Film noir is a style of filmmaking that began after World War 2, and it focused on darker themes and settings. Most commonly, this style of film is set in a city with rampant crime and corruption, with the characters and protagonist being morally ambiguous. Where the sidewalk ends was created in this style with its stylistic choices and its focus on settings with police corruption, an anti-hero protagonist, and a femme fatale. The film Where the Sidewalk Ends directed by Otto Preminger is a film noir that was praised for its even grittier take on this style of filmmaking. In this film the protagonist (Detective Dixon) kills Ken Paine in self defense while interrogating him due to his expected involvement in an earlier murder.
The story is presented by the spectator point of view of Rocket, whose life is unintentionally and irresistibly involved and influenced in the Gang war, indicating that people living in Rio de Janeiro have no choice for their life while they have to struggle in this treacherous city, accounted for the endless violence and crimes. The last scene of the youth gangs impressed me the most. As Carrot was arrested and Li’l Zé was killed by children, the ending indicated that Rio de Janeiro has entered into a new era, and the youth gangs have replaced Li 'l Zé to be the new leader of the slum. The vicious cycle of the gangs reminds me of the problem of street children. According to the UNICFE, street children is defined as boys or girls aged under 18 who spend all or most of their time on the street.
This displays the criminal world that we live in. Moreover, when the Misfit and the two men shoot the whole family in the woods, it illustrates the sinister and cruel world that needs saving. The violent car crash that causes the family to encounter the Misfit in the first place adds to the violent display that O’Connor creates of the world. O’Connor uses the violence in the story to shock the readers into self-awareness (Larson 1). She uses this self-awareness to bring to light the religious theme of redemption and grace for the corrupted.
However, the society obsessed about an idea of finding the murder whose figure provokes a hysteria, is supposed to be its truly filling that experience urban culture and horror because stories about mystic murders who cannot control his acting become, become a part of urban folklore, a myth, a legend. The city plays a significant role even in a title of the film referring to a claim that the city lives like an independent organism, consisted of the police, criminals, beggars, murders, innocent inhabitance turning into victims: Murderer Among Us, A City Searches for a Murderer. They sound like title to express articles in the morning newspapers and increasing the fevered atmosphere. Thus, according to Tom Gunning, a film historian and a professor of art history, cinema and media studies at The University of Chicago, “the city in M seem to possess a will of its own; as this secondary title suggests, it could be seen as the protagonist of the film”
Al’s involvement in organized crime increased the crime rate, the very thing that the prohibition laws were created to lower. Consequently, these laws were repealed. Alphonse Capone was one of the most legendary mobsters in history. He created a multi-million dollar empire of crime in Chicago who altered the face of crime. Works Cited: “Al Capone, Organized Crime.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 3 Jan. 2018, www.biography.com/people/al-capone-9237536.
INTRODUCTION The films Scarface (1983) and The Godfather (1972) are both crime-drama films which focus on the rise of their respective characters up the criminal ladder, becoming leaders on their own right and experiencing parallels on their stories while interacting with characters with duality in rules for both films. Scarface’s Tony Montana opted for drug trade and started his own empire on the back and blood of the people he killed, while Michael Corleone took matters to his own hands when he saw his family being besieged by the other families, psychologically exploring the minds of the characters while trying to deal with outside threats and stimulus. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM 1. What are the similarities of the film? 2.
Capone’s empire included illegal liquor, “I am like any other man. All I do is supply a demand.” And “When I sell liquor, it's called bootlegging; when my patrons serve it on Lake Shore Drive, it's called hospitality.” Where two of his answers when asked about seeking alcohol,gambling and prostitution in Chicago during the 1920s. He earned a reputation among many as the most violent man in the country while convincing others he was just a businessman supplying a service to a public that needs
Valentine’s Day is supposed to be a day of love, happiness and joyful feelings, but on February 14th,1929 in Chicago the city felt pain. “In a bloody crime that transfixed the world press and all its readers” . The Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre was a reaction to a long war between two known rivals: Al Capone and George “Bugs” Moran. The rivalry started when Prohibition came about. Women and children were being battered by their drunken husbands.
Richard Wright’s novel, Native Son, talks about the racial oppression that was going on in chicago in the 1930s. The protagonist who is Bigger Thomas and who is African American in which talks about this fear, hatred, and anger that racism has impressed upon him that ravages his individuality so severely that his only means of self-expression is to commit violence acts. After killing Mary Dalton the only daughter of the Dalton’s, Bigger must contend with the law, the hatred of society, and his own destructive inner feelings in which brought him into this situation in the first place. Eventually sending Bigger to be killed by the electric chair and the court not having any kind of mercy to him. When reading the novel people can interpret the
The bomb lit up the street with people on strike running for their lives. Eight radical labor activists were charged in connection to the bombing, even with a lack of evidence. The strike had a horrific impact on the labor union and caused it to lose its power. As the Knights of Labor declines, the American Federation of Labor rose to power. Samuel Gompers, American Labor Union leader, led the American Federation of Labor.