Movies

10 Essential Gangster Movies Everyone Should See At Least Once

Gangsters have always made for popular film characters. As equally terrifying as they are compelling, audiences have been consuming their tales of crime and violence for decades. The genre is so prolific that it can be intimidating to try and limit it to a selection of films that represent the best of it. Directors like Martin Scorsese and Brian DePalma have created so many classics of the genre they could fill up a weeks worth of viewing just by themselves.

Gangster movies also cover a wide swath of filmmakers from different eras and from all over the world. From classics to modern masterpieces, they represent one of the most dark and violent, and undeniably entertaining, corners of seminal cinema. If someone were to start watching every single gangster movie today, they would probably finish sometime next Christmas. To begin though, these are the ten gangster movies that are the most essential.

‘White Heat’ (1949)

Directed by Raoul Walsh

Image via Warner Bros. 

When it comes to the best classic movie gangsters, James Cagney looms large. Few actors have been as synonymous with tough guy roles than the late New York native. His performances in Angels With Dirty Faces, The Public Enemy, and the gangster epic The Roaring Twenties are all iconic. His most memorable of all came in a classic film that influenced generations of crime movies, White Heat.

Cagney plays a mother-loving, homicidal gang leader so ruthless and cunning that police plant an undercover agent as his prison cellmate. What follows is a bullet-riddled, blood-soaked ride through the criminal underworld as Cagney goes on the run after escaping prison, all of it leading to an ending that goes up in flames. On the global map of gangster movies, this one sits right on top of the world.

white-heat-poster-james-cagney.jpg

Release Date

September 3, 1949

Director

Raoul Walsh

Cast

James Cagney
, Virginia Mayo
, Edmond O’Brien
, Margaret Wycherly
, Steve Cochran
, John Archer
, Wally Cassell
, Fred Clark

Runtime

114 Minutes

White Heat is currently available to watch on Tubi in the U.S.

WATCH ON TUBI

‘Once Upon a Time in America’ (1984)

Directed by Sergio Leone

Once Upon a Time in America - 1984 (3)
Image via Warner Bros.

Prohibition-era gangster movies offer an embarrassment of riches when it comes to handsomely made crime films. The original Scarface is an influential, pre-Code classic, The Untouchables tells the story of Elliot Ness taking down Al Capone in action-packed fashion, Road to Perdition is an emotionally nuanced portrayal of violent men with fantastic performances, and the Coen Brothers’ Miller’s Crossing is one of the most beautiful, overlooked gangster movies ever. Topping them all, though, is Sergio Leone’s sprawling masterpiece Once Upon a Time in America, which follows the lives of two Jewish gangsters as they rise to power in New York City.

Taking the same epic scope that he had applied to the western genre, Leone tells his gangster story in a brooding laconic fashion, letting the violence of the world envelope the audience over the film’s near four-hour runtime. The cast is led by Robert De Niro and James Woods, both playing repugnant, irredeemable characters that are nonetheless captivating. The film was originally massacred upon its initial American release, with ninety minutes cut from the release and the remaining scenes reordered into a linear narrative. The film has since seen several versions released that better represent Leone’s original intention, and are by far the more essential cuts of this American gangster masterpiece.

once upon a time in america poster

Once Upon a Time in America

Release Date

June 1, 1984

Director

Sergio Leone

Runtime

229 Minutes

‘The Long Good Friday’ (1980)

Directed by John Mackenzie

Bob Hoskins as Harold and Helen Mirren as Victoria in bed together in The Long Good Friday
Image via HandMade Films

America doesn’t hold a monopoly on gangster movies, and across the pond a number of classics have been produced in Great Britain. Get Carter and Sexy Beast are both widely respected within the genre, and Guy Ritchie has built an entire career off of Brit gangster movies. The cream of the royal crop is The Long Good Friday, one of the best gangster movies to come out of the 80s.

Bob Hoskins plays a cockney gangster looking to go legitimate through a business venture with an American mobster, but finds that he’s got more enemies than he thought as his enterprise starts to literally go up in smoke. Hoskins is perfect in the lead role, exuding sinister intelligence throughout. The sharp script and tight editing keeps the momentum moving as the bodies begin to pile up. The influences of this British crime classic can still be seen in films on both sides of the pond.

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Release Date

February 26, 1981

Director

John Mackenzie

Runtime

114 Minutes

‘Eastern Promises’ (2007)

Directed by David Cronenberg

Eastern-Promises-David-Cronenberg
Image Via Pathé Distribution

Russian gangsters have been popular villains in Hollywood movies for several decades, but few films actually explore their criminal underworld with any depth. Eastern Promises, from director David Cronenberg, delves deep into the rituals and codes of honor that bind a Russian crime family operating out of London. Viggo Mortensen, re-teaming with Cronenberg after their equally superb A History of Violence, gives a steely performance as a secretive bodyguard to Vincent Cassel’s imbecilic gangster, whose father is the head of their crime family and is played by Armin Mueller-Stahl in a monstrous performance.

Cronenberg brings as much tension and bloody violence to this crime thriller as he does to his more infamous body horror films. The violence climaxes memorably in one of the most brutal and hard to watch fight scenes ever filmed, as Mortensen takes on two knife-wielding attackers in a bathhouse armed with nothing but his own dangling manhood. It’s a perfectly executed sequence at the center of one of the best modern gangster movies ever made.

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Release Date

September 21, 2007

Runtime

100 minutes

‘Battles Without Honor and Humanity’ (1973)

Directed by Kinji Fukasaku

Three yakuza gangsters chilling in Battles Without Honor and Humanity - 1973
Image via Toei

Yakuza films occupy a special place in both the gangster genre and Japanese cinema at large. Auteurs like Akira Kurosawa, John Woo, and Takashi Miike have made their own individual Yakuza movies, while Takeshi Kitano has devoted over half his directorial career to depicting the lives of the gangsters who take residence in the seedy side of Japan. The films that best define Yakuza cinema come from the Battles Without Honor and Humanity series, which includes eleven total films. Kinji Fukusaku directed the first eight films, with the initial five forming their own connected saga. The original debut film remains an iconic gangster movie that influenced major American filmmakers like Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino.

The first film is set in post-war Japan and follows Bunta Sugawara’s veteran protagonist who gets swept up into the world of organized crime after being sent to prison and befriending a gangster. The story was based on real memoirs of a Yakuza member that were serialized by a journalist, and the Fukusaku’s use of documentary techniques including hand-held cameras and natural lighting add to its authenticity. Battles Without Honor and Humanity is a gritty masterpiece that should be viewed by fans of the gangster genre worldwide.

Battles Without Honor and Humanity is available to rent on Prime Video in the U.S.

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‘City of God’ (2002)

Directed by Fernando Meirelles

Still of Leandro Firmino as Ze Pequeno or Li'l Ze from City of God
Image via Miramax Films 

International cinema has provided a large collection of gangster films that represent the criminal culture of many different countries. A Prophet is a French gangster film that details the Corsican mafia, Gomorrah is a multi-story epic about the Neapolitan mafia, and Gangs of Wasseypur is the rare Indian gangster epic about the Mafia Raj. The most visceral of all is City of God, which highlights the rise of organized crime in Rio de Janeiro across the 60s and 70s.

Seen through the eyes of three street kids as they come of age, the film’s depiction of violence and the gravitational pull of the criminal underworld is gritty and harrowing. The use of non-professional actors and grainy 16mm film stock only serves to pull the audience further into the lives of the characters. City of God put director Fernando Meirelles and Brazilian cinema on the map, which may be a dubious honor considering its violent content, but it is a bravura piece of filmmaking and an electric gangster movie.

City of God Film Poster

Release Date

February 13, 2004

Cast

Alexandre Rodrigues
, Leandro Firmino
, Matheus Nachtergaele
, Phellipe Haagensen
, Douglas Silva
, Jonathan Haagensen
, Seu Jorge
, Jefechander Suplino

Runtime

130 Minutes

City of God is available to rent on Prime Video in the U.S.

RENT ON PRIME VIDEO

‘Scarface’ (1983)

Directed by Brian De Palma

Al Pacino, as Tony Montana, sits behind his desk in Scarface
Image via Universal Pictures

Back on American soil, the narrative rise of the gangster is one that sometimes dovetails with that of the immigrant story. The American Dream promises success and prosperity through hard work, but sometimes that hard work comes in the form of pulling a trigger. The Godfather Part II devoted half of its narrative to detailing the immigrant experience at the turn of the century, while Martin Scorsese would detail the religious-fueled conflict of Protestant natives against Irish Catholic immigrants in Gangs of New York. The film that best personifies the greed and excess of the American Dream turned criminal is Brian De Palma’s 80s epic Scarface.

The plot follows a Cuban refugee, played by the very non-Cuban Al Pacino, who comes to Miami with a scar on his face and a dream in his heart. His rise to power is marked by heinous violence and mountains of cocaine as Pacino’s Tony Montana builds his criminal empire on the drug-fueled Miami nightlife. Pacino’s over-the-top performance was not appreciated by certain members of the Cuban community at the time, but it has become iconic within the genre, as has the film as a whole, influencing everything from video games to a multitude of hip-hop artists who related to its story of ambition and power. It remains one of the most rewatchable crime movies ever made.

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Release Date

December 9, 1983

Runtime

170 minutes

‘The Friends of Eddie Coyle’ (1973)

Directed by Peter Yates

Robert Mitchum as Eddie and Alex Rocco as Jimmy Scalise sitting together in 'The Friends of Eddie Coyle'
Image via Paramount Pictures

While Miami features prominently in several crime films, the majority of American gangster movies have been set in either New York City or Chicago, given their fidelity to real life criminal empires. One other major city that has been host to multiple gangster movies is Boston. When it comes to the city on a hill, the two reigning cinematic crime chronicles are the instantly quotable The Departed and the criminally underrated The Friends of Eddie Coyle.

Based on the George V. Higgins novel, and inspiring a real life bank robbery, this 70s crime thriller follows an aging gun runner, played by Rober Mitchum. His sad criminal existence is completely stripped of the romanticism of the gangster lifestyle often depicted in the genre. It’s an honest, tough film about low-level hoods and their pathetic hustles, living their lives from one job to the next until they meet an inevitable violent end.

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Release Date

June 26, 1973

Director

Peter Yates

Cast

Robert Mitchum
, Peter Boyle
, Richard Jordan
, Steven Keats
, Alex Rocco
, Joe Santos
, Mitchell Ryan
, Peter MacLean

Runtime

102 Minutes

‘GoodFellas’ (1990)

Directed by Martin Scorsese

Joe Pesci, Ray Liotta and Robert De Niro in Goodfellas
Image via Warner Bros. Pictures

If there’s one organized crime group that has held dominance over depictions on the silver screen, it’s the Italian mafia. The list of films featuring them is too numerous to list and, truthfully, there are only two films that share the spot of most essential. One is Martin Scorsese’s perfectly directed, genre-defining GoodFellas.

Based on the life of real Lucchese crime family worker Henry Hill, and adapted from Nicholas Pileggi’s acclaimed novel Wiseguy, the film completely upended the notion of what a gangster movie could, and should, be. Scorsese doesn’t waste a single frame and every performance is iconic. Ray Liotta plays Hill with live wire intensity, and he’s supported by Robert De Niro, entering the second phase of his collaborative career with Scorsese, and Joe Pesci in one of the most perfect gangster performances ever put on celluloid. So powerful was this film’s influence that American gangster movies can be categorized as those that came before GoodFellas and those that came after.

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Release Date

September 21, 1990

Runtime

145 Minutes

‘The Godfather’ (1972)

Directed by Francis Ford Coppola

Marlon Brando, as Vito Corleone, listens in The Godfather
Image via Paramount 

If GoodFellas was rock and roll, electrifying the genre, then The Godfather was the blues foundation that helped birth it. A major milestone in American cinema, Francis Ford Coppola’s masterpiece has stood the test of time as a true hallmark of the gangster genre. Together with it’s equally powerful sequel (and ignoring the ill-conceived third film), the Godfather saga tracks the rise of the Corleone family in America and is film storytelling at its most potent.

The production of the film was influenced by the real mafia. That tension bleeds on to the screen and is felt in every performance. Al Pacino has never been better, James Caan is intimidating and savage, John Cazale pathetically tragic, Diane Keaton is the film’s beating heart, and Marlon Brando is the most iconic movie mob boss of all time. The most essential gangster film, one of the best novel adaptations, and one of the best films ever made. Truly an offer any self-respecting movie lover cannot refuse.


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