Gangster Film Research

Genre History • The first real gangster film to be released was called 'The Musketeers of Pig Alley' in 1912.

This was the pioneer of all gangster films in the film industry without it we wouldn’t see the modern greats we currently have.

• the 1930s is where gangster films became really popular, when New York and Chicago were the cities notoriously known for crime with high ratios of death. Films such as Little Caesar (1930) and the original Scarface (1932) were made during this time, portraying the rise in organized crime in the time period. These films generated massive profits as most people at the time were suffering from the great depression the films were a chance to get away from their lives and experience what it was like to be a wealthy and powerful something known little buy majority of the US at the time.

• During the 1950s the gangster film genre had died out, most people switched their attention to the ever evolving action genre which were more obscure and were more unrealistic giving the audience a bigger sense of escapism

• 1972 The Godfather was the rise of the gangster film genre after the fall in the 50's it was also the first gangster film where crime and criminals were glamorized, this was probably why it was such a big film at the time.

• 1990 Goodfellas was another massive gangster film. It is a real story based on the life of Henry Hill, who wanted to be a gangster from a young age, the audience liked this movie as it was based on real life so the audience could slightly relate to it. As most of the other gangster film it ended in tragedy.

Martin Scorsese

• Martin Charles Scorsese is a man known for many classic gangster crime he is seen as one of the pioneers and somebody who set the bench mark of the standard we see today of gangster films. He was raised in the neighborhood of Little Italy, which later provided the inspiration for several of his films.

Highest rated films: • Goodfellas• Taxi Driver • Raging bull

Awards:BAFTA Film Award 1991 – Best film

Best DirectionBest Screenplay

For Goodfellas

Scorsese Trademarks1.New York City as the main setting in his films

http://www.listal.com/list/famous-directors-trademarks

2.Main character often falls in love and has a wife, and often has a turning point between the main character and the wife.

3.Corrupt Authority Figures

Quentin Tarantino

Quentin Tarantino is an expert on using the cinematic language in his own work to express his thrilling stories visually.

Awards:In January of 1992, first-time writer-director Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs (1992) The film garnered critical acclaim and the director became a legend immediately. Two years later, he followed up Dogs success with Pulp Fiction (1994) winning the coveted Palme D'Or Award.

Highest rated films: • Pulp Fiction• Django Unchained• Reservoir Dogs

Tarentinos Trademarks

The Trunk & Hood POV Shot

http://wiki.tarantino.info/index.php/Quentin_Tarantino's_Trademarks

The Mirror Shot

The Torture Scene

Who's On The Phone?

Goodfellas

• Brief plot: Henry Hill is a small time gangster, who takes part in a robbery with Jimmy Conway and Tommy De Vito, two other gangsters who have set their sights a bit higher. His two partners kill off everyone else involved in the robbery, and slowly start to climb up through the hierarchy of the Mob. Henry, however, is badly affected by his partners success, but will he stoop low enough to bring about the downfall of Jimmy and Tommy?

Tag line: As far back as I can remember, I've always wanted to be a gangster.

Mean Streets

• Basic plot: The future is set for Tony and Michael - owning a neighbour-hood bar and making deals in the mean streets of New York city's Little Italy. For Charlie, the future is less clearly defined. A small-time hood, he works for his uncle, making collections and reclaiming bad debts. He's probably too nice to succeed. In love with a woman his uncle disapproves of (because of her epilepsy) and a friend of her cousin, Johnny Boy, a near psychotic whose trouble-making threatens them all - he can't reconcile opposing values. A failed attempt to escape (to Brooklyn) moves them all a step closer to a bitter, almost preordained future.

Tagline: You don't make up for your sins in church. You do it in the streets.

Pulp Fiction

• Jules Winnfield and Vincent Vega are two hitmen who are out to retrieve a suitcase stolen from their employer, mob boss Marsellus Wallace. Wallace has also asked Vincent to take his wife Mia out a few days later when Wallace himself will be out of town. Butch Coolidge is an aging boxer who is paid by Wallace to lose his next fight. The lives of these seemingly unrelated people are woven together comprising of a series of funny, bizarre and uncalled-for incidents.

Tagline: You won’t know the facts until you’ve seen the fiction.