Underworld Crime And Gangster Film Culture example essay topic

Realism and Idealism for the Godfather will never forget what I felt when I first seen my first mobster movie, I was about 12 years old, it was real late at night and I just could not fall asleep. I was flipping the channels looking for something to watch, and that is when I encountered my first mobster movie. I was intrigued from beginning to end; it was like nothing I had ever seen before. The way they talked so confident and cool to the way they looked so sharp and sophisticated. Although they were ruthless criminals, they had certain respectability towards them that no body could deny. Even though I was young and didn't quite understand all of the scenes I became infatuated with the movie the Godfather and went on to seeing a couple of other popular films like Goodfellas, Casino, and Once upon a time in America.

It is almost unreal how one movie can have such a big influence on your life, but I truly believe that after that day, something inside of me changed, and I began to grow an overwhelming passion for these types of films. It was like discovering a completely new world you never knew existed. What draws people to mobster films like the Godfather? Hollywood's gangster stereotype does what we would not dare, and acts like no body we know. They do not care about nobody but their selves and do anything they want, or at least think they can. That is what infatuates people with gangster and mafia films, because people secretly want to experience this lifestyle without being punish like the gangsters in the movies.

The gangster film is particularly popular in America. Its popularity might be because of the history and actual real life stories of the mob. However, what Hollywood does is take the underworld culture and turn it into the stereotypical story. One stereotype is all mafias having to be Italian. Some people get the impression that all Italians are in the mafia. Movies can have an impact on society and culture, after the release of the Godfather, many Italian American criminals began to sound like the characters in the film, in taped recordings of their conversations.

The film gangster's stereotypical mold that they are usually materialistic, street smart, immoral, tough, and self-destructive. Their main goal in life is for power and money because they have an ambitious desire for success and recognition in life, but sometimes underneath all that they can express sensitivity and gentleness especially with their families like one of the famous quotes in the Godfather "A man who doesn't spend time with his family, can never be a real man". (Godfather) It was not until the sound era that gangster films became the most popular, entertaining way to attract people to the theatres. Without sound, the gangster films could not come to life. It was the 1930's that the events of the prohibition era such as bootlegging and the St. Valentines Day Massacre of 1929, and the existence of real life gangsters and the rise of contemporary organized crime helped to encourage this genre. The talkies are accounted for the rise of crime films.

The first talkie "100% all talking" picture and, of course, the first sound gangster film was The Lights of New York in 1928. Martin Sorcese, Brian De Palma, and Francis Ford Coppola, who also directed the Godfather, have become the best storytellers of the gangster culture using visual storytelling. To them gangster films are moralities tales and success stories turned around in which criminals are the ones living in a dream world of success and wealth. Although they are destined to failure and possible death, criminals are portraying as the victims because the stories are told from their point of view. Great actors like Pacino, Deniro, who both played in the Godfather and Pesci also had an influence in making the gangster / mafia culture what it is today, by playing their parts so unbelievable well that their attitude, dialogue, and cold hearted cruelty on the screen transforms the modern day image of the culture of the gangster. The Godfather had many messages; one message that is usually shown is the importance of choosing your business partners wisely.

The people you do business with are in business to make money, not to be your friend. Be careful whom you collaborate up with and always keep one eye open at all times, even when you sleep. Another message that was well known in the Godfather is to do not trust any body but yourself and whoever betrays you should be treated accordingly the way the deserve. You are in a race against the world and if you are stupid, enough to give a lot of your trust and that trust is betray, take no prisoners. Do what you have to do. For some reason, Mafia movies have a magnetic attraction on audiences around the world.

However, exactly where does this attraction come from? Is it the fact that this organized mob seems to live in a world of its own, governed by their rules and laws? Is it the amusement we get out of their deceitful sense of 'honor,' life and violence? Alternatively, is it simply the excitement of watching these sociopaths living off the edge of legality and morality? Whatever the attraction may be, people like crime movies because they show us an underside to our society that we do not get to see too often. The movie's about the turf war between drug dealers, which the movie documents by piling clich'e on top of clich'e.

The underworld crime and gangster film culture is develop around the actions of criminals, gangsters, bank robbers, underworld figures, or ruthless hoodlums who operate outside the law, stealing and murdering their way through life. The misunderstandings that lead to bloodbaths, the little arguments that start wars, the girlfriend who wants her man to go legit, all are given in some movies that often finds a great reason for us to want to see what happens next. What differentiates mobsters with every day criminals is the respectability they receive from society, and the associations they have with legitimate people in upper level authority. Mobsters usually have connections with mayors, senators, police officers, and any one in a higher level that they do business with to let them operate. So when you really think about it, which is worse, the mobsters or the legitimate people who secretly work with them?

Mobster movies are unique unlike any other movie out there, mobster movies pull you in to them and make you feel what the person is feeling, it makes you live what the person is living and makes you see things through their eyes. That is the magic of making movies it is a way of connecting with the viewers in a special kind of way. That is what these types of films create.