Death of the American Gangster Flick (Video Essay)

[Nero Christ]

long story short - the American Gangster flick was killed by Leone's Once Upon A Time In America...it de-glamorized the gangster and this film genre.

I agree with this assessment and would add on that modern society doesn't allow for the glamorizing of gangsters, as they can't be as out in the open like they once were. One could also add that staples of this genre (De Niro, Pesci, Pacino) got old and younger actors aren't as believable. Maybe younger film audiences just don't care for these stories anymore like us older brehs used too?

I also think it's interesting the cliche points of gangster flicks featuring immigrants in search of the "American Dream" turning to a life of crime after facing resistance heading down the legal path, and that not being able to speak to modern American audiences, but who knows.

What are your thoughts on this topic?

Maybe we start a thread to discuss and dissect other video essays

@MartyMcFly @Zero @FlyRy @TheGodling @hex @Lootpack @Whips-n-Chains

 

[Whips-n-Chains]

Imma peep game and post once I free up

 

[Ol’Otis]

I feel the same way about hood films

 

[hex]

Gonna post in here to peep this later. Good looking out breh.

Fred.

 

[Ol’Otis]

Good fukking analysis

 

[TheGodling]

How did Once Upon A Time In America kill the American gangster flick when Scorsese dropped Goodfellas and Casino in the years after?

What really happened is that in the 90s a turn was made in the style of "gangster" films (or broader, crime films) that drew away from the archetype of a gangster and focused more on everyday criminals. Pulp Fiction, Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels, Fargo, etc. became more and more of the wave.

I'd say the final death blow to the "gangster" flick was in fact The Sopranos which killed the old archetype completely by doubling down on humanizing the Mafioso. That's the series that truly took the last mystique away from the gangster.

 

[Ol’Otis]

How did Once Upon A Time In America kill the American gangster flick when Scorsese dropped Goodfellas and Casino in the years after?

He had a point
Goodfellas was more low level more and grittier than Godfather and Once upon a time

 

[Cadillac]

yall think mafia movies are starting to go out like westerns?

i personally dont think mafia movies will go out like that(not for a long time) but i def see a lack of interest in them by some people

or maybe its cause of how they are covered thats the problem

 

[Cadillac]

How did Once Upon A Time In America kill the American gangster flick when Scorsese dropped Goodfellas and Casino in the years after?

What really happened is that in the 90s a turn was made in the style of "gangster" films (or broader, crime films) that drew away from the archetype of a gangster and focused more on everyday criminals. Pulp Fiction, Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels, Fargo, etc. became more and more of the wave.

I'd say the final death blow to the "gangster" flick was in fact The Sopranos which killed the old archetype completely by doubling down on humanizing the Mafioso. That's the series that truly took the last mystique away from the gangster.

this def make sense

alot of crime fiction now is based more around the everyday type criminal who just happens to take things to extreme(say a thief who is planning a big heist) or its about a dealer in bed with a cartel, etc stuff like that

and this is seen in movies, tv shows and even books really. As some of the last crime fiction i read was everyday criminal shyt. rather than mafia organized crime

 

[Nero Christ]

this def make sense

alot of crime fiction now is based more around the everyday type criminal who just happens to take things to extreme(say a thief who is planning a big heist) or its about a dealer in bed with a cartel, etc stuff like that

and this is seen in movies, tv shows and even books really. As some of the last crime fiction i read was everyday criminal shyt. rather than mafia organized crime

he notes that in the video that crime flicks are less about the mobster/mafia and more about the individual crime...in a change from the encompassing criminal activities, movies now focus on the one big heist. It's right in the beginning of the video.

 

[Kidd Dibiase]

I think the shift is going towards whom they want to show as gangsters or at least the scale.

The current trend would be the Cartels and how they do things.

 

[Saint1]

They've been done really well in some cases (Godfather, Goodfellas) "perfected." Hell, Sopranos used the actors from Goodfellas, it really can't be expounded upon anymore.

@Kidd Dibiase has a great point about the Cartels.

Mafia was a legend to older generations. People heard about a cousin who lived around one of those guys. After the government broke it all up we got the stories.

Cartel is what people hear about now and can be easily connected. The ones getting caught are having their stories told.

Italian Mafia movies had their time.

 

[Rell Lauren]

• The actors have aged out and there aren't any younger thespians to take the mantle. Sopranos was the last hurrah for anything Italian crime related. The cartels don't have the intrigue that the Italian/Sicilian Mafia has especially considering that the latter is pretty woven in the fabric of American history (New York to Vegas to JFK himself).
• Despite there being plenty of stories to tell that have never seen the silver screen, the appetite isn't there anymore due to film consumption being dominated by the Chinese who love terrible, action packed movies. Hollywood will go with a narrative driven IP here and there, but the Chinese owned studios aren't making those types of movies anymore. Why do you think the Hoffa film was a Netflix venture?

 

[Sonic Boom of the South]

All that when
Really its the fact that the consensus is that the mafia has been shut down in America


The 90s u still actually knew of real life mob figures like Gotti
So u knew at that time the mafia was around


Since Gotti
The belief of the mafia is done

 

[mastermind]

Of course mafia movies are dead/dying. The people to tell the story are old/dead. Organized crime isn’t in the media like it was for the 20 years these movies dominated due to old age and incarceration.

And I doubt people are interested in Eastern European gangsters, even though they dominate.

Maybe that’s what this really means, Italian mafia movies are dead.