Camonte – Lawrence N

The character, Tony Camonte, is a criminal gangster that is distasteful yet hard to completely hate. At first, when the scene shows Camonte murdering Louis Costello, I had hoped that the police would catch Camonte and convict him; he was basically just another murderer who I thought needed to be caught and convicted. However, when the police came to arrest Camonte, I could not help but be humored by Camonte’s deliberate passive resistance. His character’s actions almost completely changed my view of him. His original bad criminal character became this cool, hotshot character that could get out of whatever he wanted. It was as if he gained my loyalty and I was almost rooting for him to get away. Everything from the blatant content to the policeman to his bold attitude even while detained contributed to the comical character I saw portrayed.
I also see Tony Camonte as a very smart guy. He is not necessarily intelligent, but he definitely has the smarts for a gangster. He knows when to hold in his thoughts and how to act around certain people. The first time I saw this was when he was being arrested at the barbershop. He probably already knew that he would not be detained for very long, so no matter what the policeman did, Camonte was very controlled through the entire scene. A similar situation arose when Camonte was with his boss. It seemed as though Camonte did not agree with his boss on many things but he restrained himself from saying anything to upset his boss.
Although I began to like the character of Tony Camonte, some of his later actions started to get a little old to me; however, very fitting. The way he showed an obvious attraction to the woman who his boss was with made him lose his comical classiness. Before, he seemed like this confident, strong gangster who is too good for everything but when he was in the presence of the woman, he became the stereotypical guy who lusts for beautiful women. The other thing that started to bother me was that he began to make stupid decisions against his boss’s orders such as messing outside of the territory he was instructed to stay in. His insubordination caused big issues for his gang and that was a dumb move on his part.
As far as glorification of gangs and violence, this movie takes the gold medal. There really is no cooler way to portray gangs than to see them get away with whatever they want. From the start, we see Camonte murdering and easily slipping through the hands of law enforcement without as much as breaking a sweat. Then there are all the scenes where the gangsters walk into any place they want and either getting what they want with threats or just blowing up an entire business. As far as I’m concerned, this movie not only failed to censor certain truths about gangs, it glorified violence and gangs.

Intro Text – Lawrence N

If the the introduction text was added to increase censorship in the movie, then that purpose was completely defeated. I don’t quite understand how the text was ever intended to censor the movie because it basically says, “this is what happens in America!” while the movie goes on to show criminal gangsters blatantly disrespecting and breaking the law and getting away with it. If the law enforcement and government can not control these incidents, what are civilians supposed to do about it? We learned that certain portrayals of government officials and family members were not allowed to be put in the motion picture, but it was so obviously implied in the movie through actions and reactions of the characters. If anything, I think the “censorship” made the movie even more realistic because in real life, I doubt that things such as corrupt government officials or incestuous relationships would be obviously identified.

Introductions – Lawrence N

Hey guys, my name is Lawrence. I was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana but I grew up here in Northern Virginia. Last semester I transferred to George Mason from Louisiana State University after the first three weeks of school (including hurricane Gustav) due to various reasons including being homesick. As for high school, I went to Robinson Secondary School in Fairfax through my sophomore year and then transferred to Freedom High School over in Loudoun County for my last two years. I am currently pursuing a Bachelor of Music degree with a concentration in Music Education. I have a huge interest in playing and teaching many different instruments but clarinet is my primary. My other main area of interest is in marching band, drum corps, and drumline. I’m am currently a member of the George Mason University “Mean Green” Drumline. I also work as the Visual Coordinator for the Freedom HS Indoor Drumline and also as a visual instructor for the Spirit of Freedom Marching Band.