Gangster Article

Guns, drugs, money, sex and scandal, all things that on would find conventional in a gangster movie. Men; ruthless, hardened organised criminals, the main characters of Gangster films. That is highly conventional. There have been a few films where the female is the Gangster but that is a highly unconventional factor. For example in the film Rolling With The Nines. Directors and film creators use conventions to uncover the genres of films. In Gangster films sexual content, violence, drugs, money and foul language are some of the obvious things that make this genre. How else can one tell a gangster from another film? By using characters and props. Film makers are able to portray a distilled image of a gangster way of life. Films like Scarface, American Gangster and the Godfather showcase imagery heavily featuring Fancy cars and well pressed suits. In Scarface as Tony Montana's journey to the top of the food chain progressed so did his sense of style and he literally went from rags to riches. Guns are the weapon of choice. Ninja's have their blades and gangsters have their bullets. Having a gun in a gangster movie connotes power and respect. Tony Montana used a gun to kill his boss and seal his place on top. After giving the runts the guns to fight in a war they had no part in, the runts killed Lil Ze and began to make a hit list. Laying amongst corpses he was not responsible for, Tom is spotted by Big Chris, a ruthless gangster but is respected because of the scenery he is in.

Time is an effortless factor in film but can be altered in anyway using flashbacks, flash forwards, memories and even cutaways. Films often use inter titles in order to show the audience when the movie is taking place. Scarface skips a various number of time frames in order to derive the important events happening in the film, this is a technique used mostly by mainstream Hollywood. City of God however takes a more unconventional route by starting at the end of the film and then reverting a decade into the past to tell a story. A technique like this is often used in stories based on true events the beginning of a movie sets up the audience with a question of "how did we get here?" And the rest of the films objective is set out to answer that question. This is why the film peals to a niche category of audience because it has a complex story line.

The story of Scarface is singlehandedly about the life of Tony Montana. His rise to success and his fall to death. A Single strand narrative, is the appropriate term for such a narrative. The audience focuses on the protagonist and his story, his thirst to get more out of life, his accomplishments and then his down fall. Cause and effect is the reaction of a single strand narrative. Multistrand narratives however break down events per character. Usually the characters with the story, besides the main protagonist are called  stock characters. This is quite unconventional of Gangster films but is very effective in the sense of telling a story. It's a technique that often appeals to an Alternative or a Niche audience because it is an orthodox. This technique was used in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels as well as City of God. Each of the films had little sub stories which were intertwined with the main narrative.

Predominantly about men, Gangster films initial target audience is male. Scarface and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels are about the goings on in male gangsters lives over a period of time. They are portrayed as ambitious, money oriented, clever, hardworking and loyal beings despite the fact that there way of life is illegal. Also, Gangsters are a loyal people, who respect the rules of the game and those above them, unless they want to be on top. Like Tony Montana who killed his boss in order to take over his empire. But he did have respect for his mother. Women in Gangster films are portrayed in a different manner. To appeal to the better nature of the initial male audience, females are sexually objectified, for example in City of God, as much as they were respectful,  Angelica and Bernice used sex to control the boys. There was numerous graphical content in the film. In order to segment the audience they must portray women in a strong independent manner, for example Mama Montana, was a very strong individual, she respected her self and the law, she didn't want anything to do with Tony if he was breaking the law. As well as the Black Jack dealer in Lock, Stock; she was very up tight and respectful, she showed her authority using dialogue.

Gangster films are known for their extreme violent content, which is highly conventional of them. What is unconventional of a gangster film, is to use children to play the role of a gangster. In City of God there were barely any adults in the film and the ones that were included didn't play a significant role. The majority of the cast were children and teenagers and it is unconventional because it is based on actual events, you wouldn't expect one to get entertained by children, hurting each other or other people. The mass slaughter committed by Lil Dice, included point of view shots from the victims in the Motel. Another extreme scene which was highly unorthodox, was Lil Ze ordering a child to kill his friends. Such scenes are very harmful to the audience and they can take a negative toll on them, but not all films are about entertainment. some times, people need to be educated.