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Crime Film Historical Accuracy

538 Words3 Pages

I have chosen to write about crime films set in 70s New York and their historical accuracy, because I am an aspiring filmmaker. Thus studying about the worlds most renowned movie set, New York and analyzing to what extent filmmakers got inspired by the reality of the “Big Apple” is a very fascinating and intricate topic. Specifically crime films are very interesting as they were made by the great directors of modern cinema. With this paper I wish to deceiver how much the filmmakers grounded their films in reality and how much of the films were pure artistic interpretation.

In my paper I will not be investigating the main plot of the films, but the tone and portrayal of New York. This I will compare to historical evidence which I have gathered. To cover as much of the topic as possible and creating engaging interpretation I will be deviating from the main topic occasionally by analyzing the similarities between the biographical stories of people and how they are portrayed in the films. This will be done in the films “American Gangster” and “Goodfellas” as these are based around real stories and people. “Goodfellas” isn’t the only film by Martin Scorsese that I will be analyzing, however his film “Taxi Driver” is based on a fictional character. Therefore I will compare that film more to his childhood in which, according to him, he witnessed a lot of gang activity. Apart from these deviations I will be following a structure of analyzing one film at a time, then comparing it the to historical data I have. After having done this for all three …show more content…

For example, if it turns out New York is portrayed as a wonderful city in films, but in truth it was a horrible place to live in at the time, the perception of the masses will be skewed by what films make New York out to be. This demonstrates the power of film and how our awareness of reality can be

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