Mob film

looking at similarities between Gomorra and the film Mama Romma by Pasolini, it seems important to look at the parallels between characters, especially young men and their involvement with crime. This parallel is exceptionally present when considering Ettore from Mama Romma and then Marco and Ciro from Gamorra. To begin with, both of these films end with the same kind of tragedy: the death of these young men. Therefore, it seems that both of these films intend to leave audiences with the similar…

Popular With Film Critics Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino 1994) is an iconic film widely viewed and applauded by critics in its time. The interweaving stories of the hitmen, the diner thieves, the boxer, and the mob boss’ wife continue to be entertaining and relevant to this very day. Throughout their tales of murder, drugs, double crossing, and love, the character’s stories mesh to create the film masterpiece widely viewed and enjoyed by critics. Today, the popularity of the film…

Wise Guys and Weaponry: How to Make a Great Crime Film For decades, individuals have had chills sent down their spines as they watched suspenseful action crime films. The Godfather and Goodfellas are just two of these popular and commonly known crime action films. Both of these movies are based on organized crime committed by Italian mafia members and are told in first person by the perspective of the main mafia characters, Henry Hill in The Godfather and Michael Coreleone in Goodfellas. By…

Tarantino uses violence in films in a way that nobody would dare to attempt or recreate. He will also go down in history as one of the most unique, creative directors of all time. Tarantino gives violence more of a meaning then just blood and gore, but depth of why people are violent. Mark Conrad wrote an essay entitled “Symbolism, Meaning, and Nihilism in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction” which explores the idea of a deeper layer underneath the violence in these films. Tarantino creates a world…

The Departed is a Martin Scorsese film released in 2006 (The Departed). While it may appear to be just another mob movie in a sea of mobster noir films, it’s a contemporary crime drama that hinges on thriller as well. The film is set in modern times on the south side of Boston, and the characters are keen to remind everyone of that fact, making the setting of the south side a prominent point throughout the film. It starts with an almost benevolent Frank Costello, expertly played by Jack…

Of some of the many early films, Frankenstein (James Whale, 1931), can be noted for its impact on film history as being one of the first films of its kind. This new genre of film inspired many more films to come in the Universal Hollywood film era. One distinguished area of Frankenstein is its strong ties to German Expressionism, which called for a new ways of cinema. This new wave of Cinema was noted for its “great burst of artistic activity” (TEXTBOOK). In Frankenstein the use of this…

loyalties. The fierce tension, realistic car chases through Nice and Paris along with the Cold War spy craft convolute the plot which centers on a mysterious briefcase. The briefcase turns out to be a MacGuffin which is “an object, event, or character in a film or story that serves to set and keep the plot in motion despite unusually lacking intrinsic importance” (Merriam-Webster). Ronin is a rough and serious thriller that reminds us of a Seventies action thriller such as Dirty Harry. The main…

drugs; he was a gangster, who transported drugs from Bangkok in the Vietnam War to the east cost of the United States. Frank Lucas was not just and old street-pharmacist, he was smart he had people working for him, people on his side, like the war, the mob, but most of all his family. He got his money up and had his family had his family move from North Carolina over to New Jersey, in a big white house, this way his brothers could work for him and his clientele would increase and he would save…

Brother, Where Art Thou? was made in 2000 and is about three escaped prisoners on the hunt for some buried treasure. These men experience a great deal of adversity during their hunt including being returned to prison, a Ku Klux Klan mob, and a flood. Unlike many of the other films I have watched during the course of this class, this movie possessed a large amount of diegetic music. The type of music seemed to fit the movie well because of the comedic tone throughout. The first song heard in the…

A group of seven misfits comes together to save a town from an evil, money seeking man in the film The Magnificent Seven directed by Antoine Fuqua. James Horner and Simon Franglen’s film score in The Magnificent Seven transported me back to the old west. Horner and Franglen effectively utilized the unique timbres of select instruments, texture, and foreshadowing making the audience feel as if they are riding along side the misfits, a character in the story experiencing all that unfolds on the…