Abstract: Crime films have been the most enduringly popular genre since the dawn of sound era in Hollywood. Mob and gangster films are a sub-genre of crime films and deals with the mafia and their organized crime focusing on rise and fall of power. These films primarily have stacks of money, guns, flashy cars, illegal goods, cluster of goons, crime families, and a plot with a central theme coupled with violence. Hollywood gangster films in the 1930’s had liberally drawn inspiration from the newspapers and books of the era. Films of gangster genre are strongly driven by themes such as power, loyalty, betrayal, rivalry, morality, revenge, masculinity, materialism etc. Motifs and symbols add structures and contrasts to effectively convey them. Gangster films, when viewed from an American perspective are to achieve the “American dream” that is to be rich and successful with the most power, one can obtain. The Godfather, a 1972 American crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola exposes the dark side of the American dream. Betrayal, revenge, masculinity, morality, and violence are some of the predominant themes which drive the film The Godfather. This paper focuses on the study, portrayal and execution styles of three such themes, Revenge, Masculinity and Glorification of Violence and the motifs in the film The Godfather.
Keywords: Crime, Mafia, Godfather, Revenge, Masculinity, Violence.
Title: Revenge, Masculinity and Glorification of Violence in the Godfather
Author: Abhilash B S
International Journal of Social Science and Humanities Research
ISSN 2348-3156 (Print), ISSN 2348-3164 (online)
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