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Social Criticism in "Dead Presidents"

t war such as The Deer Hunter, to social dramas about growing up in an urban environment. In its mixture of crime and American urban angst, Dead Presidents might be seen to have some affinity for Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in America, also a sprawling story covering a long period in American history. The mixture of these different references is not always smoothly accomplished. The heist movie is usually a unit unto itself, whereas here it is the second half of a film that is truly structured around a group of friends growing up together in a dangerous and yet seductive environment.

The 1991 film Reservoir Dogs can serve as a text for comparison. Reservoir Dogs is a film that takes a satiric look at itself, at the genre of the caper film and the dynamics of betrayal and the criminal code seen in such films. The film is extremely violent, which for many viewers may mask the satiric thrust of the story and the way the interplay of characters involves a twisted sense of morality, the so-called "honor among thieves" that here is a palpable presence holding together a group of professional criminals who have nothing else to believe in except that they will be able to rely on each other. As the film unfolds, though, they can rely on nothing in a universe of random events over which they have no control. Director Quentin Tarantino fuses form and content in a way that makes subtle references to other films in the same genre as a way of leading the viewer apparently in one direction only to toss in a twist and force the viewer to turn the other way. This is an exciting technique that infuses new life into what could be old situations. Even the violence is undercut by the technique so that it becomes hypnotic rather than repellant.

The second half of Dead Presidents uses a different method for undercutting the traditions of the heist film. Tarantino's criminals are professionals, while the Hughes Brothers' thieves have ...

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Social Criticism in "Dead Presidents". (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 11:15, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1693086.html