23rd Annual Student Research Conference
"Honesty Doesn't Pay, Sucker"
Implications of the Organized Crime Film
Derek J. Carls
Dr. Elizabeth M. Clark, Faculty Mentor
Since the genre's inception during the earliest years of cinema, the crime film has long served to provide social commentary, investigate a discrete and mysterious lifestyle, and entertain. Crime films, such as Once Upon a Time in America and Cidade de Deus, have long been perceived as portraying empowering messages about lower-socioeconomic-class protagonists working their way up from nothing and entering into the coveted upper-socioeconomic-class. Though these narratives may appear to be a twisted take on the rags-to-riches American dream myth, a cultural studies analysis incorporating gangster cinema perspective and the mythic hero's journey reveals that organized crime films perpetuate negative views of the lower-socioeconomic-class.
Keywords: Cultural Studies, Monomyth, Crime Film, Gangster Cinema
Topic(s):Communication
Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Session: 43-2
Location: VH 1320
Time: 1:30