2. 2
SUMMARY RESPONSE
Little Caesar
"Mother of Mercy, is this the end of
Rico?" (Kaminsky, 1972)
Rico moves to unnamed city, that he joins a
gang with ambitions to be a criminal boss.
Little Caesar is the first and foremost movie
that set innovations on classical movies.
The movie starts with Rico as a simple
criminal, holding up small town gas station
with help of his friend Joe Massara, whose
interest is on dancing (Kaminsky, 1972).
Rico finds his way to becoming the bodyguard
to Sam Vettori who was the greatest mobster in
the city and later subjected to humiliation and
inevitable downfall.
A classical mobster movie famous in 1930s in
America with rising and falling gang star
before fade.
Caesar begins in ‘humility’ and dies with
‘humility’. This depicts his rising as gangstar
and his ‘humbled’ ending that persuades
audience to be pitiful.
Because of these ambitions Rico dies on
getting shot.
This saw the subsequent production of movies
like Scarface and Angels with dirty faces.
The power of friendship, and influence see Joe
pulled into criminal life by Rico despite his
desires to avoid crime.
This is a forecast and an illusion on what
would later befall Rico
3. 3
Rico is seen as superficially kingpin in crime
scenes and therefore through Joe a subplot is
created in the movie. Joe falls in love with
Olga as he pursues his dancing interests in a
clu b controlled by Vettori.
Ogla pulls her boyfriend to the straight ways,
but Rico pulls him in opposite direction
(Kaminsky, 1972).
Rico kills anti-crime cop, who was on a
mission to suppress him before his crime
actions affects many (Kaminsky, 1972). This
cop was known as Flaherty.
The script contains language with the slang of
the day.
As the movie ends Rico is depicted as foolish,
arrogant and naïve character.
It is perfectly drawn that, most stars that take
part in crime movies have no instincts on love.
The theme of love is brought way to the
audience by a supporting character.
This finally leads to desires by Rico to kill his
friend Joe, who tends to know much about
him.
By this, the script writer depicts Rico, to equal
the personnel who should outdo him.
This means that one can only understand some
parts of the movie if he/she is well acquainted
with the slang of those days.
The screen writer is not after glorifying crime
by showing Rico’s heroism,even though as he
dies audience have mercy on him
