Having primarily male-centered films within the walls of the gangster genre, Scorsese has successfully found the surroundings of the gangster film to be his stage for masculine action, drama, and thought.These gangsters are, first and foremost, men, and as such they have quite distinct ideas of proper masculine behavior, attitudes, and inclinations. There is a mob-based code of conduct that fuels this with a ‘you scratch my back I’ll scratch yours’ mentality that takes place. While some aspects could be considered as an “Italian American crime thriller” like The Godfather, the film itself does not follow most of the conventions. The film takes a different approach to the value of family compared to generic Italian gang films. For example the