One of the biggest things I've noticed with gangster movies, like Scarface and The Public Enemy, the main characters, though being a sly and deceptive, are charming and successfully seduces the girls that they're interested in. What is most interesting is that they could treat the girls horribly, or even just say sexist things to them yet they still "fall in love" with him.
In The Public Enemy, the main character, Tom, seduces a girl off the street into his car and excessively flirts with her. What makes this scene really apparent is that she responds with the same magnitude of enthusiasm that he came on her with; She happily hops into the back of his car and he gets "touchy-feely" with her.
In Scarface, Tony manages to make Poppy, another guy's "property," "his girl." At first, she plays it off that she hates him and ignores him but he tries harder and harder to "get on her good side." He eventually grows on her and then she eventually falls for him.
I guess this says something about American culture at that time. It says "men could be players and women are supposed to be submissive."
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That's an interesting point about the charm of gangsters, Royce, and your examples suggest that women in these films are more attracted to gangsters than to more conventional types of men.
ReplyDeletethis is true, that IS the point that i was trying to make, yet it was also intended that i was leaving an open interpretation of what "this" says about society now as well as society then.
ReplyDeleteThe question is, "how much has this stereotype really changed over the past century? over history?"
Eh, I think it's just because we are fascinated by what were told we can't do. We love to watch someone get away with a trick or break a rule. It's wrong but that's why we want it. Don't you know bout that?
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