre. What Scarface and Little Caesar did was ultimately create a genre assigning powerful qualities to criminals. Such sensationalism started with the newspapers who maybe added a little more color here and there to sell a few more copies, which is portrayed in Scarface’s two newspaper office scenes. Leo Braudy denounces genres as offending “our most common definition of artistic excellence” by simply following a predetermined equation of repetition of character and plot. However, Thomas Schatz argues that many variations of plot can exist within the “arena” that the rules of the genre provide.
The film Goodfellas is a real story based on an American crime associated with the Italian Mafia. The narrator of the film, Henry Hill, tells the story of his uprising as a gangster and all the experiences that he went through along with Tommy DeVito, Jimmy Conway and many others. Goodfellas, otherwise known as “Wiseguys” tells the story of the many crimes the Italian Mafia had committed through the years. It starts with Henry Hill as a teen showing his obsession with the local gang in his neighborhood and the desire of him to be a gangster. Henry would work for the gangsters until he became one and started to partake in the criminal career which allowed him to live in a life of money and luxury. As Henry got older, he along with Tommy DeVito,
Social and financial status have been the safety net or “go to” protection for African American people for many years back, leading one to assume education and an affluent life style could become a shield of protection over the black body. However, society has proven that your safety net ends where your skin begins. No matter how rich or established a person is, the fact will remain that they are black. Ta- Nehisi Coates describes his life growing up the ghettos of Baltimore. Throughout his book, Ta-Nehisi Coates repeatedly emphasizes that growing up his, “highest priority was the simple security of my body,” (p.130) Then he goes on to describe how his wife grew up in a more affluent and privileged lifestyle, a lifestyle that
Gallman, J. Matthew. "Gangs Of New York (Film)." Journal Of American History 90.3 (2003): 1124-1126. America: History and Life with Full Text. Web. 2 May 2014.
In film, many times the auteur often uses the medium to convey a moral or make a social commentary. In the case of Howard Hawkes’s original version of Scarface, there is more being portrayed through the characters then merely the story. Hawkes makes a statement about the façade of organized crime, and the farce of the American Dream.
Aside from its acting, the other major influence which Mean Streets had upon American film-makers was through it's use of a rock n' roll soundtrack (almost perfectly integrated with the images), and in its depiction of a new kind of screen violence. Unexpected, volatile, explosive and wholly senseless, yet, for all that, undeniably cinematic violence. The way in which Scorsese blends these two - the rock and roll and the violence - shows that he understood instinctively, better than anyone else until then, that cinema (or at least this kind of cinema, the kinetic, visceral kind) and rock n' roll are both expressions of revolutionary instincts, and that they are as inherently destructive as they are creative. This simple device - brutal outbreaks of violence combined with an upbeat soundtrack - has been taken up by both the mainstream cinema at large and by many individual `auteurs', all of whom are in Scorsese's debt - Stone and Tarantino coming at once to mind.
It’s a dark and rainy night. Our hero is hiding behind a wall with a revolver in hand. A crack of light, illuminates half of his face. He’s shaking nervously because he only has one bullet left. He turns the corner, and a sudden gunshot hits our hero. Who shot him? None other than his partner, who’s secretly in love with the very same dame that our hero fell for. You can consider this an example of a classic film noir ending. Film noir is a term used in cinema to describe a visually styled crime drama. Where did it come from? What are the key elements in a film noir? Why did this kind of cinema emerge when it did? What affect did it have in the film world? And finally, where is film noir now?
The Godfather is most notably one of the most prolific films of its time. This "gangster" film displayed many transformations of permeating color to give the viewer observable cues in its mise en scene that drew one right into the movie. The dramatic acting set the tone of the film with a score that lifted the viewer right out of their seat in many scenes. The directing and cinematography made The Godfather ahead of its time. The nostalgic feel of family importance and the danger of revenge lets us into the life of the Mafia. Even though no other techniques would have given the viewer a feeling of inside the mob like the mise en scene of the power the godfather held, the characters are reinforced literally and figuratively because the story views the Mafia from the inside out, and the cinematography of the film gives it a dangerous and nostalgic feel.
“American Gangster” is based on the true story of Frank Lucas’ life. It is the story of how he cut out the middleman in the heroin business and the story of how Ritchie Roberts caught him. Throughout the film we see the parallel between a cop and a criminal as we inch forward to see their lives finally meet.
In most literary genres, many techniques are utilized to enhance the way the author addresses his message. In Pulp Fiction and Among the Red Guns, they share the same color and parts of the structure but have opposing fundamental meaning. With similar storylines, Pulp Fiction and Among the Red Guns showcase the rationalizations for taking life, rationalizations that have contrasting views: one acknowledging the value of life and the other refusing to accept any life value at all.
Connelly, Marie. "The films of Martin Scorsese: A critical study." Diss. Case Western Reserve University, 1991. Web. 07 Apr 2014.
The period of American cinema between 1965 and 1975 produced many films that almost completely restructured classical Hollywood’s accepted genre conventions. A fine example of this would be Robert Altman's iconoclastic take on Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe in The Long Goodbye (1973), a detective film based on the final book in Chandler’s Philip Marlowe series. Altman, who is known for turning around traditional genre conventions, revises and reinvents the film-noir style made popular by Dick Powell in Murder, My Sweet (1944), Humphrey Bogart in The Big Sleep (1946), and Robert Montgomery in Lady in the Lake (1947). The actors and the films in the 1940’s film-noir period conformed to genre conventions, and it wasn’t until Robert Altman directed Elliot Gould’s Philip Marlowe in The Long Goodbye that the detective genre had changed.
It is no doubt that Martin Scorsese has heavily influenced the emulating of American film making from European influences. He is a prime example of a ‘New Hollywood Cinema’ director, not only from his ethnicity and background, but from his sheer interest in this form
Film Noir was a movement born from the disillusionment of post-war Americans. The term was coined by French critics who, after not having had access to American films since before World War II, were astonished by the “darkness” of post-war Hollywood cinema. Film noir did not provide the escape previous Hollywood films offered during the Great Depression, but instead confronted the audience with its characteristic anxiety-inducing style. The settings of these films were oppressively grim, where light came into rooms only through the slants of blinds over windows, or not at all, and shadows hovered over the faces of villains and heroes alike. The characters of film noir were predictable—the “proletariat tough-guy” contended by the “femme fatale”—each an embodiment of corruption, vice, and seedy morals (Benton ). Themes of sexual aberration and crime were woven into narratives that centered on murder and adultery. Presented in low-lighting and skewed angles, film noir was meant to psychologically disturb and disorient it viewers. The film, Double Indemnity, is a prime example of film noir in that it accomplishes the goal of film noir to unsettle its audience through its style, setting, characters, and themes.
In recent times, such stereotyped categorizations of films are becoming inapplicable. ‘Blockbusters’ with celebrity-studded casts may have plots in which characters explore the depths of the human psyche, or avant-garde film techniques. Titles like ‘American Beauty’ (1999), ‘Fight Club’ (1999) and ‘Kill Bill 2’ (2004) come readily into mind. Hollywood perhaps could be gradually losing its stigma as a money-hungry machine churning out predictable, unintelligent flicks for mass consumption. While whether this image of Hollywood is justified remains open to debate, earlier films in the 60’s and 70’s like ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ (1967) and ‘Taxi Driver’ (1976) already revealed signs of depth and avant-garde film techniques. These films were successful as not only did they appeal to the mass audience, but they managed to communicate alternate messages to select groups who understood subtleties within them.