IDEOLOGY AND THE GANGSTER GENRE

The gangster genre follows a pattern found in most Hollywood genres, the reinforcement of a prosocial ideology supportive of the status quo. To this end, it promotes adherence to law and order and the maintenance of a hierarchical social structure. The genre's basic structure buoys its ideology: the (usually) ethnic gangster rises from a poor working-class environment to social prominence through illegal and brutal means, only to slide back into destitution or fall to authorities or to a rival gang through his arrest or violent death. Several generic elements, however, complicate this ideological agenda. Foremost among them is the gangster's obvious appeal to his audience. The narration presents the gangster as a highly attractive figure, charismatic in his animal magnetism and in his physical and economic aggressiveness. He appeals to our sense of mayhem and license that would disrupt the social order, and his economic aggression is in the best American tradition of rugged individualism and laissez-faire capitalism. Therein lies the challenge to the genre's ideology, for in aping the corporate ways of American capitalism, the gangster exposes the ruthlessness and greed that undergird the American dream of material success.

The conflicting prosocial and subversive elements within the gangster genre give rise to contradictions that cannot easily be explained away. Because of this, the gangster film often copes with these contradictions by deflection or simple solutions rather than by any attempt at real resolution.