How Gangster Movies Have Changed Throughout the Decades.

The focal point of gangster movies have changed over the years and in this piece today we are going to explore the similarities and differences between the new and old movies. The main point of this blog is to show that gangster movies have evolved to follow the trending crimes at the moment. I want to show that it this can also be applied to other genres as well, but for now let’s stick with the gangster movies, my favorite.

First, I would like to begin by discussing the original gangster movies, Italian Mafia movies. The movie that comes to mind when discussing this topic is “Scarface” the original. It is a story about the notorious gangster Al Capone, one of America’s greatest criminals. It originally came out in 1932 and was very successful at the box office. This was right in the middle of the chase for him at the time and many thought that making a movie about a criminal on the loose was very unethical, especially a movie that glorified him and his acts. Censors were to placed on the film, but the producers headed these warnings. It is even said that Mr. Capone himself was given a private showing of the film before its release in order to determine if it was good enough to put out, obviously he approved it. When the film did release, it was met with initial back lash, but eventually it died down after Al Capone was sentenced to prison. This movie was also criticized for inspiring young kids to act in the same way. This claim was put to rest after it was deemed that kids do not really have the capability to do the actions in movies, nor do they think it is a good idea. Further research in Chris Yogerts 2017 article “The Monumental Censorship Battle Over Scarface,” shows that the movie was “one of the most highly censored movie in Hollywood history.” That was said by J.E. Smith, who is regarded by many to be an important figure in the film industry. He made that remark after reviewing the evidence brought to him by the team of researchers in his own experiment where he takes a look at the beginning of the gangster movie genre back in the late 1920’s and early 1930’s. Smith’s article titled “Revisioning modern American history in the age of Scarface (1932),” explains the unfair treatment filmmakers received for creating movies about controversial topics. He dives into the aspect that filmmakers today get away with more realistic things that happen in movies as compared to back in the 30’s. The article also is to show how far the film industry has come in only a short amount of time.

The next era of gangster movies I would like to take a look at is the Miami Vice style of the 70’s and 80’s. “Scarface” 1983 is a good film to analyze for this section. This movie is about a Cuban immigrant who rises to be one of South Florida’s top drug lords. The movie is fiction, but it does coincide with what was happening in Miami at the time. There was a lot of drug trafficking going on during this time and the movie was a reflection of that. This was the first evolution of gangster movies that I noticed. The shift also was predicted by my argument of that gangster movies follow trends. Combine that with the fact that the movie has come to almost signify 80’s Miami. The film did face its fair share of criticism for having a rather gory presentation of the dirty side of the drug trade. Moreover, it was also met with the criticism that it glorified crime. The movie makers deflected this by claiming that it was more of an eye opening experience rather than a complete action flick. Nevertheless, this movie was an inspiration to film makers everywhere on how to create a good shoot-em-up film. It also solidified its place in history by perfectly encapsulating the moment it was trying to project. To take it a step deeper, a research paper by Terry Rindfleisch La Crosse, took a look a murder case in Fort McCoy, Wisconsin. The case involved a recently escaped Cuban refugee that killed his sponsor. The act sparked outrage in the community as many Cuban refugees had recently been sent their as a result of the Cuban Refugee Crisis. She took a look at the demographic of the people Fidel Castro had sent over to the United States and concluded that it was a ploy to get rid of his undesirable population. This ties into the idea that Americans had a dim view of the Cubans during the release of “Scarface” (1983). At the same time however, it also helped its popularity. ANother interesting thing to note about the film is that the filming of “Scarface” actually helped with Al Pacino’s mental health, because the character made him feel empowered according to a MSN.com article.

The last real movement of gangster films is of that from Coke drug lords to hood gangsters. The movement is most likely due to show the status of African-American living standards, a more recent debate that has gained huge amounts of attention over the last thirty or so years. “Boys in the Hood” is a movie that is thought to show African-American youth living in housing projects. The film received a 96% on Rotten Tomatoes, making this a must watch and an all time great movie. The movie follows a group of neighborhood boys throughout the course of their childhood and early adulthood. It shows how some of the kids adopt traits based on their living conditions. This film raised awareness to some societal problems and was a key contributor to other films being made like it. With the addition of social media during this time frame, it allowed this movement to explode. It even made Congress pass bills to rectify these past mistakes, especially under the Obama administration. To this day the genre has slowly slipped away from these types of movies as there is no longer a need for them and a new type of gangster movie or a revival of an old type will occur. An article by Leal, Andrés Bartolomé called “Boyz out the Hood? Geographical, Linguistic and Social Mobility in John Singleton’s Boyz N the Hood” takes a look at the film “Boyz N the Hood” in greater depth. Leal begins by telling the plot of the movie, but then gets to his main point of how the hood creates a cycle of violence and that education should be prided when present with a situation like the one in the movie. It also speaks to the point that by realistically portraying young African-Americans and their possible futures it will help in the creation of a new attitude between the youth. The movie was so realistic there was even real gunfire in the film and Ice Cube and the boys were not told until they were going to shoot the scene as told in the cheatsheet.com article. Another point I would like to address in this section is that of housing reform. Robert Collinson wrote an article titled “Reforming Housing Assistance” where he explains that the current program is not ideal for the current need. The article shows that since aid is only federal at the moment and need is mostly based on location, it hurts people in higher income areas, especially in cities. Collinson cites that as a reason for a build up of slums in American cities and not so much across places such as the mid west. Another point brought up is that people actually given adequate subsidiaries are in low opportunity zones, which leads to little or no growth of the individual receiving the benefits, and the people that do live in the high opportunity zones are the ones with a deficient amount of benefits. This article relates to another one that I found titled “Crime as a Social Control” by Donald Black, in which he illustrates the treatment of African-Americans by the government. They are supposed to have a “self-help” mentality, but when put into economic situation like the ones that Africans-Americans had to endure for most of the 20th century it leads to crime. A part of the article explores how this type of social control kept was extremely unfair to the African-American population as they had no chance of economic success. Both of these articles agree with the argument that gangster movies have changed over time. They showed that because in both cases the education and housing programs have gotten much better than have been in a long time. This is the cause of the recent trend of different gangster movies as the “hood” gangsters are shrinking by the day.

All in all, times change, people change, and so do the movies. What ever is relevant at the time will catch the average persons eye and make them watch even the worst of movies if its a popular subject. Throughout the blog we have discussed the types of gangster movies at certain times. In every case, the evidence pointed to the fact that the type of gangster movie was dictated by the type of real life gangster at the time. However, with limited options available now we might see a resurgence of old style movies to “freshen” things up again. The biggest factor to what the next type will be might even come in the form of another threat to society. Maybe gangster movies will be fazed out in favor of more approachable genres. Pop culture is very unpredictable and much can be said at this point. If there is one more thing to say its this; popular trends will encourage what film producers make, and that is what people will watch. So to further illustrate, what ever people think is popular is made more popular by media heads influencing it and its also rather easy to make because the story is already written. It also pays heritage to the past films that came before it, as I noticed that many of the movies had great care put into the filming and production of it. All this can be said about other genres too. Look at pirate movies, they became popular back in the 2000s when Somali pirate attacks were at their height. Also look at horror movies, more and more horror movies feature tech as the scary part and that would be unheard of prior to the 1970’s. What I’m trying to say is that most films reflect the time period they were made in and they all have their indicators, whether it be style, pop culture at the time, or something else we don’t even know about yet.