American Gangster Movies

[Nella Mcnairy]

WhenI was in Junior College (1966-1968) I knew two sisters whose father was rumored to be associated with organized crime. They missed a few classes in the middle of a semester. Their father was dead. Not of natural causes.

When the two returned to classes there was nothing glamorous about the sorrow and fear they were so obviously living with.

In the hands of some, the gangster tale is a story that does not involve law and government and everyday concerns. These are stripped away so that other concerns can be addressed without any particular narrative interference from mundane concerns. Normal people would go to the police or the FBI, but that option is off the table, which makes for a more interesting story.

In similar fashion the fascination so many Americans have with owning guns must be at least partly caused by the countless movies and TV shows in which a gun was the means for a man (rarely a woman) to behave heroically and win the grateful respect of his community.

In The Godfather problems are solved by violence. Violence generally works. Michael takes over the casino through a series of murders. Smart, deliberate, calculated violence. Ruthlessness carries an emotional cost but is nevertheless effective. It works.

In The Wire violence is a fact of life, like gravity, it solves nothing because there is no expectation of a solution, everyone is on a path to an inevitable end. Omar is a bit of an exception, carrying out his robberies and murders with a vaguely moral motivation but the result is just more squalid tragedy.

One pet peeve: shoot-outs where criminals act with the training and tenacity of special forces soldiers. Crooks are not soldiers. They may well be brave, but I suspect 90% of gangsters in actual gun fights are more Brave Sir Robin than SEAL Team Six.

There is an interesting back and forth between samurai movies and westerns. Kurosawa has said that he based his samurai movies on earlier westerns. And a number of westerns, especially from the late 60s are samurai movies with cowboys. And these especially show the hero as a mixed bag.

The plot of the film takes place mostly in the 1960s, which gives American Gangster the unique perspective of being able to look back at 20th-century crime from the present. The result is a blockbuster film somewhere between popcorn filler and violent think-piece.

King of New York is a film that fits into the stylistic tone of other New York City underworld movies, Escape from New York and Good Time. The use of color; like neon deep blues, gives this sub-genre an interesting visual tone.

The most modern gangster film on this list, Killing Them Softly addresses the impact of organized crime on American society after the collapse of the housing market. It also happens to be one of the best crime movies.

The themes of questioning loyalty and escape from poverty are shown in new and modern lights. It's one of the best Brad Pitt movies and James Gandolfini also gives an excellent performance. The last scene, although divisive among viewers, is one that has stuck with me for years.

Anchored by an incredible cast and helmed by Brian De Palma, The Untouchables is one of the most iconic gangster films ever made. Kevin Costner, Sean Connery, and Robert De Niro all turn in incredible performances. The Untouchables is a Prohibition-era crime film that mixes police procedural and thriller to a satisfying degree.

Although nearly 60 years old, the themes of Mafioso still ring true today. In the first part of the film, the social and cultural distinctions between the North (Milan) and the South (Sicily) are portrayed beautifully.

Depp finds a rare balance of emotional depth in playing a dual role as an FBI agent (Joseph Pistone) who becomes someone new after infiltrating the mob (Donnie Brasco). This is also inspired by a true story which lends a sense of credence and authenticity to the film.

Paranoia seeps into the mind of gangster Martin Cahill (Brendan Gleeson) like a drug by the end of The General. After drawing the ire of the IRA with his business dealings, Cahill is forced to reflect on a lifetime of mischief and crime.

This is an authentic Irish film that portrays authentic Irish crime; such as the crimes of the Catholic church and the corruption of the police. Cahill is a real Irish gangster played by a real Irish actor.

But the differences between the Italian Mafia and the Irish Mob have never been clearer. Still, the themes of controlling your city and pride in your work stay at the forefront of the seminal film, The General.

The Harder They Come is perhaps best known for its infectious reggae soundtrack, which holds its own against the best movie songs. But at the heart of the picture, is an important commentary on gangster celebrity. The protagonist Ivan, played by Jimmy Cliff, wants to be a reggae singer but corruption and poverty keep him from success.

Instead, Ivan finds himself enraptured in a life of crime. He becomes infamous for killing police officers. In turn, his former record label releases his song and reaps the profits of his celebrity. Ivan succumbs to a glorified view of the gangster which ultimately forces his downfall.

The film condemns the gangster lifestyle even more than before. This is also one of the first gangster films to heavily involve the Catholic faith, which would go on to become a major characteristic of Mafia films.

The Departed is adapted from the Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs. Infernal Affairs is an excellent movie in its own right and I considered putting it here in place of The Departed. But I came to the conclusion that if one film outranked the other, it was The Departed.

Scorsese paints a sensational portrait of South Boston crime with Jack Nicholson commanding the screen in one of his all-time great performances. In some ways, The Departed is the antithesis of The Friends of Eddie Coyle. Whereas the former is loud, explosive, and consequential, the latter is quiet, understated, and contextual.

The Long Good Friday is the quintessential British gangster film. Bob Hoskins plays the leader of a British gang that plans to start a partnership with the American Mafia in hopes that he can become a legitimate businessman.

By the year 2000, world culture had grown to see gangster films as a mostly sensational, idyllic genre. Popular gangster movies were rife with moral praise; often creating heroes and badass anti-heroes out of people the court would sentence to death.

Gomorrah, which is based on a book of the same name about the real Mafia group from Napoli, has no intent of glamorizing gang life. In fact, Gomorrah is an indictment of gangster films that have inspired young people to take up a life of crime.

One film in particular that is condemned in this way is Scarface. Children in the film say they want to be like Tony Montana but the life of crime they find is not the one that they had envisioned from the movies.

Jacques Audiard directs this thrilling gangster film about a young man who finds himself recruited into the Corsican Mafia while serving a prison sentence. A Prophet is a remarkably modern gangster movie.

At the center of the film is a struggle between Muslim and Corsican French cultures. The protagonist, played Tahar Rahim, is a man that is caught between these cultures. On one side, he has his ancestry. On the other, he has the illusion of a future.

City of God is about the rise and fall of criminal under lords throughout the Cidade de Deus favela in Brazil. It also represents a cast made up primarily of people who lived in that favela. The whole film has a documentary-style feel to it while very much still being a thriller.

The pre-code era of film from the late 1920s to 1934 produced some of the most interesting Hollywood films ever made. Pre-code exists after the silent era but before the advent of censorship guidelines. Perhaps no film is more iconic of this short time than The Public Enemy.

This was an era of fundamental transition for the American people. The wealth and grandeur that pushed the 1920s through, exhausted itself entirely for the decade to come. The Great Depression was a time of intense strife and complex moral decisions.

He originally wanted the film to be split into two three-hour features but the studio told him he had to cut it into one film. Leone cut it down to 269 minutes but the studio was not satisfied with his attempts at shortening it. He conceded to a 229-minute version but the American version was further cut without his permission to 139 minutes.

This is the most iconic gangster film ever made. Every cinema fan knows the image of Don Vito holding the cat, the horse in the bed, or Michael shutting the door on his former life. And for good reason, these are some of the most expressive and emotional moments in film history.

Already a master of the crime film (and the inventor of the serial-killer thriller with M), Fritz Lang returned to the fearsome villain of 1922's Dr. Mabuse: the Gambler for this superior sequel. It didn't make the incoming Nazi regime happy; Goebbels banned it, probably because it cut too close for comfort. Lang fled his homeland shortly thereafter.

Simultaneously a yakuza movie, a kung-fu flick and a love letter to cinema, Japanese director Sion Sono's Why Don't You Play in Hell is the anti-gritty gangster tale. Following a group of young filmmakers who decide to turn a real conflict between rival gangs into a film, while inserting some stars of their own. Comedic and bloody in it's execution, Sono's movie pokes fun at genre tropes one minute and shamelessly embraces them the next.

Director John Woo deserves several places on any list of classic crime movies, but there's no more perfect representation of his stylish brand of brotherly bonding across lines of justice than this box-office smash. It made Chow Yun Fat a star and was centrally responsible for thrusting Hong Kong action cinema into the global limelight.

Takeshi Kitano takes a dispassionate but heartfelt look at what happens after high school, as two best friends follow divergent paths, one becoming a boxer, the other a yakuza soldier. The result is a razor-sharp study of Japanese masculinity wrapped up in a lucid tale of post-adolescent angst.

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