Crime and Violence in Film
The films Bonnie and Clyde (1967, Arthur Penn) and Scarface (1932, Howard Hawks) are set in the same basic time period, the 1930s, though the films were made more than thirty years apart and reflect different sensibilities in keeping with the time of production. At the same time, they also reflect certain similar ideas about the nature of crime and violence, its origin, and the societal elements that contribute to crime and violence. Both films are violent, though the 1967 film is more overtly violent and also more able to show the results of violence in a more realistic way as people whoa re shot bleed, often profusely, unlike the characters in the 1932 film, who are more likely to be shot and expire with hardly a mark on them. The gangster film is a uniquely American genre based on a number of images and characters found in film after film. Thomas Schatz describes film genres as something that can be viewed as systems that have developed within the confines of commercial filmmaking in order to sell films to audiences that want a certain type of experience. Any genre can also be defined as a cultural artifact that becomes a meaningful system when recognized as such. The gangster genre is one genre based on an inherent amb
The film takes artistic liberties and imprints the story of these two robbers with themes from the 1960s, themes of youth revolt and women's liberation. In the end, though, the ambush that kills Bonnie and Clyde as human beings only adds to their myth and extends their legend. In this scene, the camera follows Big Louie until he reaches a telephone booth. The opening credits of Bonnie and Clyde suggest several elements coming together at once. Bonnie and Clyde pretend violence and make themselves known by writing poems. " It is the social order that uses violence to impose order and that often does so in a very disordered way. Such disclaimers were a response to public concerns raised after the release of films like Little Caesar (1930) and The Public Enemy (1931), films cited both for glorifying criminals and for excessive violence (though given the way the gangsters in each film were killed, it is difficult to see the film as a whole glorifying them or their crimes). The pathology was always there, as his whistling as he kills shows, but he expresses that pathology more openly as he is made more and more an animal in a cage. Director Penn creates a strong sense of the 1930s as a time of disintegration, boredom, and dwindling opportunity, leaving his characters facing fewer and fewer choices. Tony Camonte is only exiled from polite society to the fringes of the city. This follows the convention of the gangster film as well, for the gangster usually dies in the last reel, a death that may affirm the power of right over evil in one sense but that often leaves the criminal more famous than he was before, a pattern seen in different ways in films such as Little Caesar, Scarface, and The Public Enemy. There is a degree of inevitability in the way these roles develop, from the growth of the myth to the desire on the part of law enforcement to blast the myth and show it up as false. Bonnie and Clyde also write letters and send poems to the newspaper, thus extending their myth and their fame. The film imports a Robin Hood theme that seems to remove any idea of evil from the actions of the pair, though the real Bonnie and Clyde showed such tendencies.
Common topics in this essay:
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Acceptance Essays
