An Introduction to Film

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Multigenre stardom With striking performances in
Francis Ford Coppola’s Peggy Sue Got Married(1986) and
Joel and Ethan Coen’s Raising Arizona(1987) [1], Nicolas
Cage also began his career identified with screwball comedy.
He then spent years reestablishing himself as a dramatic
actor before being awarded an Oscar for his portrayal of a
suicidal alcoholic in the grimly realistic Leaving Las Vegas
(1995; director: Mike Figgis) [2] and then suddenly emerged
as an action hero in a string of blockbusters that began with
Michael Bay’s The Rock(1996) and has continued into the
present day with recent action extravaganzas like Oxide Pang
Chun and Danny Pang’s Bangkok Dangerous(2008) [3].

Just as the gangster film emerged, however, the
film industry adopted a production code that for-
bade movies from explicitly engaging audience
sympathy with “crime, wrongdoing, evil or sin.” As
a result, while early gangster films were among the
most violent and sexually explicit movies of their
time, the central conflicts and themes that they
explored were often at odds with one another. For
example, the stories were centered around outlaw
entrepreneurs who empowered themselves,
bucked the establishment, and grabbed their piece
of the pie; yet, by the end of the story, this theme of
success would give way to a “crime does not pay”
message in which the enterprising hero is finally
corrupted by his hunger for power and, thus,
defeated by forces of law and order. In many of
these films, violent crime was both celebrated and
condemned. Movies that had audiences sympathiz-
ing with criminals (or at least their goals) at the
start would ultimately turn an exhilarating rags-
to-riches story of empowerment into a cautionary
tale of the consequences of blind ambition. Central
characters would achieve their goal only to be killed
either by the law or their own equally ruthless sub-
ordinates. Along the way, audiences enjoyed the
vicarious thrills of a daring pursuit of power, as
well as the righteous satisfaction of seeing order
restored.
While modern gangster narratives have expanded
to include a wide range of stories set within the
milieu of organized crime, classic gangster plots typ-
ically follow this rags-to-riches-to-destruction for-
mula. The protagonist is initially powerless and
sometimes suffers some form of public humiliation
that both emphasizes his vulnerability and motivates

his struggle for recognition. (This humiliation can

come at the hands of a governing institution or the

ruling gang organization; often, the ensuing conflict

pits the gangster hero against both the law and the

criminals currently in control.) The hero gains sta-

tus and eventually grabs power and riches through

ingenuity, risk taking, and a capacity for violence.

While most gangster protagonists are killers, their

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