Mobsters the Ultimate Antihero

Abstract

The mobster and crime genre has been around for a very long time, nearly as long as film itself. While many people like to write off the mobster genre as violent and low brow it doesn't change the fact that it is enduringly popular and ripe for analysis. My particular interest in this subject comes from my love of the genre while under the Covid Quarantine shut down I spent a good chunk of my time re-watching The Sopranos by David Chase. During this time I grew curious as to why I loved the show so much and started relating to the characters. Almost all of the characters are people who do illegal things and have a very skewed moral compass. I kind of got obsessed and even went to a screening of Goodfellas in a theater over the summer. The lives of these on screen mobsters were just so interesting but also the characters were just so funny. My friends and I were constantly quoting some of the most iconic lines of these movies and shows.

Given this chance I have looked at what the scholars have said about mobsters and what the content had to offer. Through analyzing key scenes in The Godfather by Francis Ford Coppola, GoodFellas by Martin Scorsese and The Sopranos by David Chase, I wanted to answer the question as to what is an antihero ? This question was vital as those are who the mobsters are in film and television. It was tough to discern what characteristics make an antihero as they are very complex characters that do not follow a black and white moral compass. This then leads to my other question as to why do we relate to these anti heroes ? Through the lens of psychology I wanted to see what made us love and relate to these characters. We see them kill people and even turn their backs on people they once loved but how can we relate to characters that can do such bad things? Through my research I came to the conclusion that in reality, we do not want to be a mobster. Instead we want to garner their power and commend them for taking what they want which is taboo in one's normal everyday life. Mobsters are also relatable because they embody the

attributes of the American dream that we all ultimately strive for at the end of the day: money and power.