In this report I will be explaining in detail findings I have come up with after watching films of the gangster genre by using the analytical approaches of genre analysis, content analysis and auteur theory. I will be covering areas such as the codes and conventions, iconography, findings from content analysis, narrative structure and audience readings to come up with a detailed discussion about the gangster genre.
So what’s gangster? Typically its guns, crime families, constant violence plots, organised crime and Made guys. Each of which are all elements that constitute a good gangster film but not alone. Also there are many ways which gangsters are portrayed. The two I would like to focus on are American and British.
The American gangster view is formed around the idea of the American Dream. Also family is of great value as well as the gangsters being smartly dressed described as ‘slick’ wearing tuxedos and 3 piece suits. Furthermore there is a constant obsession of big table congregations where gangsters would meet at a big table eating along with conversation. However, the way an English gangster would be seen to be not a gangster by family. Moreover they are informal and not as smartly dressed as the typical Sicilian gangster. Unlike the American gangsters that are all about family, these gangsters are all about money, power and respect. One thing that I had noticed that definitely separates the both of them is that the British gangsters are more drug affiliated. Whereas the American gangsters are against it and even if they did they wouldn’t personally they would have acquaintances that deal with it.
The Godfather (1972) – Narrative Structure & Narrative Theory
The godfather is about a war hero Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) whose family is affiliated around organised crime. He comes back from war and doesn’t want to get to be tangled into the family business. However when his father, Vito Corleone who is the head of his mob family Syndicate is gunned down it causes Michael to step and starts a course of vendetta by Michael and he commits murder bound by
ties of blood. Eventually he inherits his father’s mantle as the head of the family and receives homage as ‘Don Corleone’.
With narratives there are many different types. A narrative can open or closed. Open meaning that there is no final closing to the story and that it leaves either the audience to figure it out or the narrative will be carried on in a sequel, or in terms of TV the next episode. Closed is that there is an ending to the film that is satisfactory in terms of closing the story. The Godfather is a trilogy so in the first film is open as the story is left without conclusion so in the third and last film the narrative is closed. There are also other areas or narrative structures. For the enigma of the Godfather I would say that it is the backgrounds of the other five families and as the film goes on I look out for any signs of background history on the other families. Additionally as by the end of the film Michael Corleone hits all five heads of the families its intriguing to find out more about them.
Although this is showing the way that narratives can be structured narrative is just the media term for telling a story. With narrative it is studied widely by many people in theoretical ways. One of the most renowned