There has always been a Gangster film. Audiences have always been seduced by crime, greed, sex, and those who walk outside the boundaries of polite society. It’s an escapism for many who have jobs and bosses they hate.
Here’s the first ever Mafia film, The Black Hand (1906). It’s not part of our list but you can see how far we’ve come.
Goodfellas (1990)
We’re starting off this list strong. Adapted from Nicholas Pileggi’s Wiseguy, Goodfellas is probably the single greatest mafia movie of all time, and with the company on this list, that’s saying something.
There are tons of great scenes in Goodfellas, but I just love Maury. The guy who played him is great.
It was so influential on The Sopranos that originally David Chase wanted Ray Liotta as Tony Soprano. He didn’t get Henry Hill but he did get a hell of a lot of Goodfellas cast members for the show (28 in all), which we talked about in this article here.
Of course there’s also these two scenes which I love as well. Both are also funny, if there wasn’t so much blood this could have been a kickass comedy.
Miller’s Crossing (1990)
1990 was one hell of a year for Mob Movies. Fun fact, the Coen Brothers wrote the script for Barton Fink, a movie about a guy with writer’s block while they had writer’s block penning this script. I’m glad they stuck with it.
This neo-noir centers around Tom Reagan, a consigliere for Leo (pictured above and played by Albert Finney) but in the Irish mob I suppose they’d call that a right hand man. It takes place during the depression and a mob war between Leo and Johnny Caspar. We’ve mentioned in a previous article that it was highly influenced by Dashiell Hammett’s Red Harvest.
The Godfather (1972)
There were movies before The Godfather that involved the mafia, The Black Hand (1906) being the oldest. But Mario Puzo’s 1972 masterpiece broke the mold. Quotable, memorable, and beautifully shot The Godfather influenced not just movies but society as a whole. That can’t be said for most movies. This article from Smithsonian talks about The Godfather Effect and what the movie meant for Italian Americans.
We previously wrote an article about how The Godfather was in a book bonus edition for MALE magazine, illustrated by Mort Künstler and Earl Norem. It’s pretty cool seeing Norem’s interpretation on the horses head scene.
Rififi (1955)
Without Jules Dassin’s Rififi you don’t have Soderberg’s remake of Ocean’s Eleven, you don’t have Kubrick’s The Killing, and you don’t have Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs. This Film Noir was the grandfather of all the heist flicks.
Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
Co-written and directed by Italian filmmaker Sergio Leone, this epic crime flick is based on Harry Grey’s novel The Hoods. Grey’s real name was Herschel Goldberg and wrote The Hoods under a pseudonym while being a guest of the government in Sing-Sing prison.
The semi-autobiographical story is about the lives of best friends David “Noodles” Aaronson (Robert DeNiro) and Maximilian “Max” Bercovicz (James Woods) as they become Jewish Gangsters much like Meyer Lanksy and Bugsy Siegel. Like so many on this list it’s a very long movie, 3 hours and 49 minutes to be exact. But it’s a classic.
Casino (1995)
Always overshadowed by Goodfellas, Marty Scorsese’s film is again based on a Pileggi book. While the book is about real life mobsters Lefty Rosenthal and Tony Spilotro working in Mafia controlled casinos. Scorsese changed Lefty’s name to Sam “Ace” Rothstein. Sharon Stone is great in this, as is Robert DeNiro but I love Joe Pesci in this movie.
The Untouchables
This list is basically a DeNiro / Pacino highlight reel but whatever they’re great in these types of movies.
One of two Brian De Palma movies on this list stars Kevin Costner, Sean Connery, Robert DeNiro, and Andy Garcia. Costner plays Elliot Ness, the Prohibition Agent who brought down Al Capone and the co-author of the book David Mamet adapted the screenplay from.
The Godfather Part 2
This one is my favorite of the trilogy. With the story being intercut with the downfall of Michael Corleone and the making of Don Vito Corleone, it’s truly a masterpiece. The rise and fall of the two Corleone’s represents the Italian Mafia as a whole in America, rising with Prohibition and falling with the Kefauver Hearings.
Not only is Michael’s criminal family in shambles, his real family is falling apart at the seams. This is plays out alongside Don Vito’s family growing along with his criminal and legitimate businesses.
Of course Michael doesn’t stay down too long, there’s a third movie to be made. The real life Mafia didn’t stay down long either. Post Kefauver saw some of the most blatant corruption in American cities in the 1960s, 70s and 80s thanks to the mob.
Scarface (1932 / 1983)
I know it’s a cheap move but you really can’t talk about Brian De Palma’s Scarface without talking about original directed by Howard Hawks which featured George Raft and Boris Karloff. Produced by Howard Hughes, the 1932 version has Paul Muni playing Antonio “Tony” Camonte, who was not-so-loosely based off of Al Capone.
In De Palma’s version Tony Camonte becomes Tony Montana, a Cuban refugee in 1980’s coked out Miami instead of an Italian immigrant in Prohibition era booze soaked Chicago.
Pulp Fiction (1994)
We can’t have a list of crime movies and not include Quentin Tarantino. While others of his deserve to be on this list (True Romance, Reservoir Dogs) Pulp Fiction is a classic gangster movie. It’s got the fixed boxing match tropes with Butch’s storyline. As well as the femme fatale, bosses girl story line with Vince Vega and Mia Wallace. It really has just about every trope we love about the old pulp fiction stories, with a nuanced twist. Lastly there’s the dark humor which we love in Tarantino’s movies.
Donnie Brasco (1997)
The movie is based on the real life story of Joe Pistone, a FBI agent who went deep undercover infiltrating the Bonanno Crime family. He was the cause of over 200 indictments and over 100 convictions.
Immediately following the feds pulling Pistone out of his 6 year long undercover work, heads rolled, and a contract was put out on his head for half a million dollars. He’s still alive and kicking, but under an assumed name.
Road to Perdition (2002)
Like the Departed, Road to Perdition could have been titled, “Everyone Get’s Shot in the Face.” Tom Hanks, Daniel Craig, Jude Law, and the great Paul Newman are excellent in this movie.
Adapted from the Max Allan Collins graphic novel of the same name, Tom Hanks and his son go on a crime spree robing banks. But they only take the illicit money that isn’t on the books, the bootleggers money. Like Omar in The Wire, Tom Hanks is robbing gangsters. That’s not an easy profession.
I love a good noir-ish scene taking place in a diner, it reminds me of the Ed Hopper painting Nighthawks. The above scene took place in a dining car made by the Worcester Lunch Car Company. These dining cars are all over Massachusetts, Worcesters obviously got a few like The Boulevard Diner and Miss Worcester Diner and we used to go to The Boulevard often after the bars closed when I was in college at Worcester State. That’s not the only reason I like this movie or this scene for that matter, I just thought it was worth noting.
Get Carter (1971)
Michael Caine is a badass in this British Crime movie. Adapted from the Ted Lewis novel Jack’s Return Home. Jack Carter is a London based gangster who comes home to discover the accidental death of his brother was not exactly an accident. Violence and pain ensues. Carter is like a British vigilante Parker, or more-so he’s Walker in Point Blank. If you liked Point Blank you’ll like Get Carter, it’s very similar stylistically.
Also, I can’t talk about Get Carter without referencing The Trip.
A Bronx Tale (1993)
I was fortunate enough to see Chazz Palminteri’s one man play that this movie is based on. I went long after the movie was made, probably fifteen years after but it was still great to see how one guy can keep you captivated for a whole play.
Palminteri’s play certainly got DeNiro’s attention, he saw it in Los Angeles in 1990 and got the rights to make it into a film. It was his directorial debut and he did a beautiful job.
So many scenes great to choose from I had to pick two.
But this scene. This scene sums up the whole movie beautifully.
Snatch (2000)
Another great British Crime film, this is my favorite one by Guy Richie. It’s got an amazing cast with some great acting but nobody holds a candle to Denis Farina as Cousin Avi.
