American Gangster Cinema From 'Little Caesar' to 'Pulp Fiction'

by Mason, Fran

• ISBN13: 9780333684665
• ISBN10: 0333684664
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-02-08
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Much analysis of gangster movies has been based upon a study of the gangster as a malign figuration of the American Dream, originally set in the era of the Depression. This text extends previous analysis of the genre by examining the evolution of gangster movies from the 1930s to the contemporary period and by placing them in the context of cultural and cinematic issues such as masculinity, consumerism, and technology. With a close examination of many films from Scarface an Public Enemy to Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, this book provides a fascinating insight into a topical and popular subject.

Author Biography

Fran Mason is Field Leader of Contemporary Cultural Studies and Teacher of Film and Cultural Studies, King Alfred's College of Higher Education, Winchester.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Acknowledgements	viii
A Chronology of the Gangster Film	ix
Introduction	xiii
Modernity and the Classic Gangster Film	1	(30)
Silent and early sound contexts for the `classic' cycle	1	(4)
The `classic' cycle in its critical context	5	(3)
Little Caesar: an untypical `classic'	8	(5)
The gangster and modernity	13	(3)
The Public Enemy: modernity, space, and masculinity	16	(6)
The gangster and the gang	22	(2)
Scarface: everything to excess	24	(4)
Repressing modernity: the studios and the Hays Office	28	(3)
The Post-Code Gangster: Ideology and Social Conscience	31	(20)
The return of ideology: the G-Man and early post-moratorium variations	32	(7)
The social gangster	39	(8)
`He used to be a big shot': The Roaring Twenties, history, modernity, and the gangster	47	(4)
The Death of the Big Shot: the Gangster in the 1940s	51	(21)
Early variations of the 1940s	53	(1)
High Sierra: re-visiting and renewing the genre	54	(6)
Revisiting the family plot	60	(3)
The post-war big shot	63	(9)
Outside Society, Outside the Gang: the Alienated Noir Gangster	72	(25)
Post-war transitions: film noir's cultural and cinematic context	72	(2)
Film noir and its discourses	74	(3)
Gangsters and film noir	77	(2)
The emasculated male in early gangster noir	79	(8)
From small gangs to big business	87	(7)
Late gangster noir: the triumph of technology	94	(3)
Order and Chaos, Syndicates and Heists	97	(23)
Heists: rationalised gangs and fragmented individuals	98	(7)
Syndicates and rogue cops: un-American visions	105	(15)
Nostalgia and Renewal in the Post-Classical Gangster Film	120	(21)
From retro to modern: gangsters in the 1960s	122	(7)
The gangster film as epic: The Godfather trilogy	129	(7)
Gangsters on the margins: the gangster--loser film and blaxploitation	136	(5)
The Postmodern Spectacle of the Gangster	141	(24)
The gangster film in the 1980s	142	(4)
Postmodern inflections	146	(5)
Postmodern gangsters: spectacle and simulation	151	(3)
The `gangsta' film: spectacle and urban realism	154	(3)
Fantasies of escape: Carlito's Way and True Romance	157	(3)
Pulp Fiction and after: postmodern gangsters or postmodern film	160	(5)
Notes	165	(5)
Bibliography	170	(6)
Index	176