There is something about gangsters and the world of organized crime that has made it an ideal target for cinema. Since the dawn of the medium, the crime genre has been a staple of the industry. Filmmakers and studios haveaspired to craft the next great gangster moviefor each generation. As a result, audiences have a high bar for the genre, with totemic examples, such asThe GodfatherandGoodfellas, representing the peak of the art form entirely.
The genre, ranging from Pre-code Hollywood to the present day, is versatile, as they can be satisfactory B-movies or contemplative portraits of America and the violent urges of humanity. No matter the scope or dignity of a gangster film in the modern day,no classic film influenced the likes ofThe Godfather,Goodfellas, orThe Sopranosmore thanWhite Heat.This James Cagney moviedismantled all the nobility of the criminal lifestyle.
White Heat
James Cagney Was Hollywood’s Go-To Gangster
Gangster films, along with “sex” films of female empowerment, were the genres most synonymous with the storied Pre-code era of Hollywood, the era when mainstream moviesexplored provocative themes and displayed unflinching levels of violencebefore the Hays Code called upon studios to censor explicit content. The home of the gangster genre was Warner Bros.,which forever shaped the iconography of Prohibition-era mobsters shooting Tommy guns in the streets.If a film called for a gangster, criminal, or any hostile force, James Cagney was first on the call sheet.Best remembered forThe Public Enemy,Angels With Dirty Faces, andThe Roaring Twenties, Cagney’s lively physical presence and unassuming quick-wit embodied the legend of the American gangster. He was suited to portraying all kinds of complicated modern-day outlaws, such as professional thief Cody Jarrett inWhite Heat, theaccumulation of Cagney’s ingeniousness as an actor.
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In 1949, whenWhite Heatwas released, films were not granted the same freedoms of expression as their Pre-code counterparts. If a crime film sought to tackle the same controversial subjects as before, it had to be coded to satisfy the censor boards. DirectorRaoul Walsh, who directed Cagney inThe Roaring Twenties, showed little care in sanitizing the criminal underworld withWhite Heat, which follows Cody Jarrett, a ruthless gang leader who faces countless obstacles to restore his thieving enterprise. After breaking out of prison and evading assassination attempts, he orchestrates a daring heist at a chemical plant. Hanging over the series of betrayals and violence is Cody’s relationship with his mother, Ma Jarrett (Margaret Wycherly), who is just as crooked and ambitious as her son. While Cody belongs to aworld of rampant masculine urges,he is proverbially attached to his mother’s hip, as she’s always there to encourage him and heal his wounds.
‘White Heat’ Explores the Psychological Impact of Crime
White Heatis certainly an appropriate title for this film that presents crime and punishment at its most inflammatory. While crime movies before and after this were more garish in their depiction of physical violence,White Heatshowed an unprecedented level of psychological unrest.The criminal trade is not so much a choice for Cody, but rather, a curse placed on him.A far cry from the noble vigilantism of classic gangster films or the intoxicatingthrill ride ofMartin Scorsesefilms, there is little joy from Cody and his gang. They rob trains because there is simply no other route to take.
While criminal protagonists in films are inherently anti-heroic, as the audience naturally sympathizes with a morally fraught lead character, Cagney’s take on a hardened criminal as a tragic figure encapsulates the charm of the anti-hero archetype and why they dominated prestige television during the 21st century. As his career progressed, Cagney broke out of being typecast as a gangster and subsequently unveiled hisuntapped humanism in films likeYankee Doodle Dandy. InWhite Heat, Cody could feasibly exist in any other kind of film,as he deals with universal emotional dilemmas. His greatest downfall is a product of his Freudian complex with his mother rather than heat from law enforcement.
‘White Heat’s Mother-Son Relationship Might Be the Boldest Part of the Movie
White Heat’s most audacious element is the perverse relationship between mother and son, Ma and Cody Jarrett. Those familiar with a certain HBO mob drama may find the presence of an overbearing mother who controls and alienates her powerful crime boss quite familiar.David Chase, creator ofThe Sopranos, has cited James Cagney’s moviesas an inspiration for Tony Soprano(James Gandolfini). In Season 1 of his groundbreaking series, Chase forces the audience tolend some sympathy to a stone-cold killerin Tony by showing that he is merely a product of his cold-hearted, domineering mother, Livia (Nancy Marchand).
Subverting gender norms and the nuclear family were radical choices in 1949, andWalsh effectively renders these thematic complexities into the framework of a gripping drama/crime thriller.WithThe Godfather,Francis Ford Coppolaaimed to craft a story akin to a modern-dayKing Lear, and thedynamic of a tragic familyis prevalent inWhite Heat. The raw,unflinching brutality of Scorsese’sMean StreetsandGoodfellasare indebted toWhite Heat, and even non-crime films likeRaging Bull, featuring ananti-hero with a volatile streakto compensate for his deep-seated insecurity, is pure Cody Jarrett.
The Desperation of the Criminal Underworld Is on Full Display in ‘White Heat’
Any film that tackles multiple genres is bound to become a jumbled mess, but Raoul Walsh not onlyconverged the gangster, film noir, and heist genres into one story, but each element revolutionized the future of its respective genre. The1940s was the peak of film noir, popularized by the films ofBilly Wilder,John Huston, andHoward Hawks. The psychological angst of sturdy tough guys and the cold examination of the underbelly of American society is more than present inWhite Heat.WhileMichael Mannpushed the procedural aspectof the heist genre more thoroughly, Walsh’s film goes behind the curtain and reveals the criminal process of Cody’s gang. The average crime film tends to keep the logistics and motivations of a crime abstract, butWhite Heatunderstood that criminal life is innately appealing on the outside, indicating why ordinary people turn to it and the public embraces them as Robin Hood-like figures. It’s only when the film spotlights the despair and poignance of its gangster characters does the criminal enterprise look like a hellscape.
White Heat’s closing momentwas enough to canonize the film as a timeless classic. As Cody feels the heat of the police and a nearby gas tank during the climactic heist, his demise is inevitable. After shooting his own crew members and a flammable storage tank, Cody shouts"Made it, Ma! Top of the world!“as the tank explodes. The line is a reference to a sequence early in the film when the mother and son sit at the table and toast to being at the “top of the world,” before a heist. The bleak undertones ofWhite Heatare put on full blast in its final moments. Despite being engulfed in an inferno, the almighty Cody Jarrettcan never escape the suffocating influence of his late mother.The film is undeniably a classic of the gangster genre, particularly because it served as an original revisionist gangster film, as it depicted crime with a poisonous psychological complex.
White Heatis available to rent on Prime Video in the U.S.
