“American Hustle” film analysis.
Introduction.
The movie “American Hustle” is a film that tells the story of two con artists Irving Rosenfeld and Sydney Prosser, who make a living by reaping people of their hard-earned money. Richie DiMaso, who is a federal agent, uses bait to trap the two, and lucky for him, he catches both of them in the act trying to swindle him, and Sydney is arrested for taking the cheque that was used as bait. After three days in a holding cell, Sydney and Irving agree to work for the federal bureau of investigation in helping them make bursts of fellow con artists. The deal they make with the agency is that they are to make four bursts in exchange for their freedom.
Just as it all seems to end after taking the deal, the entry of a multimillion-dollar deal being backed the FBI through a fake sheik makes things harder than they had bargained for. In the course of trying to finalize the deal, various themes such as conflict, human nature, and an array of emotions put the characters will to overcome to test in how much they can take. The end of the film is marked with the arrest of high-ranking senior politicians, including the mayor, a friend of Irving, and the dismissal of Richie Dimaso for wrongful conduct during the investigation (Russell). The following is a rundown of the various elements of the film.
- The true subject or theme of the film, kind of statement the film makes about the subject.
The central theme of the movie is about fraud. Irving is regarded as the best in what he does, and after a while, he recruits Sydney, who joins him in the trade. The duo continues making money by reaping people off, and in the end, after all they have been through, they start a legitimate gallery business after securing a loan from a bank. The film makes several statements regarding the theme of fraud. Through the use of flashbacks, we are given a context of how their past lives were and their limited choices.
The scene of young Irving who started being a con as a way to drum up business for his father’s glass business by breaking windows in the neighborhood showed why Irving thought that he had no choice but to act the way he did because of how his father was treated as a pushover by people. In Sydney’s case, from an exotic dancer who did it out of being choiceless, and being a fraud brought hope and a bright future ahead. The transition from being choiceless to people who chose to stop being frauds is a powerful statement that the movie makes.
The other statement that the film makes is that we believe what we want to believe, and that is our driving force for our actions even when we are wrong. It is human nature, and the use of characterization as an element to contribute to the theme of the story is extensively used case in point the scene where Carmine explains to Irving that he does what he does because he wants to change the neighborhood. To him, the neighborhood is his family, and everything he does is for them. Even though what Carmine was doing was committing fraud and engaging in massive corruption, he believed that what he was doing was what was best in the interest of his constituents. His rationalizations for corrupt acts being what is best for the community only reinforces the statement made by the film that we believe what we want to believe.
- How all of the separate elements of the film relate to and contribute to the theme, central purpose, or total effect.
- Narrative
The narrative of the story begins in a non-linear manner where the story begins in the middle of a deal with mayor Carmine. Contrary to a chronological way of telling the story, the first act begins in the middle of the story, where all significant characters in the story are present in the first act. The plot starts with the introduction of Irving, who is making his hair, and later on, we are introduced to Sydney and Damaso. They all are heading for a meeting with Carmine, the mayor, on the potentialities of a multimillion-dollar deal.
The meeting acts as a means of introducing the characters where through the use of flashback and narration, the characters are introduced starting with Irving with scenes of his childhood and his lack of choices followed by Sydney’s past narration of her life. The use of a back story of how the two met is a device that is used to advance the plot structure and tell the narrative of how they fell in love. The scene where they met at a party marks the beginning of Irving and Sydney’s life together, and foreshadowing is used when Irving reveals to Sydney what he does for a living, which signaled the start of the plot for their life of fraud.
- Acting
The quality of acting in the film is top-notch, where the actors use various tools such as physical acting and acting naturally to deliver on their roles. The kind of emotions and clarity of ideas the film is putting across is made possible by the realistic acting that the cast is putting forward. In the whole movie, the cast assimilates into being their characters by using a method acting to show emotions in a realistic way (Foster 253). The change of the characters as the film progresses only proves how dynamic the characters are. A good example of how the character progresses is that of Sydney, who begins to question her life choices, her love for Irving, and with each confrontation of her insecurities or fear, she changes. In a scene that depicts the desperation of being unloved, Sydney tells Irving that she wants to find someone who will love her the way she loves him and, in that point, and time, the change in Sydney is seen, and she begins to pursue Dimaso’s love. The change in her feelings for Irving is also reinforced in the scene where she tells Irving’s wife that what they had was over, and she knew he would never leave her.
- Cinematography
The cinematography in the film and the use of three-point lighting gave life to the film. The use of an objective point of view to show intimate scenes of Irving and Sydney allows the audience to share in their intimacy. Most of the intimate conversations between characters were shot using the objective point of view (Foster 243). The subjective point of view was also used in the movie, and the most exciting scene where this tool was used was when Carmine was mad and turned violent towards Irving because of his betrayal. The shift of angles from the camera view during this scene, such as the neutral camera angle when characters were talking to one another, to the high camera in changing the subject and the use of the medium shot to enhance the quality of the film was used (Foster 244). A good example is the use of various camera angles to shoot the dialogue between Irving and Carmine when he confessed to what was going on in the deal.
- Editing
The editing of the film was fantastic. Unlike most movies where the pace and the tempo vary, the film had consistency in its pace and tempo. The anxiety, the suspicion, and the whipping up of the audience’s emotions were continuous from the start of the movie to the end. The organization of the film was excellent since it had the element of unpredictability. From the start of the movie, predicting what would happen next was impossible.
The organization of the narrative was so unpredictable because of its non-linear nature; therefore, it maintained suspense in the audience in wanting to know what would happen next. One of the techniques used in the editing of the movie dissolves to where it was used in the flashback scenes or remembering of past events by the characters (Foster 250). The use of dissolve in editing signaled a transition between different times in the film. This was used in the scene where we are introduced to the point and time where Irving and Sydney met.
- Art Direction and Design
The producer and art directors used locations, sets, and other tools to depict a 1970s theme. The location of the film was 1970s New York and the scenes were acted in the streets in the presence of cars that were in the streets back in the 1970s. The use of cinematography was used to fade out the modern structure of New York by capturing close-ups to avoid the capturing of internet masts and satellite dishes. The effects, such as the use of props, costumes, and makeup, were used to cause an illusion of the 1970s and also introduce the audience to the world of the characters in this case, which is the 1970s.
The dress code of the characters depicted a world where the characters live in a world with money while the makeup used by the ladies highlight how ladies did their make up in the 1970s. The art direction and design did an excellent job of making even the tiny details such as the homes of the characters, for example, carmines home, which was shown using an objective point of view to show how a 1970s home looked like.
- Director’s style and how they show it?
The director’s style in the movie can only be described as stoic realism with a touch of emotion (Foster 256). Various scenes show this as the director’s style. Irving’s character is persistent in displaying this style. In one of the final scenes where Richie Dimaso and the agency want to finalize their investigation, the agency discovers that two million dollars go missing and that they have been conned.
The use of conflict by the director, in this case, to show how stoic Irving became by using rhetoric to get himself out of the accusation that was being leveled against him that he was the one who stole the two million dollars. In reality, the money was lost, and the agency needed it back, and with this reality, plenty of emotions were sparked in the room. Richie Dimaso was hardest hit by disappointing emotions when he realized that he was responsible for the loss of the 0money since he did not do his due diligence. The director’s style rides on human nature and action in the characters to sufficiently bring out his style.
- Reactions to the film and reasons for liking the film.
My reaction to the film is that I liked it. For me, it was educative and an eye-opener to the unspoken world of fraud. Many times the conversation about fraud does not go beyond the act itself. Why people engage in fraud, how it affects us more so on a personal level is left unsaid. The film gave an exposition of the dynamic nature of fraud and the art of being a con. From the characteristics of a con, the faces behind the con to how fraud affects individuals, families, and society, the movie did justice in showing the nature of fraud.
What was interesting about the film is how the life of fraud affects and touches almost all of us. The main characters Irving and Sydney, painted a picture of how conning oneself in our personal lives happens more times than we choose to admit. In one of the scenes, Irving argues that we con ourselves into believing what is not true by not weighing the risks simply because we want to believe what we want to believe, which is a principle in the art of scamming.
Conclusion
In conclusion, just like any societal ill, the first step in solving the problem is understanding the problem. Although tells the story of true events in the 1970s, seems to mirror what is happening in our current society where fraud is still very much rampant, and the film gives society a chance to make their wrong right by sending the message that we always have choices and scamming or committing fraud has no happiness in it.
Works Cited
American Hustle. Dir. David O. Russell. Prods. Charles Roven et al. 2013. DVD.
Foster, William Rod. Contemporary Film History. Kendall Hunt Publishing, 2018. VitalSource Bookshelf. < https://online.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781524971878/>.