Gangster movies are usually inspired by the acts of ardent and impassioned, fiery anti-social elements and by instances of constructive crimes including gang fisticuffs , fray and brutal murders. At times the plot of a gangster movie is inspired by lives of real gangsters. In old gangster movies the gangsters were portrayed as victims of bad circumstances and had to die in the end. Generally the masses cannot digest the fact that villains or gangsters landed in safe hands. However, nowadays gangsters are no more situational victims. In modern times, movies depict that gangsters are drawn towards underworld of crime due to contemplation of making quick money, sometimes to settle some revenge or in rare cases just to unleash their inner devil as psychopathic killers.

Godfather trilogy, an iconic movie from old gangster movies, has set new standards for makers of gangster movies.  Some of the old gangster movies include American gangster, The departed and others like Goodfellas and Casino from hollywood whereas Don, Andha kanoon, sholay, Agneepath are some of the big hits from old gangster movies of  bollywood  The genre of cinema is highly influenced by the audience moods. However, the viewers have matured as they have shown acceptance to the fact that modern gangsters don't have to die necessarily now. People have shown inclination towards realistic cinema.  There are different types of gangster movies. Some gangster movies are based on the story line of a single gangster while others focus on the notion of depicting a whole gang war. There are films where a good side of a gangster is highlighted. This can well noticed in movies which are monocentric, where the story is narrated from gangster's point of view. In such stories a gangster is shown as a hero, rescuing lives of innocents and providing basic amenities to the needy and poor.

 In old gangster movies, generally, the story revolved around a prison. The story is usually concentrated on gangsters either turning into a reformed person during the course of their term or the story is just the reciprocal of it, for instance a prisoner gangster turning lunatic and killing his prison mates. During the era of 1940's gangster movies were extremely popular which is lacking now. The directors need to look at this genre of cinema with a new approach to recapture this evergreen genre. As long as people find entertainment in this genre of cinema gangster movies will continue to evolve.