Organised crime is considered one of the more popular and lucrative themes of Hollywood production. Due to certain ambiguous definitions and covert action, gangsters in films are subjected to various forms of romanticisation and mythologizing. The primary goal of the thesis will be to examine the way in which Martin Scorsese represents and develops the character of the Italian gangster in his film classics. Based on the analysis of representations, I will analyse the main features of Italian gangsters and their attitudes towards violence, family and church. In the empirical part, I will use semiotic analysis to compare the development of the characters of Italian gangsters based on four popular films by Martin Scorsese. Because films move in the time span of the fifty years, from 1973 to 2019, I will examine the main significance and legacy of the gangsters with whom Scorsese impresses both audiences and professional critics. However, since Scorsese has been facing criticism lately for the lack of female characters in his films, I will, among other things, try to confirm or refute these accusations.
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