My 4 Favorite Mobster Movies
As an Irish and Italian American, I’ve always held a deep fascination with mobster movies. I think a large part of it is because they are the most readily available, most widely consumed portrayal of my cultural identity in mass media (for better, or for worse). From Francis Ford Coppola to Martin Scorsese, countless directors have made their name by giving their own take on the genre. I love these movies so I’ve gone ahead and picked four of my favorites here. If by some odd chance, you’re looking for a list to get you started in the genre — look no further.
GOODFELLAS (1990)
Martin Scorsese’s various renditions of the Italian-American mob are some of Hollywood’s most iconic movies. My favorite of them: Goodfellas. If you’re looking for something classic and fun, a movie that will really encapsulate the mob movie experience, then this is the perfect choice. Once the movie takes off, it is a nonstop flurry of mob violence, jukebox-era pop, and cocaine which does not take its foot off the gas for a second. Joe Pesci and Robert DeNiro deliver some of the most memorable performances of their careers — Pesci’s crazy, gunslinging Tommy Devito, which earned him an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, is especially unforgettable.
Whilst Scorses’s depiction of mob life is decadent and over the top, it also emphasizes how fleeting it is. It is the perfect illustration of the mob lifestyle’s dangerous allure, both on-screen and off.
SCARFACE (1983)
Brian De Palma’s Scarface is perhaps America’s favorite rags-to-riches story. Scarface follows Cuban refugee Tony Montana’s journey to the top of Miami’s criminal underworld. The movie is particularly bloody and violent, even for a mob flick. Within a half hour of the movie’s start, there’s a full-blown, incredibly graphic chainsaw scene. Later, someone gets executed by hanging out of a flying helicopter. For all the credit that the “Say-Hello-To-My-Little-Friend” sequence at the film’s crescendo gets, scenes like these don’t get enough mention.
Absurd violence aside, a career-defining performance from Al Pacino and the film’s beautiful 1980s Miami Vice-style cinematography make the tragedy of Scarface a must-watch.
GOMORRA (2008)
This wouldn’t be a true mob movie list without an Italian movie on it. Hence, I bring to you Gomorra, Italian director Matteo Garrone’s bleak depiction of the all-powerful Neapolitan Camorra in Napoli, Italy. Where other mobster movies are flashy and stylized, this one pulls no punches in illustrating the bleak realities of life under the mafia. The director’s neorealist approach is a breath of fresh air for the genre, and the movie does a great job of illuminating the lives of foot soldiers, low-level street pushers, and regular citizens who get caught up in the larger mob machine but whose voices and stories are often ignored.
There are no laughing card game scenes or larger-than-life colorful characters in this mob movie; only a heaviness and an atmosphere of impending hopelessness throughout. It is a fitting depiction of the real Mafia’s reign of terror in Italy, and the conditions of poverty out of which the phenomenon is borne.
THE DEPARTED (2006)
What immediately jumps out about the Brad Pitt-produced The Departed is its star-studded roster of actors. The film sees Leonardo Dicaprio and Matt Damon as opposing undercover informants in the Irish Mob and the Boston Police Department. Those two in the same movie already feels like two industry titans convening, but the film also features performances from Jack Nicholson as Irish mob boss Frank Costello, Mark Wahlberg as a police sergeant, and even a role for Alec Baldwin as a police captain.
Undoubtedly the best mob movie to be set in Boston, the Boston accents provide the cast’s dialogue a unique flavor that is distinct from the countless other New York mob flicks. It leads to gems like Wahlberg’s iconic: “Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe fuck ya’self,” (a line that can only be properly delivered in a Boston accent). This, coupled with the film’s suspenseful plot makes The Departed a movie you will not soon forget. Twists and turns that give new meaning to the phrase “it isn’t over until it’s over” await.
