History of Gangster movies

• Gangster film were invented and became

very popular in the 1930’s but at the time
this genre of film was also related to film
noir and Mob films. This genre of film
originated from the US but later came to
Britain.
 Film 1
• Kidulthood 2006
• Kidulthood is a 2006 British drama film about the life of
several teenagers in Ladbroke Grove and Latimer Road
area of inner west London. It was directed by Menhaj
Huda and written by Noel Clarke, who also stars in the
film and directed the sequel Adulthood.
 Film 2
• Scarface 1983
• Scarface (1983) follows gangster Tony Montana and his
close friend Manny Ray from their trip on the Cuban Boat
Lift for refugees to their arrival in Miami. After killing a
powerful Cuban figure, Tony Montana and company gain
the ability to leave their refugee camps and roam around
the U.S. After unsuccessfully trying to make it
legitimately in the country, Tony Montana and Ray resort
to selling cocaine to dealers around the world. Tony’s
rise is quick, but as he becomes more powerful, his
enemies and his own paranoia begin to plague his
empire.
 Film 3
• Once upon a time in America 1984
Epic, episodic, tale of the lives of a small group of New York
City Jewish gangsters spanning over 40 years. Told mostly
in flashbacks and flash-forwards, the movie centers on
small-time hood David ‘Noodles’ Aaronson and his lifelong
partners in crime; Max, Cockeye and Patsy and their friends
from growing up in the rough Jewish neighbourhood of New
York’s Lower East Side in the 1920s, to the last years of
Prohibition in the early 1930s, and then to the late 1960s
where an elderly Noodles returns to New York after many
years in hiding to look into the past.
 Film 4
Casino 1995
This Martin Scorsese film depicts the Janus-like quality of
Las Vegas–it has a glittering, glamorous face, as well as
a brutal, cruel one. Ace Rothstein and Nicky Santoro,
mobsters who move to Las Vegas to make their mark,
live and work in this paradoxical world. Seen through their
eyes, each as a foil to the other, the details of mob
involvement in the casinos of the 1970′s and ’80′s are
revealed. Ace is the smooth operator of the Tangiers
casino, while Nicky is his boyhood friend and tough
strongman, robbing and shaking down the locals.
However, they each have a tragic flaw–Ace falls in love
with a hustler, Ginger, and Nicky falls into an ever-
deepening spiral of drugs and violence.
 Film 5
• Mean Streets 1973
• In a series of character-led incidents set against the
background of New York City’s Little Italy, we follow the
life of Charlie, a small-time member of the wise guy
community who collects protection money. His friends
Tony and Michael are part of the community, but his
other friend Johnny Boy is unreliable and therefore must
be shunned. Charlie’s secret girlfriend Teresa has
epilepsy, and so must also be shunned. When Charlie’s
uncle Giovanni offers him a restaurant – the first step up
the ladder – Charlie is forced to choose between his
desire for power, his love for Teresa and his duty to
protect his friend Johnny Boy.