Cain (afterward coupled by Mickey Spillane, Horace McCoy, and Jim Thompson) -- whose books were also recurrently tailored in films noir. In the vein of the novels, these films were set apart by a subdued atmosphere and realistic violence, and they p Continue Reading...
Frank ends up in prison and comes out after 15 years a frail and misplaced person who no longer fits in the Harlem streets, no longer the feared drug baron that he was. It is also a positive experience since even in the midst of the rotten and corru Continue Reading...
The spectator is unwittingly sutured into a colonialist perspective. But such techniques are not inevitably colonialist in their operation. One of the innovations of Pontocorvo's Battle of Algiers is to invert the imagery of encirclement and exploit Continue Reading...
In this area, meanings with their endless referrals evolve. These include meanings form discourses, as well as cultural systems of knowledge which structure beliefs, feelings, and values, i.e., ideologies. Language, in turn, produces these temporal Continue Reading...
The 1990s also saw innovative interpretation of law enforcement's role in the perpetuation of organized crime. One of the most notable examples is L.A. Confidential (1997), in which corruption has reached so deep into the Los Angeles police departm Continue Reading...
Deglamorizing American Street Gangs Social researcher and author Deborah Lamm Weisel (2002) says that the glamorized image of the American street gang as drug dealers is not the image that is consistent with historical research (Lamm Weisel 75). Continue Reading...
The very fact that the magazine openly admires men like Ray Liotta, who show depth beyond the typical alpha male and women like Christina Aguilera, who has chosen to use her sexuality rather than being used by her sexuality, demonstrates that the ma Continue Reading...
American Me The intergenerational and racial components to familiar crime, as viewed through the American criminal justice system or Not a Wiseguy -- the text of Henry Hill, "American Me" and Clear and Cole's Chapter 19 on "Race and Punishment" It Continue Reading...
film noir movement by examining two films from the genre made at two different times within the movement. This will first mean looking at definitions of what classifies a film as noir and then looking at conventions of the movement such as: story, c Continue Reading...
movie industry in America has been controlled by some of the monolithic companies which not only provided a place for making the movies, but also made the movies themselves and then distributed it throughout the entire country. These are movie compa Continue Reading...
Black gangsters can be kind hearted and cowards, timid black film directors can face a whole legion of police officers, pro-white police officers can risk their lives with the purpose of saving black women, and righteous white police officers can co Continue Reading...
Politics at the Movies—Changing Visions of the American Dream The so-called “American Dream” has changed in fundamental ways over the years, beginning with a modest vision for a steady job with a living wage, a little house with a w Continue Reading...
Cinematography Order Cinematography and Film In the movie industry there is some very important roles in making a film from the head honcho, the executive producer, his directors, and his cinematographer, and there has to be organization and everyo Continue Reading...
Both films irritated their relevant critical establishments, and in this way, De Palma's remade was truest to its source. Scarface 1983 savagery and energy united with its political portrait of the illicit drug trade form a memorable and powerful ev Continue Reading...
Davis who was not especially beautiful in the classical sense of beauty ruled Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s, playing tough women who chose their careers and their own desires over sacrificing for men or children or the social and economic benefi Continue Reading...
Chinatown and Film Noir The influence of classic film noir on Chinatown Rising to prominence in the late 1940s and initially described as "murder with a psychological twist," film noir helped to introduce audiences to a new genre that could be dist Continue Reading...
Scorsese equates him with "a magician enchanted by his own magic." This freedom allowed Welles to create from narrative techniques and filmic devices a masterpiece that is self-aware of its own form. It intends to communicate this self-consciousness Continue Reading...
The film is about rather ordinary events taking place in an environment that experiences a forceful change. Adults practically contrast children through their thinking and the way that they behave, considering that in spite of the fact that they tal Continue Reading...
Running head: Mexican historyaccording to Narco Cultura film Mexican historyaccording to Narco Cultura film 9Mexican history, according to Narco Cultura filmThe Mexican drug war has been going on for more than a decade, but it has little to no succes Continue Reading...
From this came our insistence on the drama of the doorstep" (cited by Hardy 14-15). Grierson also notes that the early documentary filmmakers were concerned about the way the world was going and wanted to use all the tools at hand to push the publi Continue Reading...
John Woo After a fairly lucrative career in Hollywood, film director John Woo has returned to Hong Kong to continue making movies. While in the United States. Woo directed several successful films, including Face/Off with Oscar award-winning actor N Continue Reading...
Blade Runner directed in 1982 by Ridley Scott, is a film which examines the nature of reality, something that it plays with very heavily using factors like visuals and memory design. The film features Deckard, the protagonist who hunts replicants. Ho Continue Reading...
Shaft flashes a police badge to criminals in the first part of the movie, establishing his role as the "good" guy in the film, although he is from the same "underworld" as the rest of the black criminals in the movie. This film, as many others, show Continue Reading...
Italian-Americans -- 1930s The American experience for Italian immigrants (with particular emphasis on the 1930s) is the salient topic for this paper. The materials presented from scholarly sources in this paper show the positive and negative impact Continue Reading...
As a testament to the respect he garners in the neighborhood, however, he is allowed to pass by without being sprayed by the water. Radio Raheem's warrior status is first challenged in the film by a group of Latinos hanging out on their front stoop Continue Reading...
Miller's Crossing gives the best example of the "ethics" of the crime film genre -- beginning as it does with the classic speech delivered by Giovanni Gasparo: "I'm talkin' about friendship -- I'm talkin' about character -- I'm talkin' about -- hel Continue Reading...
East/West An Analysis of Eastern Influence in Western Art The American/English poet T.S. Eliot references the Upanishad in his most famous poem "The Wasteland," a work that essentially chronicles the break-up of Western civilization and looks to Ea Continue Reading...
Distortions of the American Dream: The Effects of Materialism in Day of the Locust and the Great Gatsby In both The Day of the Locust and The Great Gatsby, pursuit for the superficial and material in the world has become their driving focus, blurrin Continue Reading...
The scene between Jules, Vincent and Brett is one that clearly defines Hollywood's obsession with depicting the classic struggle between good vs. evil, but with a humorous twist that makes the scene appealing to a variety of audiences. Violence is Continue Reading...
A professor of English at Waynesburg College, Roberts may have glossed over some of the raw and even vulgar remarks and actions taken by the characters. At one point a newspaper editor -- angered by the violence and killing conducted by Tony's gang Continue Reading...
Untouchables "People are going to drink!" Brian De Palma's 1987 film The Untouchables is a classic portrayal of one of America's most notorious gangsters and the elite team of law enforcement that was poised on taking him down. Set in the 1930s, the Continue Reading...
Dominik's Killing Them Softly Andrew Dominik's 2012 American film Killing Them Softly is a screen-adaptation of George Higgins' 1974 crime novel Cogan's Trade. Dominik's screenplay sets the action in modern America during the 2008 election campaign Continue Reading...
Scorsese cuts to a boring subdivision: Henry Hill exits his boring house in a bathrobe, stoops to get the newspaper "just like anybody" else, and for a moment remembers that he used to be a gangster. Scorsese cuts to a clip of the violent thug Jimmy Continue Reading...
The Godfather is the quintessential example of the gangster genre, which includes “films that deal with organized crime, often with mob families,” (Chapter 4). In fact, The Godfather also fits squarely within the gangster genre because it Continue Reading...
The film version of the 'GodFather' became famous. The reason is that it was essentially a portrayal more on the family and emotional side rather than the gun toting violence. Thus the viewer shows the discernment between a good and bad movie by an Continue Reading...
Citizen Kane" is known for creating many new filmmaking techniques, and has been hailed as one of the greatest films ever made. "Roaring Twenties" is known as one of the best gangster films ever made and director Walsh is often heralded for his dra Continue Reading...
A recent market report notes, In recent decades, famous Hollywood directors, such as Quentin Tarantino and Oliver Stone, have credited the influence of Hong Kong film styles on their works. John Woo has relocated his career to Hollywood to become Continue Reading...
Slumdog Millionaire contains numerous violent scenes that adults are the most likely audience for this theatrical film. The scenes showing the police brutality in India depicted violence. They showed Jamal being interrogated rudely and tortured. Th Continue Reading...
Another pattern of the film noir is the urban setting which has dark and/or wet streets. Take for example the scene when Mike leaves for the bus station, for the flower box, the street outside his apartment is wet. What might be rather bothering i Continue Reading...
