What Make Gangster Films & TV Shows Work? (Part 2)
Characters: The Criminals The Godfather, perhaps the traditional gangster film most people know, features a family involved in organized crime. They were our focal points, our POV characters. Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) was outside of this world – almost. Their daily lives involved weddings, funerals, dinners, business meetings and – murder. What must the […]
What Make Gangster Films & TV Shows Work? (Part 1)
It’s hard to imagine a more enduring genre film type than the gangster movie. Of course, traditional gangster films, as with most genre films, have mutated into powerful crime TV shows like The Wire, Ray Donovan, and The Sopranos or films like Proud Mary and The Departed, but the core elements are still there. Since 1931’s […]
The Power Of Westerns (Part 2)
Manifest Destiny and American Exceptionalism The idea that Americans were destined (by God) to settle the west was in many, many early westerns considered a positive. Native Americans were demonized and the white, so-called civilized culture of the eastern states was shown to be beneficent to the land. That view changed slowly as westerns […]
The Power Of Westerns (Part 1)
From the late 1930s to the mid-60s westerns as movies and television ruled the box office and ratings ranks. Legends like directors Howard Hawks, John Ford, Sam Peckinpah, Sergio Leone, and actors Clint Eastwood, John Wayne, Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck, and a raft of others became superstars. Then, depending on who you ask, genre-fatigue, changing […]
Revenge Movies Are A Dish Best Served Bold (Part 2)
CATHARSIS The psychological underpinnings of revenge, around for generations of storytelling, involve identification with a character’s situation (empathetic response) which then leads to catharsis. Once we bond with the main character, identify strongly with their plight, satisfying results are what you’re aiming for in revenge-driven movies; that’s why so much of the skill comes […]
