Chapter
Chapter 1 Mary Pickford Meets the Mafia
Chapter 2 Tough Talk: Early Sound and the Development of American Gangster Film Vernacular, 1928–1930
Transitional Sound: The Talkie Gangster (1928–1929)
The Expressionist Soundscape: 1929–1930
The Billingsgate Gangster and the Modulated Soundtrack, 1930–1931
Chapter 3 How Good Boys Go Bad: The Changing Face of the Gangster Film in America
Chapter 4 Making of a Mobster: From Myth to the Crystallization of the Mafia Archetype in 1950s and 1960s Italian and Italian American Film
Comedic Gangster Films – The Heist?
Meta-documentaries or Docu-fiction
Transnational Images of the Mafia
Chapter 5 Moral Ambiguities: The Frenchness of New Hollywood Gangster Families
Coming-of-Age Stories on Love, Family, and Friendship
Female Concerns and Queer Charges
Speaking with the Author’s Voice
Conclusion: The Language of Boredom
Chapter 6 The Assassin’s Economics of Killing: Money, Honor, and the Market of Murder
The Assassin as Hitman: From Gang Relations to Money Relations
The Authentic Hyper-Individuality of the Lone Assassin
The Assassin and the Death of Individuality
The Assassin’s Code of Honor
Chapter 7 The 1990s Hollywood Gangster: Generic Reflections and Deflections
Reworking the Genre’s Codes through Fragmentation
Aesthetic Fluctuations as Social Comment?
Chapter 8 “Based On A True Story” Public Enemies and the Biographical Gangster Film
“Essentially a True Story”
Chapter 9 The Gangster in Hispanic American Cinema
Chapter 10 The Jamaican Gangster Film: Badman, Rude Bwoys, and Dons
Order and Outlaws in “America’s Backyard”
Hollywood and/in the Jamaican Imagination
Jamaica: Heroes, Gangsters, and Image
Resistance, Affirmation, and The Harder They Come (Perry Henzell, 1972)
Politics, Popular Culture, and Gangsters in the Cinema
Genre Themes and Significance
The Jamaican Gangster and the Last Reel …
Chapter 11 When Criticism Meets Gangster Films: The Spiv Cycle as Oppositional Aesthetics in Postwar Britain
Background: Cinematographic Legitimization Processes before WW2
The Institutionalization of Social Realism: The Cultural Politics of Quality Film
Accounts of Opposition in Popular Culture: The Working Class and Gangsters in the Spiv Cycle
Chapter 12 The Patriarchal Figure in the 1950s French Gangster Film: Legendary Men from a Recent Past
The Patriarchal Gangster: Figure of the Past and Head of the Family
Max and Bob: The “Normal” Godfather’s Authority
Tony: A Patriarch in Distress
The Vectors of Nostalgia: Topographies of Memory
The Man from the Past Facing the 1950s Present
From the Generational Gap to the Anti‐Young Mistrust
From the American Way of Life to the French Way of Life
Chapter 13 Mafia, Mobility, and Capitalism in Italy Circa 1960
Transnational Mafia and Capitalism
Back to Sicily: The Bandit and the Unionist
Conclusions: Sono tornato (I Am Back), Tales of Return
Chapter 14 Gangsters in Turkish Cinema
From Steep Slopes to Dark Streets
New Owners of Legitimized Illegal Profit
Chapter 15 Sun-Drenched Corruption: Organized Crime, Global Capitalism, and the Mediterranean Coast in Recent Spanish Cinema
Urban Speculation, Local Corruption, and International Crime
La caja 507: Ubiquitous Corruption, the Common Man, and Strategic Violence
El niño: Drug Trading, Labor Exploitation and the European-North African Connection
Chapter 16 The Russia They Have Lost: The Russian Gangster as Nostalgic Hero
Chapter 17 A Hint of Lavender: The Gay Gangster in British Crime Cinema
Crime in the Age of Austerity
The 1970s – Reflections of Ronnie
The Decade of Greed – New Conceptions of Criminality
Chapter 18 The Modern British Gangster Film
The Gangster Film: Overview and Iconography
The Generic Spectrum: “Gangster Heavy and Gangster Light”
Chapter 19 Death and Duty: The On-Screen Yakuza
Filmic Gangsters in Japan’s Silent Cinema
The Postwar Evolution of the Yakuza Movie
Yakuza Movies in the Heisei Era
Chapter 20 Yakuza no Onnatachi*: Women in Japanese Gangster Cinema
Japanese Mobsters, Their Women, and Gender Representation in Yakuza Films
The Red Peony Gambler: It’s Tough Being a Yakuza Woman4
Post-Fuji Female Yakuza and Outcast Types
Chapter 21 Futile Liberation: Post-Martial-Law Taiwanese Gangster Films
The Modern History of Taiwan
1987 Taiwan Cinema Manifesto
Chapter 22 Ruling the Men’s Den: Crime, Outrage, and Indian Women Gang Leaders
Gangsters in Indian Cinematic Space
Female Characterization – A Historical Context
The Construction of Female Gangsters in Bollywood Film
Diverse Despotism – Contemporary Female Gangsters on Screen
Social Debate on the Role of Female Gangsters
Chapter 23 Tsui Hark’s Film Workshop: Political Cues in the Gangster Film 1986–1989
Tsui Hark and Film Workshop: “The Spielberg of Asia”
Politicizing the Gangster Film
Chapter 24 The Godfather Legacy: Homage and Allusion in Transna
Chapter 25 Gangsta Gangsta: Hong Kong Triad Films, 1986–2015
A Better Tomorrow: Triad Role Model
A Moment of Romance: Transitions
Young and Dangerous: A New Generation
Exiled: The Uncertainty of Identity
Two Thumbs Up: The Return of the Local
Chapter 26 Politics, Social Order, and Hierarchies in Post-Millennium Hong Kong Cinema
Replacing the Gangster as Romantic and Tragic Anti-hero
Confucian Order, Hierarchy, and Spirituality in Hong Kong Triads
Politics, Social Order, and Hierarchy in Johnnie To’s Election Films
Triads as Obedient Followers in Election 1
Free-Market Relationships in Election 2
Lines of Power in the Election Films
State Control and Social Order
Triad Hierarchy and Social Order
Preserving the Natural Order of Things
Nihilism in the Infernal Affairs Trilogy
Chapter 27 Jung Doo-hong and the Gangster Body: Kkangpae in Contemporary South Korean Cinema
Korean Gangster Cinema in the 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s
A Companion to the Gangster Film
Disclaimer: Any content in publications that violate the sovereignty, the constitution or regulations of the PRC is not accepted or approved by CNPIEC.
