'Film And Mafia: Comparing the Godfather and The Untouchables Essay\r'

'Good vs. Evil, a universal theme seen throughout the hi romance of story telling, pot find itself to be especi altogethery pliant and suprising in the advance(a) mobster movie. In the important depiction of this struggle, the Gangster was looked upon as the iniquitous, the advanced-for-naught guy, age today this is non ever the expression. In this cover I will be explaining the early mobster pics restrictions on who could be right(a) or dark, and so introduce the two films I will be comp be.\r\n afterward a brief summary, a comparing and contrasting will take posture in the midst of them, a coreering insights into how the two polar films offer up this classic struggle. Early on in the mobster film genre, when the Hays Code was in effect, offensive was not allowed to be someaffair that was glamorized. The Hays Code was fundamentally a set of moral upriseards films had to measure up to before being passed for distri yetion. It lasted from 1930 until 1968. The Hays code do things like profanity, violence, and sex completely unmentionable or undoable on the big screen.\r\nIn the role of the gangster film, the gangster, as stated above, was al airs to be visualised as the foul guy, and was almost always met with demise by the end of the film, to give the topic that â€Å" umbrage doesn’t pay. ” As discussed in class, the enemy to the gangster in these early films was usually the research worker. The researcher was the â€Å" right guy,” that is, usually a white, clean cut, perfection fearing Ameri disregard man who takes it upon himself to rid his city of crime after the rise of the gangster. This example of â€Å"good vs immorality” was app arnt to me in the film we watched earlier in the year, Little Caesar (1931).\r\nIt doesn’t quite develop the detective as healthful as other films, but you could clearly see the Hays Code at work. The gangster in this film is portrayed as a stereotypical immi grant; uneducated, not speaking really good English, and destined for a intent of crime. The life of crime would be short lived, however, as the law of nature (all precise(prenominal) Americanized white men) take Caesar kill in the end, keeping their city safe from the tr individuallyery of the gangster. subsequently the Hays Code ended, films could explore more things in the realms of which characters would be good or bad.\r\nCriminal types could straight be portrayed in a well-to-do light, and in some cases, the earshot may counterbalance feel sympathetic towards their cause, as perhaps they are the underdog, trying to make a living in any way possible. The classic â€Å"good guys,” guard, politicians, or the like, could now be portrayed as corrupt, then turning the tables on the auditory modality, who would normally expect them to be the gun for hirees of the story. The Godfather (1972) portrays these points perfectly. The Godfather tells the story of the Co rle unity Family- a family from Sicily who comes to America to attain the â€Å"American Dream.\r\n” Led at first by Vito Corleone, and by and by his son Michael, The Godfather takes a very diverse apostrophize to the classical image of the gangster as the â€Å"bad guy. ” As the movie progresses, one feels sympathetic toward the family and their struggles, eventide though their lives are based around organized crime and extreme violence. Through the characters of the movie, one can begin to understand that the life of crime is the moreover one that will allow the family to attain the â€Å"American Dream” of prosperity. One even begins to parentage for the family to succeed- they arrest they â€Å"good guys.\r\n” especially after Vito dies, and his son Michael assumes overtop of the family’s affairs. The morality of the family is also warped in a way that makes one sympathetic towards their cause. Although they kill, extort, and demorali ze their way to power, there are certain things they stand against as well. The only people who get killed are men; no women and nipperren are harmed. They also do not get involved in drugs, as this is con nervered to be too immoral a agent of prosperity. The antagonists, or â€Å" curse” to the Corleones are many-fold.\r\nThey battle against the other mafia families, after the very same thing the Corleones seek. They deal with corrupt police military officers and politicians, being bought off by rival families to put an end to their reign. As stated above, this is a complete reversal from what one would expect to see in the early gangster film. The Godfather offers a very unique perspective into what a gangster film could become in modern cinema. The Untouchables (1987) on the other hand, offers the more classic scenario of good and evil, but with a little twist.\r\nThe story takes place in Prohibition-era Chicago, where Al Capone has the city in his dorsum pocket, allow ing his criminal activity to go completely unchecked. Capone is portrayed as the bad guy, with protagonist, Treasury Department agentive role Elliot ness, trying to figure out a way to restore order to the city. This carries the classic theme of good vs evil as the gangster portraying evil and law enforcement good, yet the twist is that most of the police force is corrupt, being bribed by Capone. ness cannot arrogance anyone, and fails in his first attempt to bring Capone down by raiding one of his liquor warehouses.\r\nAs the film progresses, cape meets up with another officer who also vehemently defends righteousness, and the two begin to track a plan to take down Capone together. After discovering the amount of decadence in the court corpse and on the police force, Ness and his partner steady down to go outside of the law, and form a aggroup of trustworthy men fresh from the police academy, unable to be corrupted by the allure of specie from Capone. This development off ers a disconnect in the handed-down view of the hero, as in order to accomplish his goal, the hero may need to use means which could possibly be looked upon as immoral and illegal.\r\nThe audience gives this lapse of righteousness a pass in favor of the ultimate goal, however, which remains getting the bad guy. Eventually, at the end of the movie, Capone is finally brought to justness. It is done so in a completely non-violent way, although violence was emphatically used in order to reach the climax. The corruption in the courts is shown as being broken, and Capone is sentenced to jail for tax evasion. These two films give a very different portrayal of the life of crime and how the gangster operates and is viewed by the audience.\r\nIn The Godfather, the audience is subjected to the inner-workings of the Corleone Family, and gains an appreciation for their dedication and kip down for each other. Their criminal activity can be overlooked, as the world that they live in is load up against their success, and they are simply trying to provide for each other in the only way they drive in how. This is contrary to what is portrayed in The Untouchables, where the gangster is not given the opportunity to make a fellowship with the audience, instead his way of life is given the form of address of evil, while the family man Elliot Ness is the focus.\r\nHis striving for justice is given the spotlight, and the audience is shown to root for him. He is the hero in a world filled with evil and corruption. An interesting dilemma arises from the way in which Elliot Ness achieves his success against evil, however, as stated above in the movie’s summary. Just as the audience is to overlook the reviledoings of the Corleone family in their pursuit of happiness, the same essential be done for Elliot Ness in the way he tiptoes along the fine line in the midst of legal and illegal during his pursuit of Capone. He kills and tortures Capone’s henchmen in order to get at Capone himself.\r\nIn the tradition legal scheme of the United States, all men accused of wrong doing should be brought in front of a court and judged fairly. This is shown to be impossible, repayable to the corruption of Chicago’s legal system at the time, with Capone bribing everyone from judges to juries. Thus Elliot Ness and his posse comitatus’s transgressions against humanity are brushed to the side in the place of the ultimate goal of restoring sleep to the city. The main characters of the two films are in detail very similar, despite being on different sides of the law.\r\nMichael Corleone and Elliot Ness are some(prenominal) at their core, good men. Their upbringing and families are the key difference in how they are perceived in the world. Michael Corleone was born into a life of crime. It is interesting that in the lineage of his story, he sort of on the outside looking in. The family disdain is really no concern to him. He is shown as havin g served in the army, and having an American girlfriend. This removes him from the inner workings of his family for some time, but when he is called upon to step up and harbor dear his family in a dire time of need, he does so.\r\nHis character transforms from an innocent man on the outskirts of his family’s life of crime, to a man who is just as or perhaps even more unpitying than his father before him after he assumes control. Elliot Ness is a treasureor of the law. He takes his job very seriously, and believes in the justice system as a means of keeping evil out of his city. He is a family man as well, with his wife and child (later on children,) constantly in his mind. His goal is to protect them and the city he loves at all costs. He also goes through a pretty forceful transformation.\r\nFrom the naive agent who believes in his justice system, to a cold-blooded killer intent on destroying the criminal enterprise threatening his family and city. Both of these transfor mations are accept by the audience, and really lead one to root for these particular characters. Although they are both shown to get their workforce dirty, and although they are on opposite sides of the law, parking area run aground can be found in the situation that they both are men who stand up for what they believe in, and are willing to put themselves in harms way if it means protecting their families, as well as everything else they hold dear.\r\nEven in the case of the â€Å"criminal,” the audience can come to terms with the desire that he is simply staying true to his beliefs, and that is something that should be respected. Elliot Ness is a character who in the beginning is thriving to root for, and even though some might waver on his methods, still end up rooting for him in the end. Michael Corleone is tougher to root for in the beginning of his saga, due to his distance from his family, yet towards the end of the film, is sonant to root for in the coming to defense of his family in their time of need.\r\nThis contrast shows that even though the discrete characters follow very different story arcs in their respective films, both are ultimately love by the audience. Good vs. Evil is not a black and white subject. As these two films show, it is then very grey. The line between right and wrong can be very blurred, and can be crossed many times throughout the personal line of credit of a story. Perceptions of characters and their place in the world can change drastically based on a few events, and the classic examples of cops and robbers can be moody on their heads.\r\nI greatly enjoy both of the films discussed in this paper; as they are very different in many ways, yet in the end, provide us the audience with a common denominator, a lovable character who will hold our attention to the very end. Even though the band in which these characters interact with their worlds vary greatly, they both fundamentally hold the same values very co nstrictive to their hearts, and that is what shows on the big screen. It shows us that whatever our conceptualize notions are about who is good and bad in a particular scenario, everyone has an opportunity to prove us right or wrong.\r\nThis is what makes the modern gangster film so popular and great- an ability for us, the audience, to be surprised. Bibliography â€Å" summary of The Untouchables (1987). ” IMDb. IMDb. com, n. d. Web. 30 Apr. 2013. . â€Å"Synopsis of The Godfather (1972). ” IMDb. IMDb. com, n. d. Web. 30 Apr. 2013. . Bynum, Matt. â€Å"The Motion opinion deed Code of 1930 (Hays Code). ” The Motion Picture Production Code of 1930 (Hays Code). Arts Reformation, n. d. Web. 30 Apr. 2013. .\r\n'