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The impact on society the mafia has
Mafia on society
Mafia on society
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Realism and Idealism for the Godfather
I will never forget what I felt when I first seen my first mobster movie, I was about 12 years old, it was real late at night and I just could not fall asleep. I was flipping the channels looking for something to watch, and that is when I encountered my first mobster movie. I was intrigued from beginning to end; it was like nothing I had ever seen before. The way they talked so confident and cool to the way they looked so sharp and sophisticated. Although they were ruthless criminals, they had certain respectability towards them that no body could deny. Even though I was young and didn’t quite understand all of the scenes I became infatuated with the movie the Godfather and went on to seeing a couple of other popular films like Goodfellaz, Casino, and Once upon a time in America. It is almost unreal how one movie can have such a big influence on your life, but I truly believe that after that day, something inside of me changed, and I began to grow an overwhelming passion for these types of films. It was like discovering a completely new world you never knew existed.
What draws people to mobster films like the Godfather? Hollywood’s gangster stereotype does what we would not dare, and acts like no body we know. They do not care about nobody but their selves and do anything they want, or at least think they can. That is what infatuates people with gangster and mafia films, because people secretly want to experience this lifestyle without being punish like the gangsters in the movies. The gangster film is particularly popular in America. Its popularity might be because of the history and actual real life stories of the mob. However, what Hollywood does is take the underworld culture and turn it into the stereotypical story. One stereotype is all mafias having to be Italian. Some people get the impression that all Italians are in the mafia. Movies can have an impact on society and culture, after the release of the Godfather, many Italian American criminals began to sound like the characters in the film, in taped recordings of their conversations. The film gangster’s stereotypical mold that they are usually materialistic, street smart, immoral, tough, and self-destructive. Their main goal in life is for power and money because they have an ambitious desire for success and recognition in life, but sometimes underneath all ...
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...s, bank robbers, underworld figures, or ruthless hoodlums who operate outside the law, stealing and murdering their way through life. The misunderstandings that lead to bloodbaths, the little arguments that start wars, the girlfriend who wants her man to go legit, all are given in some movies that often finds a great reason for us to want to see what happens next. What differentiates mobsters with every day criminals is the respectability they receive from society, and the associations they have with legitimate people in upper level authority. Mobsters usually have connections with mayors, senators, police officers, and any one in a higher level that they do business with to let them operate. So when you really think about it, which is worse, the mobsters or the legitimate people who secretly work with them?
Mobster movies are unique unlike any other movie out there, mobster movies pull you in to them and make you feel what the person is feeling, it makes you live what the person is living and makes you see things through their eyes. That is the magic of making movies it is a way of connecting with the viewers in a special kind of way. That is what these types of films create.
The characters in these films were savvy, secretive and wealthy unlike the gangsters seen in Little Caesar and Scarface: The Shame of the Nation. Brian De Palma’s Scarface (1983) payed homage to the original, and although they follow roughly the same storyline, De Palma’s remake is more reminiscent of The Godfather films than its predecessor. Tony Montana (Al Pacino), the film’s main character, worked his way up from poverty by selling drugs and committing horrifying acts of violence in order to attain the power, wealth and woman he so desired. In his 1983 review of Scarface, Pulitzer prize winner, Roger Ebert states “Al Pacino does not make Montana into a sympathetic character, but he does make him into somebody we can identify with, in a horrified way, if only because of his perfectly understandable motivations” (RogerEbert.com). More than fifty years later, Ebert expresses similar thoughts to those of Robert Warshow, esteemed film critic and author of “The Gangster as a Tragic Hero.” “…We [the audience] gain the double satisfaction of participating vicariously in the gangster’s sadism and then seeing it turned against the gangster himself.” (Warshow) These sentiments are exactly what the censorship of the 1932 version intended to prevent, yet Scarface (1983) did not receive the same scrutiny. Despite the mixed reviews that Howard Hawk’s original Scarface: Shame of the Nation and Brian De Palma’s
In film, many times the auteur often uses the medium to convey a moral or make a social commentary. In the case of Howard Hawkes’s original version of Scarface, there is more being portrayed through the characters then merely the story. Hawkes makes a statement about the façade of organized crime, and the farce of the American Dream.
Al Capone, America’s most prominent Mafia figure in the 1920’s, also known as “Scarface” for a scar running down his left cheek. Capone didn’t hide in the shadows like most figures in such a shady occupation. He didn’t shy away from the camera, more like he welcomed it, and aimed to be seen by the public as a respectable businessman and a pillar of the community. Surprisingly, Capone wasn’t from a distinctly poor community, his father earned a living as a barber. Capone was introduced to the gang life by a friend and from there it all went downhill and into the life of a gangster.
The gangster genre within films in America has accomplished numerous positive criticisms and constant willing audiences due to containing outstanding spectacles and mind-blowing action. The Godfather, being second on the IMDb Top 250 Movies, has set a new popular concept to life within the Mafia from their point of view. Doing so, creating a positive association. Yet within Italy, the same topic contains a complete different view. Movies such as I Cento Passi demonstrate unenthusiastic view by those whom are outside yet negatively affected by those members. Unlike American films, the gangsters are not as often viewed at the protagonist and are the main causes for the problematic events. But how different is Italian Mafia and American Mafia in cinema?
Another common theme of this wildly intoxicated era was that of the gangsters. In the twenty-first century when the word gangster is uttered, often times images of minorities in baggy clothes comes to mind. However, when discussing the Prohibition Era the lives of gangsters are seen as much more glamorous, and none were more glamorous than that of the ultimate American gangster, Al “Scarface” Capone. Capone’s name brings to mind images of pinstripe suits, underground bars, bootleggers, flappers, and gun fights. His image embodies that of the Prohibition Era and his influence throughout society carries through it. Alphonse Capone is the ultimate American gangster.
The word mob or mafia is a title that is often heard. When the name Capone is
Something else that surprised me was the competition between the gangs, who could give the most flowers and give the most lavish funerals to the men they killed from the opposite side of town. Al Capone was a very ruthless killer but he still had style, a certain classy air about him.
The Godfather is the “dark-side of the American dream story” (Turan, pp2). The film follows the practices of a fictional Italian mafia family, the Corleone’s. Though most Americans do not condone the practices of the Italian mafia, they cannot deny that Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather is a cinematic masterpiece. This film gave insight to a mysterious way of life that the average person does not have knowledge of. As the audience is educated about the mafia they also are introduced to many stereotypes.
The Mafia is a secret criminal organization that has great economic and political control over large parts of Sicilian society and operates both criminal and legitimate enterprises in the United States. It is believed to have started during Sicily's late Middle Ages, beginning as separate bonds of strong-arm enforcers hired by local landowners. It eventually evolved into a network of independent groups governing in rural areas. With the Sicilian immigration of the late 19th century, the Mafia began to operate in several large United States cities. During the period of Prohibition it monopolized the trade in bootleg liquor and controlled loan sharking, gambling, and prostitution. Competing Mafia families established mutually recognized territories, reaching agreement by negotiation or by intimidation. By the mid-1930 the Mafia had taken on the institutionalized structure that is now typical of organized crime in the United States.
The Mafia way of life may seem like a romantic updated version of the western movie played out on the streets of the big cities where the good guys and the wise guys who share the same instincts and values do battle before an enthralled public but it is actually very different. The Mafia is really just a group of uneducated thugs making money by victimizing the public. Initially, the Mafia was setup as a prominent supplier of bootlegged liquor, but it has spread into many different areas of crime. During this research paper I will discuss three aspects of the Mafia which are crime, structure and decline in leadership.
The Mafia is an Italian secret criminal society. The Mafia, or syndicate, impacts cities all around the world. Most of the effects of the Mafia are negative, but there can be several positive effects on the culture and economy of the cities in which it frequents.
The Godfather is most notably one of the most prolific films of its time. This "gangster" film displayed many transformations of permeating color to give the viewer observable cues in its mise en scene that drew one right into the movie. The dramatic acting set the tone of the film with a score that lifted the viewer right out of their seat in many scenes. The directing and cinematography made The Godfather ahead of its time. The nostalgic feel of family importance and the danger of revenge lets us into the life of the Mafia. Even though no other techniques would have given the viewer a feeling of inside the mob like the mise en scene of the power the godfather held, the characters are reinforced literally and figuratively because the story views the Mafia from the inside out, and the cinematography of the film gives it a dangerous and nostalgic feel.
For example the release of The Godfather, while considered by many to be one of the best movies of all time, also created a host of prejudice and negative stereotypes. Italian Americans gained a reputation for organized crime and were often associated by the public as mobsters. This paradox was greatly supported by the movie, The Godfather (Fordham). The success of this movie innately resulted in other films and shows that encouraged the negative stereotypes of Italian Americans in regards to the mafia and organized crime. Italian American fought these stereotypes back with media releases that romanticize Italian culture. For example, movies that involve large family dynamics that create, “deep-seated nostalgia for the ‘old neighborhood’” and enhance the appreciation for Italian culture and combat negative stereotypes
The Gangster Genre as a Creation of the Necessity to Promote Civic Responsibility and Social Contentment With Ones Society
Crime has been around since the beginning of time. Few, have made it a profession. The mafia has been influencing politics, economy, and assassinations of high officials. Although they weren’t good people, they influenced America in more ways than most people know. Sneaking mobsters in our government to spread corruption, destroying rival businesses, and assassinating nation’s leaders are just some of the few things the mafia has done to America.