Production Contexts
US v UK - A case study
The Krays (1990) was directed by Peter
Medak.
The
Krays (1990) movie follows the life of the twin crime-lords in London's '60s
underworld.
Goodfellas (1990) was directed by
Martin Scorsese.
Goodfellas (1990) follows
the character of Henry Hill and his friends work their way up through the mob
hierarchy.
Both films are a similar genre being Biography, Crime,
and Drama but
are very different which will outline below in detail.
Below I will also
explore the relationship between films and their production contexts also
considering basic differences between US and UK film industries.
With films they all could be
saturation release this depends on how the film is released it could be limited
to where they release it or it could be national or wide release. With
Goodfellas like many films the saturation release is wide and national to the
general public to watch it wasn’t limited to certain areas.
As you can see with
Goodfellas (1990) it produced a poster as seen below which at that time most
people saw because of the day and age.
The Krays (1990) in terms of
saturation release the film was a wide and national relase in several countires
of the World however as a British film it came out the beginning of 1990 27 of
April however in some counitres like Sweden it wasn’t shown till the 2nd
of November 1991. As you can see with The Krays it produced a poster as seen above which at that time most
people saw because of the day and age.
In most gangster films there
is some sort of tranpsort used mostly cars for the gansters to travel from one
lcation to the other in goodfellas and in the Krays case to they do this.
Like most gangster films you
see things in the film that make it look real for instance gangsters would be
wearing suits with ties, cufflinks, watch, ciggreats, weapons of some sort like
guns or knifes these props are all used for gangster films and is used for
Goodfellas. As seen in the image above most gangsters hang out at bars drinking
and smoking whilst having business meetings and general conversation. A fight
normally breaks out in the bar with glass being smashed typical expectation of
a crime drama film such as the two I’m focusing on The Krays (1990) and
Goodfellas (1990).
As seen in this picture of
the Krays film they use weapons to work there
way up in London with guns they also carry knifes which is used against
their enemys as seen in the scene at the pool table they pull knifes out whilst
fighting their opposition. In a typical Gangster, crime drama film youn expect
as an audience to see tension, agression of the characters fighting with one
another with blood by use of physical agression such as weapons and fists.
Difference
between both films is one the revenue and two the locations used as I will
explain below;
In terms of
locations the Krays used East London and Goodfellas used New York, Jersey.
In terms of
the budget Goodfellas budget was 25,000,000 million Medium budget because it wasn’t
a blockbuster. In box office it made 46.836,394 million in the US and in
opening week it made $6,368,901 with 1,070 screens.
However with The Krays it made $2,060,847 (USA) and budget of 1million with a low budget non blockbuster.
Both films
are similar because of the genre set for instance both are crime, drama and
biography
Both follow
a traditional gangster film for instance Goodfellas follows US crime films such
as The Godfather (1930s) a film back in noir period and more recent film American
Gangster (2007). With The Krays it follows the films such as UK crime films
like Brighton Rock, Get Carter all similar traditional crime films.
Difference also in the two films is the cast used The Krays used Martin
and Gary Kemp not as a list cast or well-known but known for stars in Jacknory
(1972-75) and The Tomorrow People (1973). However in Goodfellas there were established
a list cast with well-known actors In Joe Pesci, Robert De Niro and Ray Liotta
known for big movies such as Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980) and Lethal
Weapon 2 (1989) this helped establish people going to watch Goodfellas.
Another thing with these established a list actors is the fact there is
a big fan base for the actors that people watch his movies because there in it
or the director because they like there work or a franchise has been made. This
is the same case with directors in terms of people will watch the same director
if they have made a good film they will continue to watch the director or if they’re
work is good too a director helps like an actor to create money.
