This thesis will show that postclassical gangster films refer back to the films of the classical era and are heavily influenced by those earlier films, but that they also offer different perspectives. Firstly, I shall provide an overview of gangster films produced between 1967 and 1999. Within this era I shall identify three distinct cycles of gangster film production, and suggest some categories for certain thematic trends that occur. I shall identify various elements that distinguish postclassical gangster films from earlier films. These elements will include a tendency to place narratives in the past, to focus on the collective rather than the individual, to allow gangsters to survive at the end of narratives and to refer to Mafia myths that have developed since the fifties. However, identifying these differences is not the sole purpose of this thesis. I will also focus on the ways in which gangster films have been previously assessed,a nd to what extent these approaches are useful for postclassical gangster films. I shall focus on four key aspects of gangster films, genre, myths, masculinities and ethnicities and examine the ways in which they are articulated in gangster films, and consider the functions of such articulations. Finally, I shall discuss how and why the films might encourage contradictory readings. The overall intention is to focus on the film texts, but certain extratextual evidence such as journal and newspaper reviews will be used to support my discussions. It is my view that while previous critical work on gangster films provides a useful assessment of the films of Hollywood's classical era, they do not offer sufficient assessment of postclassical films. My thesis will extend previous critical works to provide such an assessment.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:392998 |
| Date | January 2001 |
| Creators | Larke, Sandra M. |
| Publisher | University of Sunderland |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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