Original Gangstas is a film that shows the formation of gangs in Gary, Indiana through either social disorgianazation theory or underclass theory. The films centers primarily around black subculture and gangs. A key theme of the film is that the community must use the same violence as gangs do, if they want to get of the gangs.
Original Gangstas was directed by Larry Cohen (1996) and is a Blaxploitation film, a type of film genre that cast black actors in low budget films that would target a black audience, which centers on gang violence in Gary, Indiana in the mid 1990’s. The films starts out explaining how the gangs were formed due to the extreme loss of jobs that Gary suffered when many of the steel mills closed. With the lack of jobs many …show more content…
Two macro theories support why the gang growth happened in Gary, Indiana in the 1970’s. The first is social disorganization, when the steel mills closed and residents began moving away to find employment, black youths from Chicago moved into city and formed gangs as a way to have both protection and to commit crimes to garner income. The second is underclass theory, which Wilson (1987) used for the economic instability surrounding Chicago. This theory claim deindustrialization is the cause of gangs forming. First, all those who were able to move out during the economic collapse did, then all that was left were those in the lowest socioeconomic class. Since all the people in the class knew only how to do unskilled labor many were left jobless and then banded together to form gangs. However, according to Moore (1998) immigration could also cause this to happen, if the immigrants could work low skilled jobs for cheaper in than the residential poor. The film does use the thrid step in the the comprehensive, community-wide gang problem model. For much of the movie the local reverend plays tries to play peace keeper between the current gang members and the former gang members. This is the social intervention step which includes using faith-based organization to reach out to gang members (Howell & Griffiths,
Original Gangstas was directed by Larry Cohen (1996) and is a Blaxploitation film, a type of film genre that cast black actors in low budget films that would target a black audience, which centers on gang violence in Gary, Indiana in the mid 1990’s. The films starts out explaining how the gangs were formed due to the extreme loss of jobs that Gary suffered when many of the steel mills closed. With the lack of jobs many …show more content…
Two macro theories support why the gang growth happened in Gary, Indiana in the 1970’s. The first is social disorganization, when the steel mills closed and residents began moving away to find employment, black youths from Chicago moved into city and formed gangs as a way to have both protection and to commit crimes to garner income. The second is underclass theory, which Wilson (1987) used for the economic instability surrounding Chicago. This theory claim deindustrialization is the cause of gangs forming. First, all those who were able to move out during the economic collapse did, then all that was left were those in the lowest socioeconomic class. Since all the people in the class knew only how to do unskilled labor many were left jobless and then banded together to form gangs. However, according to Moore (1998) immigration could also cause this to happen, if the immigrants could work low skilled jobs for cheaper in than the residential poor. The film does use the thrid step in the the comprehensive, community-wide gang problem model. For much of the movie the local reverend plays tries to play peace keeper between the current gang members and the former gang members. This is the social intervention step which includes using faith-based organization to reach out to gang members (Howell & Griffiths,