Has the gangster Genre moved on over time or has it remained static? The two films that I have chosen to analyze are Carlito's Way (1993) and Out of Sight (1998) both films are of the gangster/crime genre.

Al Pacino came from an Italian background therefore was the perfect actor to play gangster roles. He made numerous films later on but the ones that stand out are Scarface (1983) and Carlito's Way, both directed by Brian DePalma.

Carlito's Way is set in the mid 70' in New York, USA. Carlito is a small time ex druglord trying to get away from this type of lifestyle. He keeps trying to break away but always seems to be back where he originally put himself. Carlito Brigante's intention is to go straight but his past keeps haunting him. David Koepp's screenplay has the depth it needs when an ex-druglord must endure when trying to escape his violent past. The editing and Stephen Burum's camerawork are a visual splendor for the emotional story.

Al Pacino also narrates his own film which makes the viewer be on his side a lot of the time as we only se his views and life through Carlito's eyes.

Carlito is dressed quiet smartly in black suits and ties whereas his other gangster mates sometimes dressed in colourful clothes, totally keeping them and Carlito apart. The start of the film starts with weird and unusual camera angle's on Pacino as Carlito is passing out looking at a picture of Hawaii and the word Paradise and palm trees which we saw in Scarface so this is self referential cinema. This use of palm trees connotes paradise and trying to tell Carlito that heaven is a bit too far for him to reach. There is a scene where Carlito is having flashbacks of him in white suit and dancing, this connotes innocence and having fun when he was younger which he later regrets.

There are a lot of scenes in Carlito's club and other sleazy clubs where the camera just pans around the club showing the audience of what his life is all about. Palma's stamp on the film is about fast editing and inventive editing. The bent or corrupt cracked up lawyer is always been shown in grey suits and extreme close ups of him played in the background by snaky type music making out that he's not all he seems to be to Carlito. And towards the end Carlito sees through him.

There is another major part of the film, which doesn't seem to fit into the crime genre, which is the love story. Gail played by Penelope Ann is Carlito's long time girlfriend who sticks with him throughout the film and is they're sobbing when he dies. It is very unusual for these types of films to spend so much screen time on the love story. There is a scene where the lawyer is asking Carlito for help whereas it should be the other way round.

Out of Sight is totally different and more modern as in it was made in 1998. The story line is that a career bank robber, Jack Foley (George Clooney) breaks out of jail and shares a moment of mutual attraction with FBI agent Karen Sisco (Jennifer Lopez) he has kidnapped.

In this film there are a lot of frame freezing going on, to join up scenes or to separate scenes. The director, Steven Soderbergh uses reverse camera shot and uses light cleverly. This film has two major stars whereas older gangster films didn't. Out of Sight is about opposites attracting each other, a FBI agent attracted to a bank robber. We can see the affects of this when there are three guys trying to buy Karen a drink but she refuses then as soon as Jack comes in the scene she's got a smile and says yeah immediately for a drink with Jack. Lopez is not scared at all when she's in the boot of the car with Foley. It's almost like they're having a normal day to day chat with each other. The film can be confusing at times because you keep going back and forward but the director uses the colours on the prison shirts well.

Throughout the film George and Lopez play important roles and the director and producers do it very cleverly and neatly.

Overall I would say the Crime/Gangster genre has moved on over time because of the way audiences have come to realize what a gangster actually is and how the word is portrayed in the media recently. Whereas in the 70's the films were about the Mafia and the Mob this is backed up by films such as The Godfather trilogy. Recent gangster films have involved more of a romance part to it and a lot more screen time on the stories, not like 30-40 years ago where the girls where seen as hookers and one night stands or blonde bimbo's where the girls just listen to anything the man said. Also Films have moved on in the way of technology obviously. You can get more expensive better cameras and directors can play about with a lot more camera techniques and angles. More lighting techniques are used and basically everything does move on over time nothing stays static.