Within the last few years, the gangster film as a genre has slowly begun to appear yet again. From Johnny Depp in “Public Enemies” in 2009 to more recently “Gangster Squad” starring Josh Brolin, this genre has entranced audiences with its tommy guns and suited smooth talkers.

Thomas Beell, instructor of JlMC 454: History of the Moving Image, explains the roots of the genre.

“Probably Warner Brothers really made the gangster movie a big genre with a lot of success” Beell said. “They had a whole crew of people, Humphrey Bogart, Edward G. Robinson; they had probably a dozen guys. So they made a lot of these films and they were very popular.”

Beell explained how the popularity of these films comes from the fact that they are loosely based on actual people and events.

“There was this idea that the ‘stories were ripped from the headlines’ that’s one of the lines they would use in previews,” Beell said. “… In the late 20s and 30s you hear a lot about Capone. But there were gangs that would roam around robbing banks and so on. … There was a lot of interest in it. And it was in the headlines, and movies tend to do better when there is a pre-existing market for it.”

Why are these films so popular with audiences? Beell believes it is an innate ideology that speaks to our population. It tells us to question authority.

“There is a theory that Americans are drawn to people who sort of challenge authority. It’s kind of in our nature anyway. … We are much more inclined to challenge authority,” Beell said. “I think starting in the 30s people felt that the system was really grinding them up and the banks as much as anybody represented the implementation of the system and driving people out of their homes.”

In addition to recreating events, the studios had to work their way around the new production code.

“Part of the challenge of that period was that the movie production code was really getting established,” Beell said. “And it said that evil must be punished and the good must prevail … so what they would do is have the bad guys prevail until the last reel. Then the retribution would come in.”