The mob movie has always been a favorite genre of mine. The mafia fascinates me in its strict moral code inside a world of crime. An "honor amongst thieves" kinda thing. That dichotomy is endlessly fascinating to me as a viewer, and has so many possibilities for storytellers within it as well. Although gangster movies have been around basically as long as movies have been, it all really got started in the 1930's, making big stars out of actors like James Cagney, Paul Muni, and Edward G. Robinson. And there's great hidden gems from this era as well, like The Petrified Forest with Humphrey Bogart in his first lead role alongside a hot young Bette Davis. Although the genre kind of morphed into the noir movies of the 40's and 50's, I think of that as a separate genre (and upcoming list), the gangster movie made a comeback in the 60's and 70's with movies like Bonnie and Clyde and Mean Streets. It hasn't really gone away since then.
Sometimes there are blurred lines for the genre, where movies like the heist film Rififi, one of my all-time favorite movies, is often considered a "gangster movie" because it deals with criminals committing a robbery. But there doesn't seem to me to be much connection to the mob itself in the movie. Maybe I'm misremembering things, but it seems more like criminals that have formed a group to do a job, not Mafioso. Then there are movies like In Bruges, which is about gangsters, but not about them necessarily doing gangster things. It's more about the aftermath and repercussions of gangster life. But it doesn't feel like a gangster movie to me. So I didn't include it even though it would be high up on the list if I did. Maybe that's semantics, but there are some great movies that didn't end up on my list because of this distinction.
So, anyway, onto the list!
Honorable Mentions: Casino, Once Upon a Time in America, A History of Violence
10. Road to Perdition
One of the most beautiful movies ever made, shot by the great Conrad L. Hall (who succumbed to cancer just two months before he could accept the Oscar for Best Cinematography, which was his third such award), Road to Perdition is an amazing movie unto itself, not just because of its wonderful look. Thought of at the time at "the movie where Tom Hanks tried to be a bad guy", the thing is that the movie works because Hanks is cashing in on his innate charm to get us to like a man who doesn't express himself very much, not to his wife or his sons, but we like him anyway. Another actor could've made the character a blank slate, but with Hanks you can see there's a lot going on under the surface, he's just not articulating it. When he needs to avenge a murder, we see the fire in his eyes even though we also see the pain and anger he isn't expressing. It's a remarkable performance, one of the best of Hanks's considerable career. Paul Newman deservedly was nominated for an Oscar for his powerful work, and guys like Daniel Craig, Tyler Hoechlin, Stanley Tucci, and especially Jude Law turn in terrific performances as well. This movie isn't as widely known as it should be, I don't think.
9. Donnie Brasco
Ah, the movie that showed me what a charismatic actor Johnny Depp could be, before he became a parody of himself. Paired up against Al Pacino, most actors would get upstaged, even with Pacino in one of the lowest key roles of his career (and one of his best). Depp plays Joe Pistone, a real life FBI agent who went deep under cover in the mob under the name Donnie Brasco. We watch as Joe tries to balance the mentality of being a gangster so that he can pass in the world of the mob, with the home life he has with a wife who hates his job and how it leaves her feeling like a single mother. Anne Heche is great as the wife, who gets a bit more nuance than in most similar movies. She feels like she's losing her husband, as when he is able to come home, he doesn't act like Joe, he acts like Donnie. The hurt on both of their faces when he tells her "I'm not becoming like them, Maggie. I am them." and you can see how he's hurt by this work too. It takes a toll on him too, the filmmakers don't just make it her problem. The scenes with Pacino showing Depp the ropes and roles and nuances of the mafia are really fascinating stuff. Perfectly acted by both actors. I wish it ended with Pacino's last scene, which gives the emotional ending of the movie, instead of the more logical resolution and crime statistics we get as the end of the movie, but that's a minor quibble.
8. The Departed
Maybe the most compulsively watchable movie Martin Scorsese has ever made, even more than Goodfellas, there's something about The Departed that I always go back to. It's not even in Scorsese's top 5 movies, but it is astoundingly well directed, well shot, and well edited. It just flows, it's told so fast that I get sucked in every time. It moves so quickly that the 2.5 hours fly by, and I think it's a fun game of cops and robbers and double crosses and all that. It's filled with terrific performances as well, especially from Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon, who both say so much with their body language and eyes that they aren't saying with their dialog. Two great performances from two of our best star actors. It's not perfect, it does start to drag after Jack Nicholson is gone, but not because it misses his performance (which is fine, although it's one of the weakest in the movie), but because his character was the lynchpin of so much of the tension of the movie. Regardless, it's a great movie.
7. Scarface
Brian De Palma's remake of the Howard Hawks classic Scarface is one of the most garish and over-the-top movies ever made. It's not just Al Pacino's so-far-over-the-top-it-can't-even-see-the-top-anymore performance, the whole movie is garish, violent, loud and excessive. Almost 3 hours in length, I will admit that it is far too long. But I find Pacino so infinitely watchable in his role as Tony Montana that I never complain that the movie keeps going. Tony is loud and garish as well, but what people rarely talk about when they talk about this movie is that Tony is very funny. I almost think of the movie as a comedy, but intentionally so. Whether Tony is watching TV while soaking in the bubble bath and cheering on the flying pelicans, or getting kids to watch while his friend gets rejected by a woman, Tony makes me laugh so much. Sadly, like most gangsters, Tony lets power, money, women, and drugs take him down. In thematic resonance with his movie, Tony succumbs to excess. Honestly, my biggest complaint about the movie is actually Robert Loggia, an actor I always liked, who I think gives one of the worst performances I've ever seen. His accent is awful (say what you will about Pacino's, it's consistent and it works), his line deliveries are grasping for over-the-top but failing, it's just terrible work from a normally reliable actor. I still love the movie, but needed to say that about it.
6. The Godfather part II
We can just start with this: The Godfather is the best movie in its series, not The Godfather part II. The reason that Part II isn't as good is that the narrative doesn't quite work. By switching between the storylines of Al Pacino's Michael Corleone and Robert De Niro's Vito Corleone a generation before, each is robbed of its momentum, instead of building through the parallel struggles of power that tie the two together thematically. Francis Ford Coppola has said that he played with cutting back and forth twice as much, but it ended up feeling too chaotic and messy. I think that's because both are too self-contained. Yes they thematically tie together, but they're also narratively disconnected and don't ever come together. So what happens is that even though both pieces are brilliant, they don't fit. And the way the story unfolds, just as Michael's story is really gaining narrative momentum, it switches to Vito's story. Once Vito's gets going, to where we can't wait for the next scene, it switches back to Michael's. Neither is ever allowed to gain the full head of narrative steam that they both deserve. Each would be better as their own 90 minute movie rather than a single 3+ hour film. So why, even after all that complaining, is it still number 6 on this list? Because both of those 90 minute movie would be a 10/10 in my book. It's just that The Godfather part II doesn't become more than the sum of its parts when those two sections are cut together.
5. Eastern Promises
A story set in the not often explored Russian mafia in London, Eastern Promises contains one of the great performances of the 2000's in Viggo Mortensen's Nikolai, and also one of the most famous scenes of the decade, a fully nude fight scene in a Russian bath house between Nikolai and two assassins. It's a brutal scene, Nikolai is exposed in every sense of the word, vulnerable, it's dangerous and tense and lasts way longer than you might expect. Also at the center of the movie is the unpredictable Kirril (Vincent Cassel) and his coldly powerful father Semyon (Armin Mueller-Stahl), Nikolai's superiors in the mob, and Anna (Naomi Watts) the non-mob affiliated midwife who has gotten caught up in this world. It's a gangster movie with no guns, set in a side of London we've never seen before, but given the form of a mob movie (and with the outsider Anna as the true lead character) we have no trouble finding our place in this world. I think it's the best work of director David Cronenberg's great career. Also proof that Watts and Mortensen are two of our very best actors working today.
4. Miller's Crossing
Miller's Crossing is a movie that didn't connect to me totally the first time I watched it. I was expecting something more epic in the vein of The Godfather, or something more kinetic and influenced by Scorsese. Instead, Miller's Crossing is more influenced by the noir novels of Dashiell Hammett (specifically Red Harvest and The Glass Key), and mixed a sense of weight through Barry Sonenfeld's sumptuous photography and the Coen Brothers' sense of humor and style. It's a gorgeous movie, so labyrinthine in its plot that the Coen's had to put the script down and write Barton Fink to give themselves time to work through the complexities. Gabriel Byrne is perfect as the classic noir hero, the smartest guy in the room, but not so smart that he avoids being doubled crossed or getting his ass kicked on occasion. Albert Finney is wonderful as the egotistic mob boss. Marcia Gay Harden is a great femme fatale, playing Byrne and Finney against each other while she protects her brother, John Turturro, who's the weakling that puts the whole plot into motion. Maybe because I knew more what to expect, and had much more familiarity with intricate noir plots, I loved Miller's Crossing when I went back and watched it a few years ago. It became one of my favorite movies from the Coen's, and definitely one of my favorite gangster movies.
3. Goodfellas
“As far back as I can remember, I've always wanted to be a gangster”
Goodfellas follows the story of the half-Irish Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) and his attempt to rise in the ranks of the New York mafia from the mid-1950’s through the late-1970’s. Being half-Irish is an important component in Henry’s story because it prevents him from ever becoming a “made guy”, as only those with 100% Italian blood can ever be “made guys”. The same hurdle blocks Henry’s mentor Jimmy Conway (Robert De Niro) as well. However, as a child Henry is paired with the sociopathic Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci) who as a full blood Italian could one day rise to made status. Ray Liotta, Robert De Niro, and Joe Pesci provide wonderful portraits of these psychopathic characters who do what they do (steal, kill, etc.) because they enjoy it and not for any other psychological or sociological reasons. Lorraine Bracco gives a great performance as a wife adjusting to a mafia marriage, which is a nice character to see Scorsese and co-writer Nicholas Pileggi take advantage of, as the “wife” is usually ignored in mafia/crime movies. The use of period music and subtle aging makeup allow a believable journey through the years with these characters.
In addition, Thelma Schoonmaker and Michael Ballhaus deserve infinite praise for their work on the editing and cinematography, respectively. Ballhaus’s roving camerawork helps us feel personally involved in these people’s lives, and Schoonmaker’s propulsive editing makes the movie feel alive with energy and easily the quickest 2 ½ hours in movie history. The most obvious examples of Ballhaus’s great work is the famous tracking shot in the Copa, and the great camera work during a certain section of the movie scored to the piano section of “Layla”. Schoonmaker’s genius in particular shows during a bravura sequence where Henry spends a frantic, paranoid day where he believes an FBI helicopter is following him as he dashes all over town running guns, tries to organize some drug trafficking, and attempts to cook dinner for his family (“don’t let the sauce burn” he repeats).
That said, some people may be bothered by both the language (the “f” word is used an alleged 300 times in the movies 145 minutes) and the violence. These characters are not nice people, and the fact that they show no remorse for their actions may also disturb some. The movie is not overly graphic in terms of gore, but there is no shortage of violence depicted on screen.
2. Pulp Fiction
Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction hit the movie going public like a lightning bolt in 1994. Its unashamed use of violence and creatively foul language offended a good deal of the people who went to see it (there were actually a number of boos from the audience when it took home the Palme d'Or, the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival). It also hit me like a lightning bolt when I first saw it at about the age of 12 or so. It was the first movie I'd remembered seeing told out of order (no, I hadn't seen Citizen Kane by 12, nor had I seen Tarantino's debut, Reservoir Dogs) and the stunning dialog really lodged a place in my young brain. Tarantino's skills as director also had quite an impact on me, building tension in some scenes, hilarious comedy in others, and his use of music struck a significant chord with me back in those days of not knowing just how much he was stealing from Martin Scorsese, Elmore Leonard, and others.
So many movies that hit you at a young age simply don't continue having the same sort of impact as you get older. Pulp Fiction, though, still thrills me and makes me laugh (it's one of the great dark comedies at its core), nearly as much as when I was 12. There's not really a whole lot more to write about one of the most written and talked about movies ever made. Not for everybody, but definitely for me!
1. The Godfather
Yet another one that didn't hit me on first viewing. I'm not quite sure what it is about some movies, but many of the greats tend to grow on me. I don't remember when I first saw The Godfather, like Star Wars it seems like I have always seen it. But it didn't become one of my favorite movies until years later, when its combination of amazing photography, mesmerizing acting, and flawless script catapulted it to the top of my favorites list. I read the book while I was in the 8th or 9th grade, and had been disappointed when revisiting the movie, since it didn't go into the entrancing detail that the book went into. Over time, I realized that what Coppola and author Mario Puzo did when writing the script was to pare away the fat from the book and focus simply on the Corleone mafia family as the balance of power shifts through the generations. In fact, I had to read the book to find out some of the motivations for things that I didn't understand in the movie. As it turns out, the motivations for every action are there in the movie, we've simply not been conditioned to watch movies as densely constructed as this. However, even if you're not concerned with the intricacies of why everything happens, you can still be enthralled with the overall story, or at least with this incredible assembly of actors, all doing some of the best work of their careers.
There's no reason to relay the plot, or the famous quotes, or the things that have become part of pop culture since the movie's release. But one thing I find continuously fascinating is that honestly there aren't many "good" people in the movie. Coppola keeps things completely contained within the world of the mafia. Really only Diane Keaton's Kay is a good person, but she's not our protagonist. Somehow, storytellers have always been able to get us to identify with the less desirable members of our society. Vito, Sonny, Michael, Tom, and even Fredo are perpetuating the evil cycle of crime that the Corleone family is a member of. No matter that these aren't people we would necessarily want to know in real life, we worry for Vito's safety, Sonny temper, Fredo's weakness, Michael's descent from good to evil, and the future of the family. I never fail to be saddened by the last shot of the movie, as Michael finalizes himself and his family in the biggest position of power in the mob world.
Of course, you could praise everything from Gordon Willis's influential photography (for which the master somehow didn't even get nominated for an Oscar) to the flawless production and costume design, Nino Rota's famous score, everything. It's one of the most thoroughly well made movies I've ever seen. But none of that would make The Godfather as esteemed as it is if it wasn't so layered, powerful, and damn entertaining to watch. There's a reason so many people consider it the best movie ever made. I have to watch it every once in a while and I never fail to love it even more than I did the last time.
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