The Godfather, Part II: The Gangster Film and Capitalism Timothy Sexton College

Until the eyewitness testimony, tell-all books, and recorded conversations by former intimates revealed to the world the way Donald Trump ran his business, the strongest evidence drawing a parallel between “legitimate businessman” and Mafia bosses as twin sons of American capitalistic was limited to the speculation portrayed on screen in The Godfather, Part II. Tracing the lineage of the gangster film all the way to its most seminal productions of the early 1930’s like Scarface, Little Caesar and Public Enemy illustrates how the genre has always been about—above all else—drawing into sharper focus for the audience the blurry line dividing how success is attained in the cutthroat world of mobsters on the wrong side of the law and the cutthroat world of respectable business executives enjoying the protection of the law. The controlling thematic pursuit of the always reliable commercial appeal of the gangster film has always been based upon at least as undertone the similar if not identical modes of general behavior required to rise to power and sustain it regardless of which line of the legal divide one stands. The gangster is merely a mirror reflection of the CEO, an image reversed only for the purpose of creating a disquieting...