Gangster Movies

Gangster movie’s are a subgenre of crime movies, focusing on organised crime, more often than not, the mafia. In most gangsta movies, they link into film noir, particularly the earliest. Gangster films had their roots in silent movies, the gangsta movies we know today came about in the 1930’s. The first most common films in this genre were Little Caesar, The Public Enemy, and Scarface, all of which followed the rise and fall of three young and violent criminals, all of which faced a downfall to remind the audience of the consequences of crime, and at the same time, an anti hero who they can identify with.

The conventions of this genre are low key to black and white lighting and colouring, they’re smartly dressed, there are acts or referrals to acts of violence, white writing on a black background to say the year and place, and male dominance. If I was to make a gangsta film, I’d keep the majority the same, but change the dominance to females, for example, in all gangster movies, the leader’s of the mafia’s etc, are all male, but I would change this, so the leader was a female.

Here is an idea I had for a plot of a gangster movie:

Three members of the Capello gang in 70’s New York are heading through the centre of the city, fully armed, towards a shop down a dark, dingy alleyway, commenting only on their disgust at the place. When they get into the shop, a pawn shop, they’re just as disgusted, and look very out of place in their pinstripe suits. They take the shopkeeper into the store cupboard, and he explains that a gang rival to theirs, the Mancini gang, are after his family because his daughter made the mistake of getting involved with one of them, and they require protecting from them after his son was attacked protecting his sister. After a short while, they leave with the money, but no sooner are they out of the shop, is one of the men shot and killed, another injured. Five members of the rival gang emerge from the shadows, all armed with pistols, shooting at the remaining two Capello family members, who reach for their guns. It ends in a shootout in the alleyway, in which two of the rival gangs members are shot and killed. The others leave, leaving one of the gang members to die in the others arms. He then steals a car off the street, and drives back to their base to tell their boss what had happened.

He then informs the head of the Capello family, his mother in law to be, that he has the protection money from the shopkeeper, but as they left, they were shot at, killing her youngest son instantly, and her nephew minutes later. Distraught, she calls upon her family and the rest of her mafia in order to plan revenge on the Mancini family for what they took from her and her family.

A few days later, they hold the funeral for the two young men, which passes quietly with a large crowd paying their respects to the family. The family return to their mansion near the coast, and very solemnly pay their respects to their dead relatives. Their leader then pulls together her remaining sons and daughters, nephews and nieces, and in laws to plan revenge now that the pain has really hit home. They spend the entire afternoon planning the destruction of the Mancini family, particularly their leader, and as emotions stir, her oldest son storms off and searches for the gang leader himself.

The Capello leader orders a niece, and nephew to go after him. They chase him as he heads into the city looking for him. As he approaches the warehouse they use as their headquarters, he’s shot at and wounded. His cousins and a few from the Mancini gang are involved in another shoot out, where the two of them manage to kill and wound all the Mancini members. They gather their cousin into their car, and drive him back home. His mother yells at him, and they all go their separate ways, after agreeing to leave the Mancini’s alone until after her daughters wedding in a few days.

There are quicker shots of a happier moment where her daughter and new son in law are married. After the wedding, the family and extended amount of friends go to a hotel near the mansion to celebrate. As evening approached, a series of gunshots, and then members of the Mancini gang force their way through the doors to the room they’re in, being chased by people who work at the hotel. As the door opens, it reveals all the dead people on the floor- the result of the earlier gunshots. The Marcini’s open fire at those in the wedding reception, harming several of the innocent guests. A few members of the Capello’s get out their own guns and shoot at the Mancini’s. Several of the mafia members try to get everyone out of the room, whilst some of the others stay and shoot back. Once most of the wedding guests are out, the Capello boss makes a speech to all those who are there, vowing the ultimate revenge on the Mancini’s for the lives they took, and what they did at her daughters wedding, due to the ultimate disrespect they have cast upon her family.

Back in the room, the shootout ends with a majority of the members of each gang on the floor dead, dying, or injured, though those who are still standing from the Mancini’s are outnumbered, so they leave and the Capello’s shoot at them as they go. After this, they go and get their boss, and she’s furious when she finds more of her family to be dead. She orders all the bodies of the Marcini gang to be dumped on their headquarters doorstep in the middle of the night, dead or alive, with a bloody bouquet of flowers on the top to give them a scare.

A few days later, the funerals for the six members of the Capello that died on that day are held, and as the bodies are being lowered, a gun fires, and the priest falls to the floor, bleeding from his head. A shootout quickly begins, but ends just as quickly, as the angry family chase them away, shunning them for their disrespect. Afterwards, the family take the priest into the church, then, continue with the funeral, having the caskets put into the ground, before returning home.

Back at the mansion, the atmosphere is thick with sadness and anger, as the family mourn the many they lost in the last few weeks. Away from the rest of the family, two of the sons of the Capello’s boss are in the front garden, planning their own small revenges for the deaths of their family and friends.

Fast-forward a few weeks, and the same two brothers are walking down the same alley as in the beginning of the film, but to a gym just past the shop. They enter to be greeted by a large amount of large men fighting each other and training with boxing and other gym equipment. One stands by the door and door and guards it, whilst the other goes up to a man behind a desk at the back of the room, and takes him upstairs into the store room. Once there, he intimidates and manipulates him into getting him and his trainee’s to rough up a few of the Marcini gang members for a set fee. Once the price is settled, he eagerly agrees, and the two brothers leave.

Once back at the mansion, they keep their whereabouts secret. Later in the day, there is a knock on the front door, though when they open the door there is no one there, only the burnt remnants of the flowers that were left on their families graves. In fury, the same brothers go on a chase for the culprit, and find a man who had been paid by the Marcini’s to place them there after they burnt them. Not caring of his reasoning, one of the brothers shoots him, and leaves him to bleed to death.

A few days later, the brothers order the trainees to hide in the bushes outside of their headquarters, masked and armed. As each of the rivals come out, a trainee jumps out and knocks them out, dragging their unconscious body to their hideaways. After a few hours, they leave, and go back to the brothers to collect their blood money now they’ve finished their job.

In retaliation, the Marcini family send twelve men to kill the family who paid them to protect them at the beginning, and their protector. After that, they kidnap two of the Capello’s daughters, and lock them away. They then place the body of the dead protector on their doorstep, with a note telling them that they failed, and the family is dead, and that they owe $3million if they wish for the two girls to return to them again, alive. In extreme distress, the Capello boss says she must do this for her family.

The next day the two sons escort their mother to the rivals base, though they’re heavily armed with guns, knives and grenades, though no one else knows. Once inside the base, they ensure they’re ready for any trouble, and the three of them are escorted to the Marcini’s boss, who has the two daughters tied up next to his chair. He them proceeds to play about with them in front of her, annoying her sons in particular.

Suddenly, one pulls out his gun and shoots the Marcini boss in the arm, followed by anyone who tries to approach him, and his brother follows suit. Whilst the Marcini boss is trying to recover himself, the Capello boss rushes forwards to free her youngest daughter, and then her older daughter, though as she gets to her, the Marcini boss grabs her by the throat and throws her off, taking his gun out as he does so. Her daughter quickly frees her sister, and grabs the gun from the Mancini boss, kicks him off of her mother so he’s on his back, and shoots him in the mouth. With their leader dead, the Marcini gang scatter and leave, and so the family run out of the base.

Once outside, they rush to their car, except one brother, who quickly stops to throw several grenades into the base, before jumping into the car, just as the place blows up.

A possible idea for an opening scene to this film would be to show the Capello’s reading a newspaper article about the events of the past few weeks, and then using this as a continuation as a narration throughout the film. The scene would begin with a black background, with white writing saying ‘New York, 1973’. It would then become a long shot of a large room, with low key lighting, containing a large round table lit up by a spotlight above the table, sitting a middle aged woman who is holding a news paper and reading intensively, and eight young men, and six young women. One of the young women, a daughter of hers, asks what she is reading, and she proceeds to read aloud the headline of the paper, as the camera zooms in to a close up shot of her face as she does so. The camera quickly shows the reactions of the young men and women as she finishes, and one of the men, her son in law, stands up and walks round to the older woman and stands next to her, and the camera zooms out to another long shot of the table as the others in the room watch him. The camera zooms in to a midshot, as he begins mumbling parts of the article, and the older woman begins to read the first paragraph aloud, and the man goes and take his seat. As she reads, the others watch her, and then the screen blacks out.

Another possible opening sequence would be to show the three men walking through the alleyway to the shop. The scene would begin with the black background and white writing saying ‘New York, 1973’. It would then cut to an establishing shot of the alleyway they’re in, with them as silhouettes at the end of the lowly lit alley. The camera remains in the same place and as they walk, talking about where they’re going and why, they walk into long shots, mid shots, and eventually, close ups of the three men as they talk. It then goes into an extreme close up of one of he mans hands as he opens the shop door, and then a long shot of the door as the man opens it. The three men then go and stand in front of a desk, which has a man sat behind it. There is an over shoulder shot of the man as he gets to his feet, and the cameras follows him this way as he leads them into a store cupboard. It then shows a close up of him as he shuts the door, ending of the door shutting in front of the camera, leaving the screen black.