THE JOURNEY OF A HERO FROM HOLLYWOOD TO THE BRITISH CINEMA: THE AMERICAN AND THE BRITISH GANGSTER

Abstract

The British crime film and consequently also gangster film as a subgenre is the result of a process of hybridization between British sensibilities and cinematic conventions often derived from Hollywood. Nevertheless, each filmmaker who contributes with his distinct cultural perspectives engages in a dialogue with the narratives and characterizations from foreign sources instead of being dominated by them (Elliott 2014, 1). Based on these assumptions, this dissertation retraces the journey undertaken by the hero of gangster movies, from Hollywood to British cinema. The first chapter provides a general overview of the American gangster film production to capture the gangster’s metamorphosis from his birth on screen with the ‘classic’ archetype established by the 30’s triumvirate, Melvyn LeRoy’s Little Caesar (1930), William Wellman’s The Public Enemy (1931) and Howard Hawks’ Scarface (1932), to the genre revival with The Godfather trilogy (1972, 1974, 1990). The main topic of the second chapter is Martin Scorsese’s tragic approach to this genre in his filmography, as argued by John McAteer in his essay (2019) which refers to Robert Warshow’s seminal text (1948). Moreover, we will discuss onscreen violence as a key ingredient of the gangster genre in light of Scorsese’s critique of its glamourization. In the third chapter, the British cousin of the American Gangster is introduced under the name of Pinkie from Brighton Rock (1947), Jack from Get Carter (1971), and Harold from The Long Good Friday (1980). To understand the modern British gangster film from the late 1990s onwards, we will illustrate the two main categories under which they fall proposed by Steve Chibnall (2009): gangster heavy and gangster light. Ultimately, this dissertation is an attempt to prove wrong the British Board of Film Censors’ fear of British ‘equivalents’ of the American gangster movie, by emphasizing the uniqueness of each of the thousand faces of a hero that has transcended cultures and time.