Recently I’ve been trying to develop the Mulby’s character and story arcs within my outline, as I feel that’s where my concept is currently the most lacking. In order to help I’ve been reading up on how mobsters have been portrayed within different texts across the years and how it relates to their real-life ations. And whilst reading an evaluation of The Sopranos (HBO, 1999-2007) I found a common theme within these representations which I could exaggerate within my outline, and that theme is that all representations of mob culture tend to focus on the ‘hypermasculinity’ (Nochimson, 2005, 185), how large groups of well-dressed men meet together in secret to discuss business about powerful weapons and corruption. It’s something I’d want to explore more within the characters that I’ve created for the family as a whole – seeing as the Mulbys will only really act as tertiary characters to apply pressure to Anton and Angelos in their search for Michael and Jacob.

The Mulby Family (Don Elway, Gertrude Mulby, Hicks Mulby) – the other members of the Mulby family/crime organisation. Used to apply pressure to Angelos and Anton in finding the witnesses to the murder.

Even though it’s less reported on less prevalent than in America, mafia crime syndicates do still exist within the UK on a smaller level, though my portrayal of them within my outline will probably follow the typical representation of the subject matter, seen in films like The Godfather (Coppola, 1972) and countless others.

 

I then began to think of places which could act as the family’s base of operations. As the film is set within a rural Kent town I began to think back on the business present within the small rural Kent town I grew up in. I remember loving my local play center (Tiger’s Eye – Pictures above) when I was smaller, a large (at least at the time), sprawling place for children to spend a few hours whilst their parents conversed and downed coffee in the seating area. I often wondered when I was younger what took place behind the scenes, as I knew the building in which the play area took up was larger than what was on display. I started to piece together that the Mulbys could operate a play center similar to this one, only to have it as a front to their business. I like the contrast in how the most innocent business on the high street secretly holds the darkest actions in the whole town.

Bibliography:

The Sopranos (1999-2007) [Download]. HBO.

Nochimson, M, P. (2005) Waddaya Lookin’ At? Rereading the gangster film through The Sopranos. In: Grieveson, L. Sonnet, E and Stanfield, P (eds.) Mob Culture: Hidden Histories of the American Gangster Film. Oxford: Berg Publishing, 185.

Coppola, F.F. (dir.) (1972) The Godfather [DVD]. Paramount Pictures.