Research into elements of classic gangster films

In the film industry, there is not one complete definition of a particular "genre". However, films share familiar characteristics that allow the audience to group them as certain types of films. I have tried to analyse the particular elements ever present in many gangster films in order to try and implement them into out own product and appeal to our target audience.



A key element of a gangster film is that the film tries to make the audience identify with and understand the mind of a criminal. Seeing past their criminal label, the film will often try to make the audience understand the emotions and situations the main protagonist/antagonist/anti-hero has been placed in to act the way they do. With our own film, I have already included in the script a series of in-thought monologues so the audience can get an in depth view into the thoughts and emotions of the character. The audience, and only the audience, gets to see the anxiety and frustration experienced by Nathan, which would lead him to try and outdo others or lash out and act aggressively. This is comparable to classics such as Scarface, where the main anti-hero if you will, Tony Montana, is portrayed in great detail so the audience truly get to understand just how he progressed from a Cuban Immigrant to the controller of a drug cartel.



The second element of a gangster/crime film is that the film will try and show the audience the culture of the crime industry and its values. The culture will generally tend to be secluded, violent, secret, shady but highly organised and powerful, whereas the values will be based around loyalty, revenge and an “eye for an eye”. Elements of the culture of violence, secrecy and organisation will be detailed in many ways in our project. The organisation side of the business will be detailed in the language used in the production, such as the mentioning of distributers, rivals and drug yields. The secrecy will be shown through numerous precautions such as body guards and cameras. These parts of the mise en scene help give the audience a feeling of tight security and isolation from the outside world, a barrier of entry from outsiders into this drug culture. Finally, violence will be portrayed heavily through our range of characters, who when pushed, will show exactly what they’re capable of.



The last element stand out element of a gangster film seems to be a well established hierarchy of associates and ranks for members. We designed our own hierarchy within the film script to give each character a rank and job, similar to one we decided to study;

Furthermore, numerous characters have numerous contacts they can use to assist them with tasks and challenges during the film, with a great emphasis in the script on showing how organised the system is.