The crime genre became popular in the 1930’s and 1940’s and has continued its success through modern day film. Crime films are centered around the underworld of the society, which average civilians are not aware of. It can focus on an insane killer or a group ruling a city through organized crime. The films typically show the dark side of people, but explain the roots of crimes and get the audience to feel for some of the criminals or root against them. Some of the more successful films of this genre are The Godfather, The Goodfellas, and Pulp Fiction. They all follow criminals and their struggles to get all the money they can. Audiences typically enjoy these films because they offer a view of the thrill of breaking the law and the crimes that go on around them.
The crime genre has evolved from a small chase film to the elaborate organized crime in The Godfather. There have been crime films almost since the beginning of film. The Great Train Robbery was one of the first short crime films about a western train robbery. Other earlier crime films began to be shown from the point of view of the criminal, sometimes showing them as the protagonist and the police in a negative way. According to filmsite.org, Lewis Milestone's The Racket was even banned in Chicago for its portrayal of police. As sound was introduced in film, the crime genre became much more realistic. The effect of gun shots and screams of innocent pedestrians added to the quality of film. Also with events going on in the United States such as prohibition and real life mobsters, it gave producers storylines that the audience could connect with. A new style of the crime film was introduced in the 1940’s with film noir. These films showed a dark and ominous side of crime. These films use mostly low-key lighting and included more violence and brutality. As films moved into the fifties, crime films included more organized crime. Directors aimed to show the dark side of society, but also showed how brilliant some criminal minds can be. In the seventies some films showing a detective’s perspective fighting the crime world were produced. Recently, many crime movies have been about insane serial killers and have shown the minds of these savage murderers. In films such as Psycho and Silence of the Lands, the film traces the state of minds of two insane murderers. They also show that some of these killers may seem quite normal, and are actually very calculated in some of their crimes. The crime genre has evolved into many different sub-genres as time has passed.
Three of the great crime film directors are Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorcese, and Quentin Tarrentino. Coppola is the mastermind behind the Godfather trilogy about an Italian mafia family and the happenings in the streets of New York. The Godfather Trilogy shows a lot of violence, but also shows how close a family can become, even through crime. It comments a lot about the Italian-American family’s lifestyle and connection, even through the death of multiple family members. Martin Scorcese directed a number of crime movies also relating to how families are affected by organized crime. Scorcese’s The Goodfellas, Mean Streets, and Casino are all well known crime movies. Quentin Tarrentino takes a slightly more comedic and warped take on the world of crime. In Pulp Fiction he uses a out of order sequence to connect three different crime stories. He adds a lot of humor and blood to his films and has a distinct filmmaking style that makes his films unique. He also directed Reservoir Dogs, a violent heist crime film (filmsite.org). The directors also had a lot of influence on the characters in the films. In the Godfather, Copolla's Italian-America roots helped in the portrayal of the Corleone family. There have been many other crime genre directors that have shaped the genre throughout the years.
There are a few crime movies that are cornerstones of different eras of crime films.
Crime films are very important in film’s diversity because they show are part of society that most people are not familiar with. They can show how tight a family can become under crime, and how smart some criminals can be. The audience can sometimes develop a soft spot for these criminals because of the struggles that they go through. This genre can also branch off into several sub-genres, making for a large variety of crime films. Some of these films are the best of all time and they are continuing to be made
Bibliography
"Crime and Gangster Films." Greatest Films - The Best Movies in Cinematic History. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Dec. 2010.
Sports Sub-genre
The sports sub-genre is a very diverse category. It can be classified in numerous sub-genres or genres, such as fantasy, comedy, drama, melodrama, film noir, or biopic. They typically make an audience feel for a main character or group of people, and follow them through a journey with many challenges. They can eventually end up at the top of a sport, reaching a climactic game against a talented opponent. Sports movies are more recent in popularity, because only in the past few decades have actual sports become so popular.
Sports genres are generally use different lighting to show where characters are at in their progress to be at the top of their game. In a character’s struggle when they are at the bottom just trying to get by, there will often be low key lighting. In Cinderella Man, as Russell Crowes’s character is struggling to support his family after getting knocked out of boxing. When the family is in their depleted house, he lighting is low key and much of the background is black. As he reaches his low point when he can not afford to pay the energy bill, the lighting is so dark that the audience can barely make out the characters. But as he rises and gets back to boxing at a high level, the lighting is much more high key. As he starts to gain money, he returns to a darker neighborhood to look for a missing friend. The lighting again becomes much more low key as he realizes where he was before. He reaches a championship match with bright lights and high key lighting. It is easy to tell where a character is in his or his development as an athlete by looking at the lighting for the scene.
In Field of Dreams, it takes a more fantastical view of the game of baseball. When Kevin Costner is on the field, the film uses very high key and painterly looks because none of the other players are real. But in a documentary film like Invincible, the picture is more linear because it is based on real stories. But oftentimes the picture becomes more painterly during a big game, because the main characters are usually underdogs and it surreal to reach such an important game. In Invincible, when he reaches a real football game, it is high key and painterly because it is surreal for him to be there, as opposed to a linear picture when he is training or working at his job because he is not doing anything special.
Sports films have a very classic format, but can very a lot in between. They utilize lighting throughout the story line to show where the character is at in his or her struggle. Sports films are important to those who maybe were prohibited from living a dream in sports. They are able to live vicariously through the characters in the film, picturing what it could have been like for them. Every kind of person can connect with sports films because sports are played internationally. They accepted and appreciated world-wide.
Buddy Comedy Minor sub-genre
Buddies comedies are some of the best movies to see with that best friend since high school to remind you about all the adventures you have been on. Buddy comedies are typically about two best friends or two people who spend a lot of time together and get up to a lot of shenanigans, ultimately testing their relationship to its limits. It has the friends get into some trouble and sometimes the situation even pulls them apart from each other. In Wedding Crashers, Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson are two best friends who crash weddings to pick up on bridesmaids. They have great times living without boundaries until they hit a rough patch when both of them start to fall in love. They separate for some time, but after spending time apart they realize how much they need each other and come together stronger than ever. These movies usually use high key lighting for most of film because it is a light comedy. Sometimes the two main characters in a buddy comedy are not always great friends. It can be two very different people who are forced into the same situation and must deal with each other while going on an adventure. In the animated feature Shrek, starring Mike Meyers and Eddie Murphy, Shrek and Donkey are two very different personalities that are forced to work together to save a princess. Donkey is the likeable character who believes him and Shrek are friends, while Shrek is not fond of Donkey. By the end of the film the two become closer, which is usually the case in buddy films.
Alien Encounter sub-genre
The Alien Encounter sub-genre usually involves an average human that comes into contact with a being from another world. The creature is almost always feared at first, and eventually they are found to be human-like and very kind. The government always tries to get involved because the alien can be seen as very threatening, while sometimes the protagonist attempts to keep it hidden or tries to rescue it. The classic alien encounter movie is E.T., directed by Steven Spielberg. An extra terrestrial lands on Earth and a young boy finds him and takes him in. Eventually they bond with each other and they build a friendship. When the government comes to take E.T. away to study it, the boy risks his life to help him. It ends with E.T. leaving peacefully after nearly facing death. Sometimes the alien ends up causing havoc on Earth and becomes much bigger than one neighborhood. In Men in Black, a secret program work to keep aliens hidden from society. These aliens are not friendly and usually attempt to kill people. The government wants to keep them a secret because normal civilians always freak out when extra terrestrials are introduced in the world and it ends up being more of a problem. In District 9, the alien invaders are friends but the government treats them poorly and segregates them from normal society. It is always more difficult for people to accept a kind different from themselves and end up excluding them, and this movies comments on that quality of people relating it to racism. That message is very common in alien films. Aliens vary from bloodthirsty killers to friendly explorers, but the people always expect the killer type and try to exterminate them. It is always a controversy whether to kill the aliens or not.
