LO4

Crime
The definition of a crime film would be that they highlight the lives of criminals
and glorifies their criminal activity. They try to make crime films realistic and
often spread the film out to cover the characters life, a crime film means the film
covers themes of crime so you can usually expect to see themes of violence,
drugs and police.
Crime films are aimed at males aged from 20-30 years old, however, I feel that
crime is such an open genre that the wide variety of films manage to target all
ages. For example, films like Reservoir Dogs are aimed at males aged 20-30,
whereas an older film like Goodfellas would target older men, maybe aged 30-40.
Furthermore, the film Gone girl would target women aged 30-40. There are many
subgenres of the crime genre, but in general, I would say the films generally
target younger males.
Television series also target different ages, I think they generally target middle
aged, like 30-40 and mostly females. An example is the programme Broadchurch
that I think targets mostly women from 20-30.
Crime video games target young males, from 16-25 from how the game Grand
Theft Auto consists of driving a car to kill people and having weapons. I know it
targets men because all the characters you have the option to play are male. I
also know that a lot of boys at a similar age to me (16- 18) play video games like
these.
Crime in a TV programme would be similar to films from how it would cover
crime in a dramatic and entertaining way. More commonly, TV series of crime
focus of the point of view of the Police or detectives, rather than the suspects,
such as CSI, Shurlock, Law and Order, Broadchurch, NCIS, The Bill, Luther, The
Mentalist or Silent Witness. These all feature crimes but are filmed from the view
of detectives catching the murderer or criminal as a mystery so the audience has
to guess who did it too. Programmes like Dexter, Breaking Bad, Home land,
Orange is the new black or The Good Wife which focus on the criminals lives
rather than a detective mystery.

Crime can also be displayed in video games such as Grand Theft Auto where the
aim is to steal cars and murder people where you are place within the mind of
the criminal whilst playing it. Other games include true crime streets of LA where
you are put into the mind of the Police detective investigating into crimes and
the Godfather video game where you become the main character of the film as a
gangster.

Whilst playing these games, watching the films and TV programmes we are often
exposed to acts of extreme violence through the murder scenes in all of them
and even virtually committing the crimes first hand in video games.
Crime as a genre is distributed through DVDs, TV programmes and films aired on
TV, Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc. You can watch a crime thriller anywhere,
including from your Phone or computer; the crime genre is very popular and can
be possible to view on most platforms. You could also find a crime thriller genres
in video games, such as The Godfather video game or Gangland which include
violence, guns and weapons so would be distributed with hand-held consoles and
on television or computer. In general I would say it is consumed most on
television as there are a lot of TV programmes, films aired on TV and you would
play video games on a television.
The crime thriller genre has changes over time from the early crime films in the
1920s, like the film Underworld produced in 1927 which is completely different
to a newer crime film that would be produced more recently because this film
was in black and white and a silent film. This differs to newer films like
Goodfellas, produced in 1990 that has colour and uses words rather than being
silent. The newer film has a lot of profanity and violence from scenes of murder
and shootings. The earlier film, Underworld, doesnt have any frightening or
intense violent scenes.
It has obviously changed with production technology, for example, it used to just
be displayed on print through early graphic narratives, to audio, to videos, then
to the digital films that we have today. With technology improving, so have films
obviously because better effects and picture quality makes them look more
realistic and believable to watch.
I think that society has become desensitised to crime from seeing it on the news,
in the papers, online and now on our mobile phones. Crime and violence in real
life has become more extreme so the violence on our TV screens need to do the
same to keep up with it and keep it realistic. However, it is debatable whether
extreme violence is stemmed from society copying what they see in TV or films
or whether TV, film and video games are copying what society does from reports
in the news. This is up for debate but TV shows are more graphic now compared
to the 1950s because this is what society wants to see, they like being shocked
by films. Some of the most violent or shocking films are most popular, such as
the crime, western thriller, No Country for Old Men which was given very high
reviews and is considered a classic but features many scenes of violent shootings
and dead bodies. Furthermore, Tarantinos films like Pulp Fiction are crime but
made with comedic value, such as when they drive in the car and he accidentally
shoots the boy in the back seat. Blood is splattered everywhere and they act
quite casual about it, bickering about who is responsible for accidentally killing
the boy. The way the characters have no remorse for murdering someone and sit
in the blood as if nothing happened gives the idea to society that shooting
someone is not shocking or a crime.

I personally think that when films were first being produced, people werent
influenced by the crime shown or desensitised by it because they didnt show
much violence at all. There was more violence happening in reality than shown in
films, as violence in society changed when guns were more widely used, I think
violence was shown more in films, consequently films copied the actions of
society. Contrastingly now, I think that film and TV has overtaken the crime in
real life and become more extreme, so now society is influenced by film instead.
I feel as though the violence in films have got increasingly worse as the public
becomes desensitised to violence so it takes more intense violence to shock
them; in the 1927 film, Underworld the is basically no violence shown at all, then
in the 1990 film, Goodfellas, one of the first scenes we see is a violent shot of a
brutal stabbing.
Crime films seem to be inspired by recent events and there might be films on
crimes shown in the news. The early crime films often featured robberies, or the
film Traffic in Souls in 1913 which was about slavery (something that would
never happen today). Today, crime films or dramas are more commonly about
murder or rape crimes because they are more common today than an issue like
slavery which wouldnt occur as much. The first film to include the conventions of
crime films that we know of today was Underworld in 1927 because it was filmed
from a gangsters point of view in a mob and showed a bad representation of the
police so was banned in Chicago, now this is quite common in crime films. There
are often some films created to remake real life crimes, for example the film
Captain Phillips which was created in 2013 and based on the real incident in
2009. The film is about a boat being captured and hijacked by Somali pirates,
this is a crime that is a lot more recent, and you wouldnt see an old crime about
a boat being hijacked by pirates. In addition, you wouldnt have seen people
driving peoples cars, then hijacking others and killing people like we see now in
Grand Theft Auto because in the very early films or media, they wouldnt have
had real cars, people would be transported in horse and cart. This shows that
crime films are constantly updating with society as real crimes are changing too.
The genre has changed over time as it has varied through types of crime
programmes, from parodies and spoofs or crimes through dark comedies, such
as the film In Bruges which focuses on two hit men and whilst touching some
deep and serious themes, it is made to be a funny film with many jokes. There
arent many parody video games, but the programme Brooklyn 99 is a crime
drama but is also a comedy and almost a parody of the serious crime dramas like
Silent Witness. In my opinion this genre will never experience obsolescence
because it seems to always be popular and never go out of fashion. I feel there is
often a need for the crime genre in films or TV series and people always want to
pretend to commit crimes in video games as people are interested to do things
they are not allowed to do it reality as it makes it more exciting as it is something
most people wouldnt ever do in reality in their lifetime.

Characters
Conventionally in crime films, they include a male character as a gangster
narrating the film rather than female gangster characters. The criminals have
often had a difficult life with a rough or poor upbringing and their family dont

care about them or didnt give them the attention they would seek growing up.
This bad upbringing is often blamed by the character for their reason to commit
crimes. The other characters featured in films are often male and have the same
upbringing as the protagonist and maybe in the same gang or situation; they are
normally rude or outspoken and aggressive to strangers they meet. The
detective has often had a better upbringing and often male.
In crime TV programmes I would say there is a balance between male and female
characters, however one might say that that more commonly the murderers are
male and the chief detectives are male rather than female, however, I have seen
both male and female murderers and main detectives in TV series. I feel that in
TV series, they often make the murderers a range of characters because the
series cover more than one crime so it would get boring if it were the same
character every time.
In crime video games there are often a male protagonist rather than a female.
For example in the crime video game Grand Theft Auto, you can only play a male
character that drives cars and shoots people and the women in the game are
dresses promiscuously or are strippers. This shows the different views of genders
and how people believe only males are capable of committing crime.
Costumes
The costumes are not too dramatic or over exaggerated but they would select
costumes to suit the characters background or personality. If it is a crime film
about someone poor, from a rough background they might be wearing very
informal clothes like tracksuits. Examples are in the film Snatch, the character of
Mickey ONeil, played by Brad Pitt who lives on a trailer park and wears tracksuits
in the film, demonstrated in the example below. Contrastingly, in other crime
films with people who might have more money or who have come from a
wealthier background would wear smart clothing, like in The Godfather, the
character Don Vito Corleone is in the mafia and always wears a formal suit.

In crime TV series, they are often from the point of view of the police or
detectives who usually wear uniforms or are smartly dressed for their work.
Examples are in Silent witness they dress to suit their job, as demonstrated
below with the characters in white uniforms because they work as forensic
scientists. The second example of the programme Broadchurch shows the two
characters dressed formally in suits because they are detectives so their jobs
require them to dress smartly.

The characters in crime video games wear any different types of clothing
depending on the game but I have seen many that wear normal, everyday,
casual clothing such as GTA. This might be because people are more likely to be
able to relate to normally dressed characters, rather than those in fancy clothing.
You can see from the example below that they dress in a casual attire, equipped
with weapons because they relate to the crime genre and the aim of the game. I
have noticed that women in the same video game are dressed in very
promiscuous and revealing outfits which I think is to suit the target audience of
young men by making them want to play by using womens sex appeal to allure
men to play the game. I think this is sexist because the only use of women in this
game is sex, suggesting that women contribute nothing else and that men are
the only gender than can play the game from the male characters.

Codes and conventions

Codes and conventions of a crime thriller might be that the characters are known
to consume alcohol or drugs, use weapons like guns or knives, police trying to
arrest them, a character attending a party or rave, the main character is often a
gangster that is male rather than female who will face many struggles and fights
with other characters. There is known to be a violent face off towards the end,
deaths of characters and money is often the main motive for crimes.
The codes and conventions havent particularly changed with time because they
usually feature at least some of the conventions I listed. This might suggest that
people like the conventional crime films so there is not much need for change,
but I definitely think elements of crime films are changing, such as
representations, the crimes committed and gender roles.

Narrative
The typical narrative structure of a crime film or TV programme could either be
linear or non-linear. However, I have seen many cases where they are nonlinear
because they start with the murder scene, then the next scene is way before the
murder and it leads up to it as the audience knows what is going to happen
before the characters.

There is always a build up throughout the film and a climax at the end where the
audience discovers a hidden truth, e.g. who the killer is in Broadchurch or Silent
Witness. The climax can often be a plot twist like the surprising ending at the end
of Fight Club where you find out a much unexpected hidden truth about the main
character that changes the whole film.
Often the structure of TV series are multi-strand because they produce a few
episodes to build the tension and make people feel connected to the series as
they watch once a week or every day.
The narrative structure hasnt particularly changed over time but the structures
used to be linear before film developed and they experimented with different
narrative structures. E.g. the early film Scarface had a linear structure, but the
newer film Pulp Fiction has a non-linear structure because the scenes arent in
chronological order so you find out what happens in the future, then you see the
past and have to put the scenes together to conclude what is happening. Apart
from this, I would say the structures have generally stayed the same.

Representations
The representations of gender in the genre of crime in early film is that the males
all carry guns, they all fight one another and deal or take a lot of drugs, whereas
the females only use is to please the man. It was often suggested that women
are a prize to men or an object they can show off, similarly to how they would
show off an impressive gun or suit. Men are the businessmen and women are
perceived as gold diggers who live to spend the mans money or stay at home.
None of the female roles were too large compared to the male roles.
In the 1932 film, Scarface you can see that the male is what you would expect in
a typical crime film from earlier years. You can see he is wearing a suit which
shows he is relatively wealthy and suggests he is part of the mafia. The role of
the woman is quite limited as the womans role is quite small in this film and as
you can see, the woman in the example below looks as though she has to dress
glamorously to impress the men.

For example, in the film Scarface, the woman in the film, Elvira Hancock, played
by Michelle Pfeiffer. Her role is more dominant than the 1932 film so gender
roles had changes slightly. She marries the main character; this is all she does in
the film, apart from her heavy drug use, demonstrating that the only role of
women in older films is to serve the man.
The remake of Scarface was produced in 1983. The male in this film Tony
Montana, played by Al Pacino demonstrates the representation of males because

his character is the main character, a drug dealer and part of the Mafia, he is
seen to get into trouble frequently with the law and use lots of weapons.

In the 1990s I think gender roles in crime films were still quite bad; the film The
Wolf of Wall Street shows how the man still controls the woman. The character of
Naomi starts out to be quite successful because she tells us she has her own
businesses, but then she ends up seducing the man, marrying him and living off
his money. I feel that when she stands up to him at the end and divorces him
shows that the power roles had changed slightly at that time as she played him
by leaving him and taking his money. The male is a strong powerful role from all
his money, but the film makes fun of him slightly showing the difference in
gender roles as it is a recent film. It is set in the 90s but doesnt have too much
violence from the male, there are some scenes of fighting but not too many
murders.

In more recent films I feel the gender roles have changed. Women are given
bigger roles of more importance than just seducing or serving the man. An
example is the film Gone Girl. I think the woman has the most power because
she manipulates her family, friends, her husband and even police. This new film
shows that women can lead the same lives as men and capable of committing
the same crimes or having the same intelligence and dont need to dress
promiscuously to get through life as you can see in the example below. Now,
women are seen as just as capable of committing crimes as men are, such as
how Amy in Gone Girl is the evil character who murders people when the man in
the film is a lot more weak and less cunning. In earlier films women would never
commit the crimes, then later they would only very occasionally be the murderer
compared to the amount of male criminals.

In TV series representations have changed from the 1920s to now. The earliest
crime drama broadcasted on television is the programme Dragnet. This was
about the character Sgt. Joe Friday and how he follows clues to discover the
mysteries behind crimes. This featured a typical looking detective in a suit
solving crimes. The series barely features any female characters, which shows
the difference between early television and recent television because now
females are dominant in lots of television programmes.

Newer TV crime programmes are very different to the previous example because
women are included a lot more in newer programmes. For example, the recent
programme Orange is the New Black is centred on women who have committed
crime, rather than the expected male characters you might expect to see,
especially in a prison. Instead of females playing the damson in distress,
women are seen creating the crimes.

Representations in crime video games are that every other person is a target for
violence. Obviously I cant compare this to early crime video games because
crime games are still very new so they wouldnt vary too much. Grand Theft Auto
represents men as strong and undefeatable and women as weak and an object.
As I mentioned before, the games objective is to basically kill lots of people in a
car which is a typical message from video games. Also in this particular game,
only being able to play a man suggests that women arent able enough to fight
with them and their only use is to look nice. This is shown in the photo example
of the different representations of gender.

I feel that a lot of the representations mentioned shows the strong issue society
has with stereotyping and in particular gender equality. However, it also tells us
that although sexism is still an issue, shown by the video game, it is continuing
to improve.