When somebody talks about gangster films, one would easily think ofScarface,Goodfellas, andThe Godfather. The gangster genre has made and cemented a mark in Hollywood that has had many fans and critics giving them acclaim for their long reign. Gangster films have often been seen as centering around an organized crime family that runs into a few issues with a rival gang or person, and it almost always involves murder, power, and dominance.
As of late, however, the gangster genre, along with its tropes seem to have lost their way. Ever sinceMartin Scorsese’s commentsover Marvel movies not being true cinema, sparked outrage, it seems more than justified to make an honest critique of a genre that he and other directors thrived in, while still celebrating the history behind gangster films’ former glory.
It’s hard to imagine that a once-beloved genre has turned into a shell of what it once was.
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What seems like an obvious reason as to why the gangster paradigm has lost the magic that it once had, is because people are shifting to newer, flashier, and more contemporary forms of entertainment that keep audiences flocking to movie theaters. Much of the audience’s money goes to superhero or science fiction films that later become franchises that are made, many times, for fan service.
Gangster films from the 2000s have, for the most part, been forgotten by movie-goers and are designated as passé or are even deemed as been-there-done-that territory. If audiences were given the opportunity to see Francis Ford Coppola’s newest gangster flick or the newSpider-Manmovie, which would make abigger killing at the box-office?
Most likely, theSpider-Manflick would dominatethe box office. That isn’t to say that a hypothetical Coppola gangster movie wouldn’t make any money. The problem is that the change in genres for audiences echoes a need for studios to reshuffle and prioritize what is put in theaters. It’s more like the process of natural selection. What audiences crave is what gets made, and what people find out of touch or uninteresting, will be shelved, as studios may not want to risk losing money.
Related:10 Goodfellas Facts You Never Knew
The Godfather was the Zenith of the Genre
Given that the gangster genre was a building block of Hollywood when motion pictures went out West, it seemed that from that point, the only place gangster movies and all other genres could go was up; and up they went until around the early 1970s when the aforementioned Francis Ford Coppola made his towering epic known asThe Godfather.
The film centered around an Italian family who made “shady” dealings with participants willing to pay. Don Corleone (Marlon Brando) is the patriarch of the family, with his sons Sonny (James Caan), the hot head; Fredo (John Cazale) the weak son; Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall), the adopted son; and Michael (Al Pacino), the war veteran who wants nothing to do with the family business. Michael ends up becoming the heir to the empire after his father passes away.
The film has been widely acclaimed by critics and audiences. It was so successful, in fact, that it was followed by two sequels and a legacy that has remained as a cornerstone in cinema history. However, everything that has followed the film has been living in the shadow of this monument to gangster epics.Goodfellaswas good, but it often feels likeThe Godfather’s little brother and any other gangster films have been either okay or downright dull and forgettable.
Related:These Are Some of the Best Mafia and Gangster Movies Ever Made
Over-saturation of Streaming
Something that has been seen as either a blessing or a curse, depending on who has been affected by it, is the over usage of streaming platforms that have given audiences a litany of choices that previous generations could never even imagine.These streaming serviceshave given people a wide range of content to choose from, almost making it impossible to make a decision.
However, with so many options available, it doesn’t seem that people are flocking to gangster movies. Netflix did manage to have something of a resurgence in the gangster trope when they allowed Martin Scorsese to makeThe Irishman, and while it was acclaimed by critics, it failed to live up to its potential as a gangster movie and did almost nothing new for the genre.
Streaming platforms have not put that much stock into gangster films, and it isn’t a surprise. They don’t seem to have the same draw that they once did whenThe Godfatherwas first released. When entertainment options were more finite during the height of the gangster genre, it was able to propel itself into more mainstream audiences. Now that there are more television programs and streaming services, it has almost diluted media and rendered gangster movies invisible.
Recycled Material
Perhaps, a more controversial reason as to why gangster flicks havelost the magicover the years, is the fact that they follow the same beats that seem to be overly repetitive in the years that have followed. The story always follows a group, organization or heavily-wanted person coming into a slew of trouble with more thuggery that often leads to murder and betrayal.
At this point in time, the films often feel like a rehash of what has already been done before. That might explain why fan support has waned and why people have not supported the genre as much. Hopefully, there may be a new resurgence of the genre and a better appreciation for it.
