The Gangster Genre

1
The Gangster Genre

• By Rachel Godlewski

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Setting

• Urban areas, New York City or Chicago.
• Crime ridden, dirty city streets
• Scenes take place in Bosss office or hideout
• Usually dark and gray settings, shadowy settings
• 20th Century America

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Characters

• Main Characters
• Gangster himself
• Gangsters wife
• Members of his crime family
• Members of opposing crime family
• FBI or police

• Minor Characters
• Gangsters children
• The mistress
• Stock characters might include
• Drivers
• Body guards
• Entertainers or prostitutes
• Politicians

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More About Characters

• Gangster
• immigrant background, most often Italian.
• strives to attainAmerican Dream
• Often his fall is due to his own greed or
  studpidity.
• macho, short-tempered, violent tendencies
• Gangsters blood family and crime family both
  shown to be important, although crime family
  usually takes precedence
• Follows hierarchical structures within the crime
  family

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Women Characters

• Wives enjoy their husbands success and power but
  they tend to show this only to their friends, not
  to their husbands.
• Wives show their husbands how they suffer from
  their criminal activity and sexual promiscuity.
• Gangsters mother is portrayed as powerful over
  her son or saintly and loving
• If female children, they are most sheltered from
  the crime and their future roles are shaky

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Plot

• Rise and fall of the gangster (Teasly and
  Wilder)
• Sub plots
• laundering crime money,
• escaping the FBI,
• plotting against members of own crime family,
• taking over the business of another crime family,
• Hiding infidelities from wife

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Iconography

• Guns
• Stacks of money
• Dead bodies
• Illegal substances (alcohol during Prohibition,
  drugs)
• Mirrors, glass
• Clothing to represent stage in gangsters rise
  (his and his wifes)
• Cars

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Mood

• Tense
• Dark
• Even when gangster is successful, sense he will
  be caught or killed
• Violent

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Cinematic Style

• Dark, with low-key lighting, blue and red hues
• Enclosed spaces
• shadows

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Narrative Themes

• Family and loyalty of utmost importance
• Obedience to authority necessary
• Working hard will result in rise to power and
  economic success
• Police and politicians unable to maintain law and
  order
• Crime will pay off in the short term but crime
  life cant be maintained
• Men should be strong and women forgiving