The AFI list released a few weeks ago of AFI’s top ten “Gangster” films left a dissatisfied aftertaste in my mouth. While I love Gangster films their genre seemed to skirt the other side of the ball – the police side that plays a prominent role in both the real world and the cinematic one in relation to organized crime. But our heroic boys in blue were ignored in favor of a narrow genre of films with only gangsters as protagonists.

Our definition will be broader and encompass movies that features organized criminals or the police who attempt to catch them. We will also try to include a few foreign films that captured the heart of crime in different settings.

10) Pulp Fiction (1994)

While much of the film deals with non-crime issues, Pulp Fiction is a classic entrenched within the crime genre that needed to be included on this list.  There have been many Tarantino imitators since Pulp Fiction was released fourteen years ago, but none have come close to his comically nostalgic twist on the crime genre. -RCK

9) Scarface (1983)

Scarface brings bloody realism to the screen in what is one of the most influential movies in American culture – be it the loosening of the MPAA on violence and ‘R’ ratings or the generation of rappers the movie inspired. More importantly it shows the rise and fall of a powerful criminal, consumed by his own greed and the very cancer he helped distribute. -AWV

8) Ying hung boon sik (A Better Tomorrow) (1986)

ABT made John Woo and Woo’s style the “in” way in Hong Kong, launching Chow Yun-fat’s career and showing the grip crime has on those trying to run from it. It captures the emotions crime elicits – loss, revenge, anger, and dependence very well. And it sure helps that Woo and Chow Yun-fat do it guns a blazing. Woo followed it up with a great sequel, The Killer, Once a Thief, and Hard Boiled that continued to define the genre and inspire American auteurs like Quentin Tarantino. -AWV

7) Heat (1995)

Robert DeNiro’s casting in The Godfather: Part II gave Coppola the big three: Brando, Pacino, and DeNiro among the other actors who slide easily into iconic gangster roles. But without a scene between DeNiro and Pacino it all seemed naught – until Heat’s infamous table confrontation between the two – pitting a criminal mastermind against a legal one. Just as one of the greatest Hollywood match-ups took place, so too does the perfect cops and robbers one in a perfectly executed movie. -AWV

6) Reservoir Dogs (1992)

Quentin Tarentino’s debut feature film that depicts the set-up and aftermath of a heist gone awry is a notable crime drama not only for Tarantino’s unique style, but also for its depiction of violence.  Not only have the black suits of the gang become iconic, but the film changed the way independent films were made. -RCK

5) L.A. Confidential (1997)

With an all-star cast, LAC breathed new life into the Chinatown concept of gritty investigative work, and hard policing. There are drugs, corrupt cops, double crosses, and conspiracies – the works – and we see it from the view of the one honest cop in town, struggling to solve a vicious multiple homicide. The movie also brought James Ellroy into the Hollywood fold, which yielded Dark Blue, The Black Dahlia, Street Kings, and White Jazz – again movies that defined the modern crime genre. -AWV

4) Goodfellas (1990)

Robert De Niro and Ray Liotta star in Martin Scorsese’s seminal masterpiece that is a landmark film in the gangster genre.  Goodfellas is an epic masterpiece that depicts the rise and fall of one group of mobsters while aiming for realism over glamour.  While sprawling at times, the film is certainly timeless. -RCK

3) The Departed (2006)

While Goodfellas was obviously great, Scorsese deservingly won Oscar gold with this remake of Infernal Affairs that combined the cruel world of organized crime, with a great look at the police officers who hunt them.  Deeply entrenching the film in its Boston setting, Scorsese couldn’t go wrong.  And with DiCaprio, Nicholson, and Damon, The Departed will certainly be remembered as a classic. -RCK

2) Cidade de dues (City of God) (2002)

The speed this movie moves at as well as the expansive narrative the movie weaves is astounding. An eye-opening film that showed how street gangs – of children begat organized crime and vice versa – gang wars were shown in a new, terrifyingly realistic light. And the first-person narration provided by different characters gives a powerful look inside the very criminals you cannot decide to love or hate. Despite being stopped at number 2, there is no other crime film like Cidade de Deus. -AWV

1) The Godfather (1972)

The movie showcases the power of organized crime next to the obstacles placed in the way of law      enforcement trying to apprehend them. The movie itself inspired impersonations and retellings throughout the world – Ram Gopal Varma’s Sarkar comes to mind – but no movie can capture the perfection of Brando and Pacino’s Corleones. Godfather redefined the crime genre because it showed how the movies could be welcomed by critical and box office acclaim. And when people talk about organized crime the immortal line, “I’m going to make him an offer he can’t refuse,” instantly comes to mind. -AWV

 

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