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The article analyzes the character American gangster and boxer Terry Malloy's fight for identity in Elia Kazan's film "On the Waterfront." Topics discussed are Malloy's masculine identity crisis rooted from his desire to move up in social class, his failure to maintain a normative conception of gender through the role of a community hero, identity entrapment and manipulation of Malloy by the mob, transformation of Malloy into a longshoreman and his gender role identification as dockworker.

This article investigates the development of the Italian gangster film and its interconnections with film noir. Specifically, this article will focus on those cinematic manifestations' attempts to explore post-war Italian culture, society and political context through the portrayal of some of the most important Italian criminal figures of this period. It argues that, while sharing some characteristics such as the femme fatale, flashback structures and a narrative of betrayal, like its American counterpart the Italian gangster film also presents a flexibility that show the mutative qualities of the genre. In order to prove this point, this article analyses two gangster films: Carlo Lizzani's Bandits in Milan (1968) and Michele Placido's Romanzo criminale (2005) also through the lens of the viewer's process of identification. By showing how the protagonists and their victims are represented in these films, and how this intersects with the social critique featured in these films, this article revaluates the Italian gangster film as a creative and artistic output that should be analysed beyond its generic conventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Gender representation is often related to politics, and the notion of masculinity is an effect of culture. Using masculine genres such as gangster films and martial art films as his departure points, the acclaimed Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai has re-created male characters, such as the lovelorn policemen in Chungking Express (1994), an assassin who is set up and killed by his female partner in Fallen Angels (1995), and a kungfu master whose life is helpless and miserable during wartime in The Grandmasters (2013). Wong's male protagonists are far from heroic, and even seen as feminized and infantilized. These crises-ridden men on one hand reflect Hong Kong's political predicament brought about by its problematic postcolonial situation, and on the other hand show Hong Kong's ambivalent culture with its resistance to the fixed national identity. These alternative male characters created by Wong are used actively to articulate Hong Kong identities with the culture of ambivalence in the postcolonial situation. Until recent years, these texts still respond to the changing political climate and the ongoing anxiety in Hong Kong. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay reads the ways in which the Auschwitz Sonderkommando figure in the film The Grey Zone (2001) and the comic book Magneto: Testament (2009). The almost archetypally traumatic experiences of the Sonderkommando have made them a difficult subject for many media. But in forms and genres which place great emphasis on character and plot it has actually made them a way to figure some of the key difficulties of trauma. This essay shows how the generic conventions of gangster films and superhero origin stories allow The Grey Zone and Magneto to address both the moral questions of the Sonderkommando's position and the ways in which they are able to bear witness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of the city in an articulation of Indian modernity has been central to the narratives of Indian popular cinema since the 1950s. Especially since the mid-1970s, in the wake of Indira Gandhi's declaration of a State of Emergency, Hindi cinema has explored the structures of power that determine Bombay's urban city space where the hero of the film encounters exponentially communal, domestic, gang and state violence. These films put forward textured views of the cityscape and address overtly its potential for corruption and violence. Focussing on Milan Luthria's Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai (2010), this article explores Hindi cinema's engagement with urban violence in an age of market liberalisation, accelerated economic growth and planned expansion. By exploring how individuals encounter forms of urban violence as an everyday occurrence, the article argues that in these instances violence becomes the primary determining agent in the city's urban landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the author's claim that the gangster film "Scarface," which was released in 1932, is one of the most censored motion pictures in the history of America's film industry based in Los Angeles, California's Hollywood neighborhood. The U.S. film industry's production code of ethics during the twentieth century is examined, along with film director Howard Hawks, actor Paul Muni, film industry executives Howard Hughes and Will Hays, and real-life gangster Al Capone.

Recent scholarship exhorts film historians to attend to production cycles in order to interrogate established conceptions of genres. This essay identifies and examines a neglected cycle of gangster regeneration films that flourished between 1910 and 1925 and constituted the prehistory of a genre usually identified with the early 1930s. The gangster regeneration cycle drew from the slum plays and salvation stories of stage melodrama a set of narrative formulas and thematic concerns that reflected the influence of Progressive ideology. In its attitude to social reform and gender, it stands in sharp distinction to the canonical gangster cycles that succeeded it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, the author analyses Maurice Tourneur’s 1935 film Justin de Marseilleas an example of the Gallic gangster film. Julien Duvivier’s Pépé le Moko(1937) has received more critical attention in this regard in part because of the general critical neglect of Tourneur’s work, but also because Justin de Marseille offers a curious juxtaposition of quasi-ethnographic images of everyday street life in Marseille and proto-film noir chase sequences involving darkened streets and violent criminals.Justin de Marseilleis a useful case study because it explicitly negotiates between French and American models of urban criminality in the interwar period at the level of style and narrative. The author shows how Tourneur’s film satirises the French fascination with American and Gallic gangsters as a press phenomenon, namely the consequence of French journalists hungry for sensationalistic stories to sell newspapers. He interweaves a cultural history of the French fascination for gangsters with an analysis of how Tourneur contrasts the acquisitive and individualistic American-inspired gangster with a more properly Gallic one who values honour, artisanship, community and solidarity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

I will examine the HBO drama ‘Boardwalk Empire’ and the show’s depiction of WWI veterans Jimmy Darmody and Richard Harrow, the trials and tribulations of dealing with the fallout of shell shock, the psychological precursor to modern day PTSD. The drama provided two compelling characters who attempted to live 'normal' lives, but instead chose a life of crime and mobster violence in an effort to readjust to society. In that attempt, both struggled with what the war meant and if they ever really left the war behind. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article analyses the director Joseph H. Lewis' films noir and the changing noir vision of American culture from gothic heroines to Cold War gangsters. Topics include shift of Lewis films from gothic thrillers to crime-fighting masculine gangster films in the postwar era, My Name is Julia Ross's depiction of the condition of the working women seeking jobs once again after the war, and Lewis' use of gothic horror conventions amplifying gender distress and emphasizing misogynism.

The article analyzes the film "Down Terrace," directed by Ben Wheatley. Particular focus is given to the role of social realism in Great Britain to the violent genre action of the film. Also mentioned are the social aspects of family violence, the development of crime films in the country, and the sentimentality of a family shown in the film.

The article analysis the several films including the including the "Down Terrace," "Kill List," and "A Field in England," by Ben Wheatley. Topics discussed include the pattern of disorientation of the films considering the viewer relations to the cinematic space atop the viewer relations to film genre, the several aspects of the films' genre such as gangster and family melodrama, and the exploration and analysis of the several characters of the films.

The article analyzes the film "Killing Them Softly," directed by Andrew Dominik and starring Vincent Curatola and Ben Mendelsohn which explores the politics and economy in the U.S. Topics discussed include the pre-establishment of the crime and gangster film genres, the role of Hollywood actors as film producers such as Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise, and the impact of the economic recession on the U.S.

Review of student films from the Scuola Nazionale and the University of Bologna, 2013 Experimentations in modern media into the twenty-first century and Bongiò's Cilindro Raku: Numera Una and Backstage (Formazione Radial, 1AmuLtimediA 2007 - 10:34, and 14:30) - Bongiò; NUMERA Seconda and Backstage (1AmuLtimediA 2007 - HD 14:38, and 12:38) - Marcello Bongiò [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay is a reception history of adolescents' encounters with cinema in the working-class and predominantly Italian and Puerto Rican neighborhood of 1930s East Harlem. From 1929 to 1934, sociologists at the Payne Foundation conducted a "Motion Picture Study" on the allegedly deleterious effects of Hollywood cinema on the area's male youths, with two similar studies of girls also undertaken at this time. I examine the institutional forces shaping these young people's testimonies and the ways in which these testimonies show immigrant teenagers' using films and movie-going as a means of negotiating both their roles and independence in this urban environment. I also analyze the gangster movies and romances they discuss in order to understand the aesthetic and gendered influences these films exerted on the formation of new youth identities in East Harlem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses Italian family gangster movies dealing with Mafia Family. Topics include films like “The Godfather," “Little Caesar" and “Scarface." Topics include history of gangster films, ethnic background of the mafias, and Italian overtones to the film genre. The iconic role played by Marlon Brando as in “The Godfather" is highlighted.

Snatch (Guy Ritchie, 2000) is a comic-book gangster film that can be seen to represent the backlash against perceived notions of political correctness in what is effectively a public-schoolboy fantasy of working-class life in East London. However, the film also delineates the limits of this backlash in its depiction of minorities as either contained or excess. This is highlighted through the comic-book genre itself as well as the characterization. Thus, this article explores the tension between the genre, representation and Jewish identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study aims to investigate the contribution that actor Edward G. Robinson brought to the American film industry, beginning with his iconic role as gangster Little Caesar in Mervyn Le Roy's 1931 production, and continuing with widely-acclaimed parts in classic film noirs such as Double Indemnity, The Woman in the Window and Scarlet Street. Edward G. Robinson was actually a Romanian Jew, born Emmanuel Goldenberg in Bucharest, in 1893, a relatively little known fact nowadays. By examining his biography, filmography and his best-known, most successful films (mentioned above), I show that Edward G. Robinson was one of classical Hollywood's most influential actors; for instance, traits of his portrayal of Little Caesar (one of the very first American gangster films) can be found in almost all subsequent cinematic gangster figures, from Scarface to Vito Corleone. In the same vein, the doomed noir characters he played in Fritz Lang's The Woman in the Window and Scarlet Street are still considered by film critics today to be some of the finest, most nuanced examples of noir heroes. Therefore, the main body of my article will be dedicated to a more detailed analysis of these films, while the introductory section will trace his biography and discuss some of his better-known films, such as Confessions of a Nazi Spy and Key Largo. The present study highlights Edward G. Robinson's merits and impact on the cinema industry, proving that this diminutive Romanian Jew of humble origins was indeed something of a giant during Hollywood's classical era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1953 Henri Verneuil made L'Ennemi public n°1, a parody of the gangster film, located in New York, and with Fernandel as the star. This little-known film played on the incongruity of the star from the French Midi in the Big Apple, and on the contrast between two stereotypes, that of the Frenchman and of the gangster. It exemplifies Franco-American relations in the 1950s, focusing particularly on Fernandel's voice in the context of Hollywood's visual universe. This article examines the articulation between a French voice and American images so as to identify the functions of the oral performance of a star such as Fernandel in the post-war context. L'Ennemi public n°1 works on the principle that language is as attractive as New York skyscrapers; it also uses Fernandel's vernacular to reorient the cultural identity of the film; and, by using an old tradition of orality in French cinema, it introduces the spectator of 1953 into two new universes: the universe of mass consumption, and the hybrid global universe of the cinema emerging in the post-war period. En 1953, Henri Verneuil réalise L'Ennemi public n°1, un film de gangsters parodique situé à New York, avec Fernandel dans le rôle principal. Ce film méconnu joue sur l'incongruité de la présence de la star méridionale dans la mégalopole américaine et sur le contraste comique entre le Frenchman et la figure du gangster. Mais il constitue aussi une illustration exemplaire des échanges France/Amérique dans les années 1950, dont la particularité est de mettre en rapport la voix de Fernandel et l'univers visuel de Hollywood. Cet article examine l'articulation entre la voix française et les images américaines, afin d'identifier les fonctions de la performance orale d'une star comme Fernandel dans le contexte spécifique de l'après-guerre. L'Ennemi public n°1 assimile le langage à une attraction comparable aux buildings de New York; il utilise également la parole vernaculaire de Fernandel pour réorienter l'identité culturelle du film; et il parvient en utilisant une situation d'oralité ancienne dans le cinéma français à faciliter l'entrée du spectateur de 1953 dans deux univers nouveaux différents : l'univers de la consommation de masse, et l'univers cinématographique hybride et «mondialisé» qui émerge à cette période. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article looks at the role of two of the most iconic figures in American popular culture: the gangster and the westerner. Drawing on genre theory from film and television, the way in which the westerner has been displaced by the gangster as the most common signifier of American identity is explored, focussing specifically on the television series Justified (2010-). The southern location of the series further complicates the set of referents by mobilizing aspects of Southern Gothic. While the western and the gangster film have often been viewed as oppositional in terms of location, era and their respective musings on and articulation of American identity, this article argues that the hybridity of genres in popular culture opens up a wider space in which to address aspects of myth, history and social concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An interview with jazz composer and film scorer John Dankworth is presented. He discusses his experiences of composing music for films as well as his favorite film composers. He tackles his music score "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" for the film "Gangster No 1," along with the gangster movies he had worked with.

This article challenges claims of nihilism and moral relativism in the narrative world of Quentin Tarantino's Pulp fiction (1994) by identifying three sets of recurring values which, in addition to being markers of the film's version of 'gangster morality', appears to inspire the film narrative on a variety of levels. The film's presentation of 'gangster values' (professionalism, respect and loyalty), values related to 'care of women' and 'economicism' -- including 'buying' (consumerism) and 'doing business' (commercialism) -- are shown to be continually at work in its three interweaving storylines. This article seeks to show how the film mobilises these values as ideological 'hyper-values' which, by being excessively privileged ideals, dominate and distort other legitimate values and goals. It concludes by considering hegemonic relations between these 'hyper-values' and illustrates the distinct dominance of economicism within this triad of ideological sets of values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article provides criticism of Joshua Oppenheimer's 2012 documentary film "The Act of Killing," which focuses on the killings associated with the 1965-1966 coup that took place in Indonesia, and discusses the use of reenactment in the film. Topics discussed include the sense of irony created by the reenactments, the attitudes of the gangsters who performed the killings, and questions of whether or not the killers felt genuine remorse for what they had done.

The article critiques the film "Fatso," directed Anne Bancroft and starring Dom DeLuise, Ron Carey and Candice Azzara. It examines the film's portrayal of an Italian-American family, including the main character Dominick's obesity, gender identity and food addiction. The author contends that the film uses parody in order to critique American films' portrayal of Italian Americans.

Gangsters and crime feature strongly as themes of Johannesburg's film and television. This paper traces the path of these themes, and discusses the images within the context of Johannesburg's history. Johannesburg has been the site of urban migration since the discovery of gold in 1886 and the city continues to be the object of many dreams and aspirations for South Africans and Africans alike. But the city also plays host to a shadowy underworld of crime and is referred to as 'gangsters' paradise'. This underworld has become a familiar feature in themes and genres of films and television shows set in the city of Johannesburg. Representations of the city coincide with these themes of crime as the gritty images of Johannesburg form an important backdrop to the narratives. Johannesburg has captured the imaginations of filmmakers and audiences, and the city hosts a large proportion of both film production companies and a large share of the country's cinema audience. Subsequently, images of the city are prolific in films and in television. However, crime as a theme is handled differently within the different mediums. This paper explores these images and themes from their origins in the 1940s to 21st century films such as 'Jerusalema' and places the discussion within the greater context of the history of Johannesburg and the history of films and television. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the television series "Boardwalk Empire," and presents interviews with series creator Terence Winter and writer Howard Korder. The show's plot, the history of the American gangster genre, and a set visit during the filming of the episode "Resolution" are discussed, as well as the censorship of gangster films by the U.S. Production Code Administration (PCA). Film directors such as Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, and David Chase also mentioned. Winter discusses audience expectations and the book "Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times, and Corruption of Atlantic City" by Nelson Johnson, and Korder discusses the character Nucky Thompson, played by actor Steve Buscemi.

This article examines the presentation of Mafia identity in The Funeral as it reflects or contradicts genre conventions and cultural mythologies of the Italian American Mafia in cinema. The film is a compelling display of the destructive force of excessive ideals in masculine behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article contends that ghosts and gangsters are not merely popular genres in the Hong Kong film industry; they are also legitimate participants in the film production process itself, influencing financial, creative, and logistical resources and decisions. Film personnel's accounts of the possession and protection of their bodies by members of the cosmological and criminal underworlds, particularly in location filming in graveyards and gangster turf as well as ritual payments and appeasements made to the underworlds, reveal the diverse risks and cultural practices in film production. This article argues that despite the rationalization of commercial filmmaking, 'enchantments' in the form of religion and feudalistic crime linger within capitalist production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents criticism on the American gangster films ''Little Caesar,'' directed by Mervyn LeRoy, ''The Public Enemy,'' directed by William A. Wellman and ''Scarface: The Shame of a Nation,'' directed by Howard Hawks and Richard Ross. The author explores common themes within the movies including the American dream, representation of race and identity and gender issues. The author discusses the disturbing aspects common within the films, including violence, alcohol abuse and abuse of women.

The article presents a historical overview of the rise in popularity of films that focused on spivs, or black market criminals, in Great Britain during World War II and examines how this theme in filmmaking was influenced by American crime and gangster films. It explores ways in which black market crimes were covered by the British press and in British literature during wartime, describes how the language, behavior, and dress of young British men showed evidence of the influence of gangster films on their lives, and discusses the black market for food in Sheffield, England amidst wartime rationing. Other topics include a description of the image of the spiv in motion pictures, the clothing entrepreneur Cecil Gee, and the British Board of Film Censors (BBFC).

The article focuses on the study on the cinematic style of director Johnnie To of Milkyway Image Productions. It says that the style of To in his films are classified under the action film category with action subgenres including film noir, gangster film, and police-triad film. It cites that his cinematic philosophy is prioritizing for style over content of the film. Among the Hong Kong, Chinese action films he directed include "Loving You," "A Hero Never Dies," and "Running Out of Time."

Hong Kong cinema is known throughout the world for its action cinema, including martial arts films and gangster pictures that portray violence as an integral part of their appeal. This article examines the nature of violence in contemporary Hong Kong cinema, borrowing concepts from Walter Benjamin's essay 'Critique of violence' to define the violence in Hong Kong action films as mythical and aestheticized. The article analyses a body of films such as King Hu's classic A Touch of Zen (1970-71), John Woo's A Better Tomorrow (1987) and Johnnie To's Election (2004) to support its thesis. The mythical violence portrayed in these films, it is argued, constructs a critique of violence. Furthermore, the films set up a wider framework of discourse about violence itself as a method of questioning social institutions and norms affecting gender. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers the author's view on the Western and gangster film genres in the U.S. The author states that the two film genres sets the action in a certain space but expose diametrically opposed relations of man to space. The author cites that the genres induces an image to the state of America which breaks with traditional optimism. The author also mentions that the coexistence of the two genres is paradoxical.

This article considers Mafia filmmaking across Hollywood and Italian models. It presents an analysis of the set design of two recent Italian films, Le conseguenze dell'amore (Paolo Sorrentino, 2004) and Gomorra (Matteo Garrone, 2008) that focuses on the inter-relationship between narrative and set design, and on the cinematic strategies used to present and give meaning to the sets. It shows that both films conform to the category of what the Affrons term a 'closely circumscribed set', where the spatial dimensions of the set are read in the first instance in literal terms, but beyond this as relevant to an implicit social and political agenda. It is however notable that the films actively exclude an explicit political dimension to their discourse, a factor that strongly modifies the earlier tradition of political filmmaking but retains significance for the production and reception of the contemporary genre form. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article the author examines issues raised by "Jerusalema," a film directed by Ralph Ziman and gangster films as produced in South Africa. A number of issues are addressed including the plotting, characters and action of "Jerusalema," and its use of satire in its portrayal of post-apartheid South Africa.

Following a path established in Robert Warshow's chapter on "The Gangster as Tragic Hero," this article attempts to look at connections between the ancient genre of tragedy and contemporary mob movies. On the one hand, there are structural parallels when it comes to plot, which adheres to the formula of decline, brought about by erroneous judgments. On the other hand, mobsters are often portrayed as powerful, ruthless tyrants who retain a kind of Shakespearean grandeur. Using examples from films by Michael Mann, Martin Scorsese, and Ridley Scott, my argument links contemporary American crime drama to the origins of tragedy (as laid out by Aristotle in Poetics) and some canonical examples of the genre, like The Merchant of Venice. Having established this theoretical framework, I shall offer a detailed discussion of Martin Scorsese's The Departed, one of the most successful mob movies in recent years. In this film, Scorsese toys with the tragic genre both on the level of plot and with regard to his flawed characters, who struggle to overcome guilt and tragic hubris, yet cannot escape their inevitable tragic downfall. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]