Genre Essay

What are the conventions which appear in a gangster crime drama?

Every film genre has certain conventions which are associated with them. These can range from certain camera techniques, to much larger things such as settings or plot devices. In this essay I will discuss the conventions of gangster crime dramas.
To begin with gangster crime dramas are morality tales of epic proportions and can be seen very much as urban westerns. Instead of wide sprawling plains, these are swapped for confined city alleyways and back streets. An excellent example of this is Once Upon A Time in America (Sergio Leone, 1984). This is set in New York and Leone uses many extreme long shots to reflect the seedy settings which his characters operate in (see below).
These films are also morality tales in the same way as westerns, as from the beginning of the film we know that they cannot continue to live like this. We know they will either end up being killed or in jail, but we cannot help but be sucked into their worlds. This is one of the major reasons why gangster crime dramas are so popular, because they are tales about morality and real people.
In most gangster crime dramas we see the success of the main character reflected in his material possessions. This is often made more dramatic by the fact that the character often starts with nothing, and then all of a sudden has great amounts of money, with which they buy cars and yachts.
Success is also shown through their success with women. In most films of the type we have women who become infatuated with the main character, and are often very loyal, not leaving their man for any reason. A good example of the use of women to represent the success of the main character is Public Enemies (Michael Mann, 2009). In this we see Marion Cotillard’s character become loyal, and stay loyal to the last to John Dillinger even landing herself in prison because she would not give up his location.
Gangsters, in films portrayed from their point of view, are often represented as victims of circumstance. This means that we often see them with little in the beginning and then they find a route out of their misery through organised crime. We will also often see society and the status quo of ordinary life as the antagonists in the films. The police in these films are therefore just the enforcers of the status quo.
In later Hollywood films of the genre, they have started to concentrate far more on the police investigating the gangsters. However this can often lead to many comparisons between those inside the law and those outside it, and we begin to realise how similar they really are.
Films of the genre are also often biographical. Most of the films in the genre are about, or representative of, the lives of many criminals. Whether the criminal is Al Capone, John Dillinger or Bonnie and Clyde, they have all had their lives turned into movies, whether it was as a straight portrayal of their lives or a loose adaption.
Gangster films contain lots of extreme violence, which reflects the anger of the men involved. The extreme violence is often a representation of their frustration at their place in the world, and could be seen as their way of crying out for attention in a world where they have nothing.
To conclude the gangster crime drama genre is successful because it is an urban western which focuses on the morality of criminals, and shows how they pull themselves up from having nothing to have many material goods. In my group’s project I will take all of these conventions and create a crime drama which would fit into contemporary Hollywood well.
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