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Representation of Urban spaces in Crime and Mafia films:

Gender and Ethnicity

Film scholarship has explored the issues of space and spatiality in crime films in

many exciting ways, one of which is the relationship between women in mafia films and

sociocultural spaces (real or the imagined) in the city.

“In Sicily, women are more dangerous than shotguns (The Godfather, 1972).” This

statement taken literally would rather seem absurd and Mario Puzo, the writer of the book

which was later turned into the film ‘The Godfather’ (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972; USA),

would definitely not want one to take it that way. However it is the perfect depiction of

women as femme fatale or a man-eater in some genres of film. Women have been

perceived in different lights in various genres of film in relation to space, time and

transition, one of which is the genre of crime. Crime, which is deemed to be a masculine

domain, has been a topic of common discourse. “As a cultural object that has historically

opened itself to topical issues and contemporary environments, the crime film invites us to

look at it as both a distinct form and as a from open to being shaped by social historical and

urban forces (Holmes, p.13)”. These films have been a subject of critique in terms of their

misogynistic trends, violence and propagation of stereotypes; however, there has been little

to no work on the depiction of urban spaces in mafia films, a sub genre of crime. This

paper specifically aims at looking at the representation of urban spaces in crime and mafia

films in terms of gender and ethnicity, by analyzing screen texts from both western and

eastern cinema.
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Urban spaces have been mapped on screen in several different ways in crime

films. Space is not only gendered and segregated but there is also a very clear divide

amongst the private and public spheres. For instance in mainstream mafia films home is

shown to be a place for a woman and the street is for a man where he indulges in his

criminal activity. This has been depicted in old mob classics like ‘The Godfather’ (Francis

Ford Coppola, 1972; USA), ‘Once Upon a Time in America’ (Sergio Leone's, 1984; USA)

and also in new screen narratives such as ‘Narcos’ (Andy Baiz, 2015-2017; USA) and

Bollywoods ‘Haseena Parker’ (Aproova Lakhia, 2017; India).

The urban spaces in mafia films include cars and highways, motels, empty parking

lots, diners, bars, dark alleys, police headquarters, the street and the urban house. There is a

well-defined disparity between the private and the public, the personal and the business,

the powerful and the feeble etc.

Women; however, are seen to be absent from all of these places, which makes it

evident that spaces in the crime genre are more or less gendered. ‘Home’, which is seen as

a safe space for women and a private sphere that keeps them out of the criminal world. The

difference between the dinner table and business has been stressed upon repeatedly in

mafia films. Dinner table is seen as a space for the family and women. In ‘The Godfather’

(1984) Don Corleone, played by Marlon Brando, refuses to talk about business when

Sonny (James Caan) brings it up on the dinner table. In another instance Michael, played

by Al Pacino, visits an apartment for some business dealing and there are three girls on the

table. He takes Fredo (John Cazale) to the side and tells him to “get rid of the girls”

because he wants to “talk business”. This depicts that women are not supposed to be in the

business sphere, which in mafia films is a place where criminal activities take place. This

also promulgates the stereotype that a dinner table located within the bounds of the house
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is a safe space for women, who should be kept away from the world of crime. Furthermore,

another thing that questions the whole idea of safe spaces in the crime genre is criminal

activities invading the private sphere. A bedroom, which is considered a safe haven for

women, is where they have to undergo activities of domestic violence. This is illustrated in

‘The Godfather’ wherein pregnant Connie Corleone (Talia Shire), the Don’s daughter, is

being beaten by her husband and rushes to her bedroom; however, that bedroom doesn’t

provide her the safety it supposedly should.

The private sphere does not prove to be safe space for a women and part of the

reason is that the public domain invades it. For instance in the films, ‘The Godfather’

(1972) and ‘Haseena Parker’ (2017), private spaces are attacked which eventually results

in the loss of life. This shows that the public sphere invades the private home. Wilson in

support of this asserts in ‘The Invisible Flaneur' that the, “private sphere was and is a

masculine domain; it was organized for especially around the dinner tables (Wilson,

1995).” This promulgates the idea that women are seen to be taking a backseat even in the

private sphere. In ‘The Godfather, Connie is told to leave the dinner table by her brother.

(See fig.1) Dolores Hayden comments that this difference demonstrates a contradiction

saying that while “for a man a home is his castle a woman often lacks private space in the

home. Society defines the idea of homes as a warm and supportive place for men and

children but for women it has always been a workplace, where a woman’s work is never

done.” (Hayden, 1984, p. 66). This is pretty evident in gangster and mob films where

women are usually seen to be in the Kitchen doing the domestic work. For instance in

Narcos (2017), Pablo’s wife, Tata, is always seen cooking and his mother knitting. Even

after Pablo’s death she is seen operating from the “safe space” of her imagined home. The

common narrative on the city and the urban space puts forward the question of “Whose

city is it?” but after reading screen narratives from mafia films the question that arises is
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that, “Whose home is it?” Is it really a private and safe sphere in association to women or

can it be called a Man’s home just like a city flourishes itself as a ‘Man’s city’?

Apart from the ‘private space’ of a home, the street is also a segregated space.

Throughout the movie there is no site of women on the street. Out of 30 men there are only

two or three women who are also accompanied by men (See fig.2). The idea of street

walking is invisible in the crime genre. The street is a place of fear for the women. If we

look at ‘Narcos’, after his death his wife operates from the private sphere and is never seen

out in the street. Every new place that she goes to is referred to as, “now this is home for

us”. This reflects the attachment of women to a place that provides them with safety; this

safe space is the urban imaginary for her. According to Steve Herbert and Katherine

Becket this attachment arises due to the exclusion of women from other spaces. This is also

evident in ‘Haseena parker’: Haseena, played by Sharadda Kappor, known as the

Godmother of Mumbai is not out in the street even once; in some instances when she is

seen in the public sphere she sees herself as precarious and vulnerable (fig.3), this fear

comes from the violation of order, which in the crime world belongs to men. In this way

crime makes large areas of city inaccessible to the already vulnerable.

In contrast to the above discussion in ‘Narcos’ (2017), a modern TV show, is

based around the life of Pablo Emilio Escobar a famous drug lord, whose character is played

by Wagner Moura, This show even though conforms to many stereotypes, several women

are seen on the front line (not in the anti-narcotic forces). These women, however, portray

the image of ‘femme fatale’ in mafia films. For example Valeria Velez (Staphenie Sigman)

is shown as a woman, who is in close alliance to the street and is a newscaster. She is

portrayed as a woman who uses her body for her gains. This promulgates the idea that

women who are out in the public sphere are evil and greedy. Similarly In ‘The Godfather

(1974), a dead prostitute is planted by Hagen (Don’s lawyer) to make Senator Pat Geary
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give in to the demands of the mafia. According to Wikia: "In one brief shot of the scene

showing the dead prostitute, the actress playing the prostitute could be seen breathing. This

may or may not be intentional on the part of the filmmakers, suggesting that the prostitute

was acting instead of actually being killed.” This again depicts femme fatale image of the

women who are comfortable being a part of the crime world, which is a brothel in this case.

Apart from representing the spaces as gendered, the crime genre also represents the

city as a space for the powerful. The imagery of the city represents power struggle as a part

of city life, this power struggle brings a transition in socio-spatial structure in the life of the

characters. In Haseena Parker (1972), Haseena uses her brother, Dawood Ibrahim, to take

hold of the Mumbai underworld, without him being present in the scene and thus

transitions from a small one-bedroom apartment in Dongri, a ghetto, to a posh apartment in

Gordon hall. In other gangster or mafia films the representation of climbing up the social

ladder and the power struggle is represented as growing up in the ghettos and eventually

becoming major hoods, in strive of power such as in ‘Once Upon a Time in America’

(1984), two Jewish gangsters, Maxie (James Woods) and Noodles (Robert DeNiro) rise

from the Jewish ghettos of turn-of-the-century New York City to a life of lavish excess.

This transition like other mafia films does not come from living off the street but from

living off the power that comes with controlling the streets. In all these mob films, there is

little to no struggle for money and the real struggle revolves around power. This attribute

of the crime genre misses out on the representation of the ‘other’ in the city, who have to

face the urban conditions that are shaped by and reflect crime and violence. These films

have also repeatedly represented Diasporic communities as the troublemakers and the ones

promoting cultural exchange. Carmela Coccimiglio in his essay “Absent Present” argues

that “ethnic, racial, and gendered stereotypes abound in the gangster genre. Ethnic

stereotypes have a long history in American gangster texts, with persons of various ethnic
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groups depicted as gangsters in order to imply a connection between ethnicity and crime

(Coccimiglio, p.4).” Many Hollywood gangster films are based on Italian mafia; these

films represent the Italian culture and portray Italian immigrants as a part of an organized

mob, fussing the American streets. These people come to America in search of the great

American dream. This is how ‘The Godfather ‘ begins wherein Undertaker Bonasera

(Salvatore Corsitto) brings his plea to Don Corleone and talks about the achievement of the

great “American Dream”, but is disappointed in the American system after his daughter’s

rape and the inefficacy of the system. This is one of the binding strings in all the gangster

and mafia movies, where an individual is affected by the ‘urban condition’ and hence

abandons himself form the political and social spaces and escapes in the space of adventure

which is a typical of crime films. This movement results from the conquest of a better

urban experience, which is also evident in, ‘The Godfather’, wherein Don Corleone

relocates his family from New York to Long Island in order to provide better education for

his children and to keep ‘the other’ out of the private sphere in order to keep hold on it.

The segregation of space in the crime genre arises from the worsening urban

condition and the will to survive the city life. This gives birth to chaos, loneliness, and

power struggle, which results in the formation of organized crime mobs. These mobs in

order to outlast demarcate a line between the public and the private and try to mold the

spaces to their own benefit. This is what is depicted in the screen texts described above,

which represent that city segregates its residents in terms of gender, ethnicity and power

structures in the strive of survival.

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Fig 1: Connie is told to leave the dinner table during a business conversation in the film

‘The Godfather’ (1972)

Fig. 2. A view of a criminal activity taking place in the street in the film ‘The Godfather’

(1972). Only two women can be seen.

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Fig 3. Haseena, ‘The Godmother of Mumbai’ in the Domain of a Police station.

Works Cited
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Coccimiglio, Carmela. “Absent Presence Women in American Gangster Narrative.”

Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa, 2013.

Dunckel-Graglia, Amy. “‘Pink Transportation’ in Mexico City: Reclaiming Urban Space

through Collective Action against Gender-Based Violence.” Gender & Development,

vol. 21, no. 2, 2013, pp. 265–276., doi:10.1080/13552074.2013.802131.

England, Marcia R., and Stephanie Simon. “Scary Cities: Urban Geographies of Fear,

Difference and Belonging.” Social & Cultural Geography, vol. 11, no. 3, 2010, pp.

201–207., doi:10.1080/14649361003650722.

Holmes, Nathan. Welcome to Fear City: Crime Film, Crisis, and the Urban Imagination.

State University of New York Press, 2018

Mcmurry, Sally. “Redesigning the American Dream: The Future of Housing, Work, and

Family Life. Dolores Hayden.” Winterthur Portfolio, vol. 21, no. 1, 1986, pp. 96–99.,

doi:10.1086/496272.

Most Influential, Significant and Important Films in American Cinema - The 1960s,

www.filmsite.org/crimefilms3.html.

Poupou, Anna. “Social Space, Architecture and the Crisis.” New Approaches to Cinematic

Space, 2018, pp. 27–42., doi:10.4324/9780429468490-4.

Schmid, David. “From the Locked Room to the Globe: Space in Crime Fiction.” Cross-

Cultural Connections in Crime Fictions, 2012, pp. 7–23.,

doi:10.1057/9781137016768_2.
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“The Godfather Wiki.” The Godfather Wiki,

godfather.wikia.com/wiki/The_Godfather_Wiki.

Films Cited

Biaz, Andy, director. Narcos. Netflix Official Site, 18 Aug. 2015.

Coppola, Francis Ford, director. The Godfather. Paramount Pictures, 1972.

Lakhia , Apoorva, director. Haseena Parker. AA Films, 2017.