Codes and Conventions of Crime Genre

Crime and Gangster Films are developed around the sinister actions of criminals or gangsters, particularly bankrobbers, underworld figures, or ruthless hoodlums who operate outside the law, stealing and violently murdering their way through life. Criminal and gangster films are often categorized as post-war film noir or detective-mystery films - because of underlying similarities between these cinematic forms

Crime stories in this genre often highlight the life of a crime figure or a crime's victim(s). Or they glorify the rise and fall of a particular criminal(s), gang, bank robber, murderer or lawbreakers in personal power struggles or conflict with law and order figures, an underling or competitive colleague, or a rival gang. Headline-grabbing situations, real-life gangsters, or crime reports have often been used in crime films. Gangster/crime films are usually set in large, crowded cities, to provide a view of the secret world of the criminal: dark nightclubs or streets with lurid neon signs, fast cars, piles of cash, sleazy bars, contraband, seedy living quarters or rooming houses.

Gangster films are morality tales. Success stories turned upside down in which criminals live in an inverted dream world of success and wealth. Often from poor immigrant families, gangster characters often fall prey to crime in the pursuit of wealth, status, and material possessions (clothes and cars), because all other "normal" avenues to the top are unavailable to them. Although they are doomed to failure and inevitable death (usually violent), criminals are sometimes portrayed as the victims of circumstance, because the stories are told from their point of view.

What makes a gangster film?
1. The hero is in a poor state who dislikes his low status in life and wants more.
2. Unlike the Western, this story takes place in the big city. The wide open plains have been traded in for the seedy alleyways and wharves of the urban jungle.
3. The gangster can only gain power by taking it by any means necessary.
4. The only loyalty the gangster feels is for his own immigrant roots.
5. Success is measured in material goods – flashy cars, expensive clothes, and mansions. Women are measures of success as well.
6. The hero’s enemy is society, and the enforcers of the law. The police, the FBI, the CIA represent the enforcers of society
7. The end justifies the means.

Film nior is a type of crime film that usues black and white. The idea behind it is you use dark and light shading to build scenes and add drama and suspense to the film

Suspense Thriller is another type of crime film usually involving lots of violence and action but not always. It involves a dramatic plot which keeps the audience on the edge of thier seat. There is normally a huge twist which creates the suspense part of the suspense thriller.