Hello, everyone, and welcome to Ministry of Cinema's web series, "Film Genres and Hollywood."
I'm Bradley Weatherholt and I'll be your host on this journey into genre filmmaking.
In this episode, we traverse the dark alleyways and the underworld of the crime film genre.
At its core, the crime genre exposes the vices of ambitious, often street-wise, mostly materialistic,
and always self-destructive heroes and villains.
Set in large, urban areas, these films turn the great American success story on its head.
In a sense, the crime genre answers the American Dream with an American nightmare.
Fatally flawed, the heroes and anti-heroes of these films often confuse the boundaries
of right and wrong, light vs dark, and good guy vs bad guy.
In stark contrast to the Western, where the genre’s early protagonists were almost entirely
honorable and only through the evolution of the genre
did they develop more than single-sided goodness, the protagonists of crime films started out
flawed and ambiguous.
In fact, it is not until the release of D.W. Griffith’s "The Musketeers of Pig Alley" that
the genre truly takes shape.
The film begins with an intertitle: “New York’s Other Side: The Poor;” and then
follows with a few opening shots of Manhattan’s ghetto.
With this opening sequence, Griffith introduced us to an underworld setting that exists in
essentially every crime film since.
What’s more, the film closes by introducing another important theme. In its final shot,
we see a criminal’s hand passing some form of currency to a cop through a partly opened door.
Afterward, the title “Links in the Chain” appears.
This obvious case of corruption provides the genre with the earliest example of its most
significant themes: that the underworld and everyday world are
actually connected.
A decade later, Fritz Lang’s two-part melodrama "Dr. Mabuse, The Gambler" illustrates the exploits
of a sinister, quasi-mystical crime boss.
The popularity of the films helped catapult the developing genre and familiarized the
audience with the criminal underworld.
In 1927, Josef von Sternberg’s "Underworld" would further solidify the underworld theme
as well as help establish another convention of the genre,
that of telling the story from the criminal’s point of view.
One year later, the crime genre had its first sound film.
"The Lights of New York" (1928) helped establish the genre’s tradition of sharp dialogue
and startling sound effects.
However, not until the 1930s, when the scandals and exploits of the Prohibition Era bred a
gang of real-life criminals such as Al Capone, did the genre become entirely mainstream.
Newspaper headlines supplied an endless string of narrative material,
and the crime genre flourished.
Leading Hollywood’s crime film production, Warner Bros. earned a reputation for producing
high quality gangster pictures.
The studio’s success rested on its team of conscripted actors, Edward G. Robinson,
James Cagney, and Humphrey Bogart.
In 1931, Warner Bros. released two gangster masterpieces back to back.
The first of the films, Mervyn LeRoy’s "Little Caesar", told the rise and fall of ambitious,
ruthless Caesar Enrico.
Edward G. Robinson’s lead performance brought to life a ferocious megalomaniac whose lust
for esteem causes his downfall.
The character is one of the best in the genre’s history, establishing Robinson as the first
real gangster star.
Four months later, Warner released "The Public Enemy", its second film in its
gangster one-two punch.
Starring James Cagney as Tom Powers, an arrogant, misogynistic bootlegger, it was his first
film, initiating a long career of one of crime’s
greatest character actors.
In 1932, United Artist responded to Warner Bros with "Scarface: The Shame of a Nation".
Directed by Howard Hawks, the film stars Paul Muni as Tony Clamonte, another canonical gangster
protagonist who self-inflicts his own demise through his fatal flaws.
The film, like the previous crime pictures of Warner Bros., showcased a high level of
violence and misogyny as they sought to shock audiences
through the protagonists’ scandalous lifestyles.
This soon changed with the dawn of the Motion Picture Production Code, a list of ethical
standards commonly referred to as the Hays Code after its chief enforcer,
the president of the Motion Pictures Association of America Will H. Hays.
1938’s "Angels with Dirty Faces" provides an example of the code’s early impact on the genre.
Starring James Cagney, Pat O’Brien and an upcoming Humphrey Bogart, the film is a moralistic
tale of two childhood friends who took different turns in life--one becoming
a criminal, the other a priest.
Through the rise of crime’s most pronounced sub-genre, film noir, Hollywood used visual
metaphor suggestively as a work around the code.
For starters, film noirs have a conspicuous visual style.
Represented by a harsh, low-key lighting scheme, silhouettes, smoke, and stark compositions,
the films stand in blatant contrast to their contemporaries.
Along with a clear visual style, noirs typically shaped narrative elements and character types;
for instance, the conflicted, existential male protagonist or the femme fatale, an archetype
of seductress shadow.
John Huston’s "The Maltese Falcon" provides a fitting starting point for tracing the influence
of film noir.
In the film, private investigator Sam Spade, played by Humphrey Bogart, follows the obsessive
quests of three individuals in pursuit of a falcon statue of mysterious importance.
Many popular film noir tropes appear in the film: the “femme fatale”, the conflicted
protagonist, the innovative lighting scheme, and more.
Also, "The Maltese Falcon" employed another important plot device, that of the Macguffin--
an object or desire which drives the film’s characters despite little explanation or reason.
The Macguffin is commonly used in many genres, particularly the crime genre.
Three years after "The Maltese Falcon", Billy Wilder, one of history’s great studio directors,
released "Double Indemnity", the standard-bearer of future film noirs.
The film, which involves Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck in their insurance fraud
conspiracy, perfectly presented all the necessary elements of the subgenre.
Six year afters "Double Indemnity", Wilder released his other landmark noir, "Sunset Boulevard" (1950).
"Sunset Boulevard" was an introspective look at Hollywood’s inner-workings.
By this time, the subgenres of film noir and screwball comedy had mostly eroded the influence
of the Hays Production Code.
Crime films such as Walsh and Cagney’s "The White Heat" and Fritz Lang’s "The Big Heat"
were able to show a level of violence forbidden up to that point.
By this time, a new director was making his name in Hollywood.
Alfred Hitchcock, famed for his innovative editing and cinematography, psychologically
rich characters, suspenseful narratives, and much more, Alfred Hitchcock would become
the great Hollywood crime director.
Like many film noirs, Hitchcock’s films often featured a “wrong man” protagonist,
generally a normal guy who was inadvertently thrown into the mix of some great conspiracy
or crime.
Unlike the gangsters of earlier crime films, these characters were overtly sympathetic,
played by Hollywood’s most likeable such as Gary Cooper or Henry Fonda.
The most notable of these actors was James Stewart.
The pairing of Hitchcock and Stewart, much like the previous director/actor duos of Huston
and Bogart or Walsh and Cagney, established an entirely new type of crime picture.
In "Rear Window" and "Vertigo", Stewart plays the quintessential Hitchcock protagonist,
sympathetic, noble, but with some physical impairment, whether crippling or vertiginous.
These films are among not only the crime genre’s best, but the best of any genre.
The 1960s mark a changing time in not only the crime genre, but cinema as a whole.
Films like Jean-Luc Godard’s "Breathless" were redefining the rules of filmmaking.
Hollywood adapted with a new set of filmmakers in what would come to be called New Hollywood.
These filmmakers grew up on pictures from Hollywood’s Golden Age as well as films
of the Foreign Wave.
They brought a breath of fresh air to Hollywood, influencing and reinventing every classic genre.
In 1967, Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty starred as Bonnie and Clyde in one of New Hollywood’s
first films, "Bonnie and Clyde".
"Bonnie and Clyde" took a revolutionary approach to sex and violence, flying in the face of
the Hays Code.
The film would open the public up to a new level of mature content, paving the way for
another crime film, "The French Connection" (1971), to become the first R-rated film to win the
Academy Award for best picture.
Just a year later, a completely different crime film would take Best Picture.
"The Godfather", directed by Francis Ford Coppola, and based on Mario Puzo’s novel, hosts one
of the greatest casts of all time, brilliant lighting and camera work,
emotionally rich characters, and an epic narrative.
The film, as well as its sequel, was a critical and box office success, becoming a pop culture
phenomenon with its unforgettable scenes and quotable lines.
"The Godfather" series would catapult the careers of some of the crime genre’s greatest.
Al Pacino, who played cruel, cynical Michael Corleone, would star in several acclaimed
crime pictures.
Reputed for his boundless energy and bursts of anger, Pacino’s on screen personality
contributed to the success of crime films such as "Serpico",
"Dog Day Afternoon", and "Carlito’s Way".
Perhaps his most iconic role, one in which he might be remembered for, even over his
performance as Michael Corleone, was as Tony Montana in Brian De Palma’s "Scarface".
Pacino would later team up with fellow Godfather alumnus Robert DeNiro in Michael Mann’s
1995 thriller "Heat".
DeNiro by this time had become the premier crime actor of his generation, playing an
ambitious, intrepid Italian immigrant in "The Godfather: Part 2"
and Sergio Leone’s "Once Upon a Time in America".
However, perhaps his most notable work came in collaboration with New York director Martin Scorsese.
Beginning in 1973 with "Mean Streets", the collaborationof DeNiro and Scorsese has
spanned decades as one of cinema’s greatest actor/director teams.
Three years after "Mean Streets", Scorsese directed DeNiro in "Taxi Driver", a dark indiosyncratic
picture following the exploits of confused anti-hero Travis Bickle.
If "Taxi Driver" isn’t Scorsese and DeNiro’s greatest collaboration, then that distinction
must go to the pair’s sprawling gangster epic "Goodfellas".
With a mastery of camerawork and character, "Goodfellas" explored the underground of New
York’s gangsters with equal parts humor and intense violence.
Scorsese’s followup to "Goodfellas", the less spectacular "Casino", showcased Joe Pesci and
Robert DeNiro once again in a Las Vegas melodrama involving
the career of Sam Rothstein, casino manager.
After these DeNiro collaborations, Scorsese continued to make crime films.
The director would team up with another actor, Leonardo DiCaprio, in again one of cinema’s
greatest pairings.
Beginning with "Gangs of New York", Scorsese’s new pupil gave a second wind to the later
portion of his career.
Perhaps the duo’s most notable work was "The Departed", a much different type of crime
picture for Scorsese.
Instead of New York, "The Departed" took the setting of South Boston in a sprawling cops
and gangster drama.
"The Departed", a bold, fearless crime picture was only made possible by the innovative gangster
films of the 90’s, particularly those from the radically creative
mind of director Quentin Tarantino.
Tarantino’s first movie, "Reservoir Dogs", highlighted a job-gone-wrong by professional
criminals who turn on each other in a quest to reveal the undercover cop among the group.
After "Reservoir Dogs", Tarantino helmed "Pulp Fiction", a film featuring an entirely new
type of gangster.
With the film’s edgy dialogue, unorthodox plot, and innovative edit, "Pulp Fiction" deconstructed
the crime picture, boldly opening the doors to a new way to approach the genre.
One of the most lasting impacts of "Pulp Fiction" came with the characters.
Historically, the crime picture revolves around a few types of protagonists,
depending on the era.
In its early years, crime largely involved the gangster and his rise and fall from the
criminal underworld to power.
Crime pictures later went through a Mafia phase, where many notable films centered on
wiseguys and mafia bosses.
Now, after the breakthroughs of films like those of Tarantino, crime pictures have expanded
their narratives to different protagonists.
A recent example of this comes with recent crime films focusing on a different kind of
criminal activity, white collar crime.
In films like "The Wolf of Wall Street", the crime genre has been turned on its head, showing
a different type of criminal manipulating capital markets.
After surveying the crime genre’s history, a recurring theme comes to light.
This theme is most obvious in the rise and fall of the gangster.
Through his self-destructive lust for wealth, crime’s prototypical hero provides a stark
critique of capitalism.
Remember, it is a byproduct of modern capitalism, the inner-city slum, that fostered the original
crime protagonist.
In a sense, crime and gangsters are the natural consequences to
capitalism’s exploitation of labor.
To paraphrase Robert Warshaw, the gangster is the “no” to the great American “yes”
which is stamped so largely over our culture.
But it is in their similarities that the criminal provides his sharpest critique of the capitalism.
An old joke asks, what is the crime of robbing a bank compared to the crime of founding one?
More often than not, it is the gangster who shines as the capitalist at his finest--an
ambitious, talented profiteer who understands above all the accumulation of wealth.
Perhaps it is in this day in age--this second gilded age of bankers and bailouts--that the
crime film is needed more than ever.
At its worst, the crime genre exploits the audience’s lust and desire for hyper violence
and scandal.
But at its best, the crime genre reminds us that gangsters reside on both sides of the
law-- and that crime is only a matter of perspective.