Film Crime
...recognizable patterns, techniques or conventions that include one or more of the following: setting, content, themes, plot, motifs, styles, structures, situations, characters, and stars (filmsite.org and notes). There are many categories of film genre. These categories can cover practically any film ever made by man, although film categories can never be precise. By isolating the various elements in a film and categorizing them in genres, it is possible to easily evaluate a film within its genre and allow for meaningful comparisons and some judgements on greatness. Some genres are considered period-specific, occurring primarily in one time period. One such example is film noir (filmsite.org).
One specific type of film genre is the crime and gangster genre. These films are developed around the actions of criminals and/or gangsters. They are often based around bank robbers or ruthless hoodlums who disobey the law. They make their way through life by stealing and murdering people. There are many ways to identify crime and gangster films. A few ways to do so is to look at the story line and characters(randomhouse.com).
Crime stories in this genre often highlight or glorify the rise and fall of a particular criminal (s), gang, bank robber, murderer
or lawbreakers in personal power struggles or conflict with the law and order figures, or rival gang. Real-life gangsters and crime reports are often the basis for many crime and gangster films.
A significant plot characteristic in these films is often a rivalry with other criminals in gangster warfare. These plots include questions to how the criminal is going to apprehended by the law. According to Horatio Alger gangster films are morality tales. They are stories in which the criminal lives in an inverted dream world of success and wealth. Although criminals are doomed to fail and an...
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