Crime Thriller Analysis

Conventions of a Crime Thriller: Suspenseful account of successful or failed crimes, it features murders/robberies/shoot outs/double-crosses. Can glorify the rise and fall of the criminal mastermind and sometimes focuses on real life criminals. They are usually set in large crowded cities and characters seek recognition and success. There is a strong rivalry between the binary opposites.

For our crime thriller analysis we chose the film 'the untouchables'. In this film, there is a fight between the government and a corrupt businessman turned gangster who has control over most of Chicago. The Antagonist in this film is Al Capone, the gangster, and the protagonist is the treasury department agent Elliot Ness. Al Capone is looking for success which links in with the crime conventions and there is a strong rivalry between him and Ness who are the binary opposites. Also, Al Capone was a real life criminal, which links in with the conventions.

The city of Chicago is in real life a very large city of the United States. This links in with the crime thriller convention of the film set in large crowded cities. This gives the audience a chance to have an insight into a secret world.

The Untouchables features all of the conventions of robberies, murders, shoot outs and double crosses; especially the latter, as it is focused on how corrupt the city of Chicago has got. The protagonist is very stereotypical of the thriller genre, being set on several occasions in the film in peril situations. He also has a weakness in the form of his family, which get focused on in attempts to get to the protagonist Ness.