The "post-classic" era of American gangster films began in 1967 with the release of Bonnie and Clyde, achieving a milestone five years later with the popular and highly influential The Godfather. This historical study explores the structure, myths and intertextual narratives found in the gangster films produced since The Godfather. The intense relationship between masculinity and ethnicity in the gangster film, especially within the movie-generated mythology of the Mafia, is carefully analyzed, and the book tracks the trends in the genre up to and including the landmark HBO television series The Sopranos (1999-2007). A selected filmography is included. Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

Research Paper (postgraduate) from the year 2009 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, , language: English, abstract: Nowadays the word ‘Mafia’ refers nearly all groups or gangs involved in organized crime. However, originally, Mafia meant an organized criminal organization of Italian, predominantly Sicilian, heritage. In fact, this word is a mere literary creation while the real name is ‘Cosa Nostra’ meaning ‘our thing’. For many years the common understanding of the Mafia was strictly limited by argument on whether there even was a Mafia. In the recent decades that argument was more or less settled, and the principal argument remaining is whether or not organized crime and the Mafia are one and the same thing. According to Finckenauer: To this end, this useful primer to the phenomenon quite rightly tarts with a simple question that begs a complex answer: what is organized crime? Sometimes, the mobsters are easy to identify, a collection of ne’er-do-wells with no visible source of income but owning flashy cars and homes; involved in the staples of organized criminality, whether trafficking drugs or infiltrating legitimate businesses. The old stereotypes, which were always something of a caricature, are becoming even less applicable in the modern world. [...] In part the confusion revolves around an understanding of the real nature of organized crime that existed since the earliest days of the nation and, indeed, earlier. It is worth remembering that, organized crime achieves its status not only by the fact of groups of practitioners, but also due to the fact that organized crime is syndicate crime in which certain activities are apportioned out to the various gangs and honored in the main by these gangs. What is interesting, in the beginning and even till the 1950s, many people regarded the Mafia not as law-breaking criminals but as role-models and protectors of the weak and the poor, as the state offered no protection to the lower classes. The question arises, where from such interest and the phenomenon of ‘good-Mafia-attitude’ within the societies all over the world. As it will be presented within the course of this paper, out of the numerous fiction books and movies, above all, Mario Puzo’s The Godfather from 1969 and obviously the film adaptation made by Francis Ford Coppola – were so successful that they deeply shaped a general understanding of the mafia [...]

Describes and rates more than twenty thousand videos, and provides indexes by theme, awards, actors, actresses, and directors.

Movies and television series are excellent tools for teaching political science and international relations. Understanding how stories in various film and television genres illustrate political ideas can better assist students and fans understand and appreciate the political subtext of these media products. This book examines politics through five film genres and their variants. Gangster movies focus on American and other organized crime. They reached their zenith in the films of Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese. Political thrillers express paranoia about secrecy and political conspiracies, while action movies channel anger at foreign and domestic threats to order. Superhero films and TV present modern characters who seek to serve society as they face personal struggles about their individual identities. War movies promote positive images of wars when conflicts are perceived as successful, but often include antiwar messages when wars turn out badly. Western movies fell out of favor in the 1970s and 1980s but have undergone a renaissance since the 1990s. Westerns can be taken as either political parables, or as meditations on policing, anarchy, community organization. The author argues that while these genres all offer escape, they also offer important political lessons.

In 1989 alone, for example, there were some forty-five major motion pictures which were sequels or part of a series. The film series phenomenon crosses all genres and has been around since the silent film era. This reference guide, in alphabetical order, lists some 906 English Language motion pictures, from 1899 to 1990, when the book was initially published. A brief plot description is given for each series entry, followed by the individual film titles with corresponding years, directors and performers. Animated pictures, documentaries and concert films are not included but movies released direct to video are.

This guide covers every aspect of world cinema from Russian silents to Ealing comedies, classic documentaries to Japanese animated films, B-movie horror and major British and American releases since 1968. More than 660 new reviews are included in the 2002 edition, which covers the 2000/2001 Oscar and Bafta awards, prizes from the Berlin, Cannes and Venice festivals and a discussion of the topic Home entertainment: where are we now? The guide also includes the cinema centenary and Time Out readers' Top One Hundred polls.