Essential Mafia Movies

By Quentin Tarantino, 1994.

Starring John Travolta, Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman

Fast-food-loving hit man Vince Vega (John Travolta), his philosophical partner Jules (Samuel L. Jackson), a drug-addled gangster's moll (Uma Thurman) and a washed-up boxer (Bruce Willis) converge in this sprawling, comedic crime caper. Their adventures unfurl in three stories that ingeniously trip...

By Francis Ford Coppola, 1972.

Starring Marlon Brando, Diane Keaton, Al Pacino

Vito Corleone is the aging don (head) of the Corleone Mafia Family. His youngest son Michael has returned from WWII just in time to see the wedding of Connie Corleone (Michael's sister) to Carlo Rizzi. All of Michael's family is involved with the Mafia, but Michael just wants to live a normal life.

By Martin Scorsese, 2006.

Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson

To take down South Boston's Irish Mafia, the police send in one of their own to infiltrate the underworld, not realizing the syndicate has done likewise in Martin Scorsese's multiple Oscar-winning crime thriller, including Best Director and Best Picture.

By Quentin Tarantino, 1992.

Starring Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen

Quentin Tarantino's directorial debut is raw, violent, often mimicked -- and unforgettable. A botched robbery indicates a police informant, and the pressure mounts in the aftermath at a warehouse. Crime begets violence as the survivors -- veteran Mr. White (Harvey Keitel), newcomer Mr.

By Martin Scorsese, 1990.

Starring Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci

Martin Scorsese explores the life of organized crime with his gritty, kinetic adaptation of Nicolas Pileggi 's best-selling Wiseguy, the true-life account of mobster and FBI informant Henry Hill.

By Guy Ritchie, 2000.

Starring Benicio Del Toro, Dennis Farina, Vinnie Jones

An Irish gypsy gets involved in a match-fixing boxing racket, a vast diamond heist is about to go down and London's gangster underworld is blown open in this blink-and-you'll-miss-it, twisty crime caper featuring a motley cluster of characters. Guy Ritchie (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels)...

By Martin Scorsese, 2002.

Starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Daniel Day-Lewis, Cameron Diaz

Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz and Daniel Day-Lewis star in this epic tale of vengeance and survival! As waves of immigrants swell the population of New York, lawlessness and corruption thrive in lower Manhattan's Five Points section. After years of incarceration, young Irish immigrant Amsterdam...

By Francis Ford Coppola, 1974.

Starring Al Pacino, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton

Francis Ford Coppola 's legendary continuation and sequel to his landmark 1972 film, The Godfather, parallels the young Vito Corleone's rise with his son Michael's spiritual fall, deepening The Godfather's depiction of the dark side of the American dream.

By Brian De Palma, 1983.

Starring Al Pacino, Michelle Pfeiffer, Steven Bauer

A remake of the 1932 film starring Paul Muni, Scarface gets a facelift by transferring its venue to Miami, reflecting the early-1980s drug rackets. Al Pacino chews scenery as lowly Cuban refugee Tony Montana, who becomes a Florida drug kingpin but makes the fatal mistake of "getting high on his own...

By Guy Ritchie, 1998.

Starring Jason Flemyng, Dexter Fletcher, Nick Moran

Eddie (Nick Moran) is usually slick with a deck of cards, but after losing at a fixed table for London high rollers, he's in massive debt to a local porn kingpin (P.H. Moriarty). Eddie's irate father (Sting) refuses to hand over his bar to save his son's fingers, leaving Eddie and his friends few...

By Michael Mann, 2009.

Starring Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Marion Cotillard

In the shadow of the Great Depression, criminal minds are thriving -- notorious men like John Dillinger (Johnny Depp), "Baby Face" Nelson (Stephen Graham) and "Pretty Boy" Floyd (Channing Tatum) -- and it's up to J. Edgar Hoover (Billy Crudup) and the FBI to bring them down.

By Mike Newell, 1997.

Starring Johnny Depp, Al Pacino, Michael Madsen

This true story follows FBI agent Joe Pistone as he infiltrates the mafia of New York. Befriending Lefty Ruggiero, Pistone (under the name Donnie Brasco) is able to embed himself in a mafia faction lead by Sonny Black. Ruggiero and Pistone become tight as the group goes about collecting money for...

By Martin Scorsese, 1995.

Starring Robert De Niro, Sharon Stone, Joe Pesci

Martin Scorsese paints a colorful portrait of Las Vegas in the early 1970s as the oasis of glamour and corruption that it was. Against this backdrop, the story chronicles the rise and fall of three central characters: a play-by-the-rules casino owner with mob connections (Robert De Niro), his...

By Francis Ford Coppola, 1990.

Starring Al Pacino, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire

Some Godfather devotees thought this final installment in the Corleone crime family saga an infamnia; for others, it represents closure to one of cinema's epic tales of dissolution without redemption. It's the 1980s, and Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) has struggled to make the family business...

By Michael Mann, 1995.

Starring Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Val Kilmer

Two driven professionals -- an illustrious detective (Al Pacino) and a sophisticated thief (Robert De Niro) -- draw ever closer to an inevitable showdown on Los Angeles' mean streets. Brilliantly directed by Michael Mann, Heat is a hyperkinetic tale that blurs the lines between good and evil.

By Brian De Palma, 1987.

Starring Kevin Costner, Sean Connery, Charles Martin Smith

G-man Eliot Ness (Kevin Costner) will stop at nothing to take down legendary gangster Al Capone (Robert De Niro) -- even if it means bending some rules and breaking some bones! Sean Connery steals the show with his Oscar-winning performance of a tough-as-nails Chicago street cop who shows Ness the...

By Bibo Bergeron, 2004.

Starring Will Smith, Robert De Niro, Renée Zellweger

In this DreamWorks animated tale, Oscar (Will Smith) is a small fish whose big aspirations often get him in trouble. Lenny (Jack Black) is a great white shark with a secret: He's a vegetarian. When a lie turns Oscar into an improbable hero and the truth about Lenny makes him an outcast, the two...

By Sam Mendes, 2002.

Starring Tom Hanks, Paul Newman, Tyler Hoechlin

Hit man Michael Sullivan (Tom Hanks), known in his 1930s Chicago world as The Angel of Death, is on the run after his wife (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and son are murdered. With his surviving son (Tyler Hoechlin) in tow, Michael sets out to exact brutal vengeance.

By Troy Duffy, 1999.

Starring Sean Patrick Flanery, Norman Reedus, Willem Dafoe

Sensing a God-given mission to cleanse the earth of all evil, twin brothers Conner (Sean Patrick Flanery) and Murphy (Norman Reedus) set out to rid Boston of crime. But instead of joining the police force, these Irish Americans decide to kick criminal butt their own way.

By Harold Ramis, 1999.

Starring Robert De Niro, Billy Crystal, Lisa Kudrow

Countless wiseguy films are spoofed in this Golden Globe-nominated comedy from director Harold Ramis that centers on the neuroses and angst of a powerful Mafia racketeer who suffers from panic attacks. When Paul Vitti (Robert De Niro) needs help dealing with his role in the "family," unlucky shrink...

By Brian De Palma, 1993.

Starring Al Pacino, Sean Penn, Penelope Ann Miller

It's hard to go straight in a crooked world, but Carlito Brigante (Al Pacino) won't stop trying. Sprung from prison on a technicality, he vows not to waste his second chance; unfortunately, every time he tries to get out of the rackets, the bad guys pull him back in.

By David Cronenberg, 2007.

Starring Viggo Mortensen, Naomi Watts, Vincent Cassel

Eastern Promises is a 2007 drama film directed by David Cronenberg, from a screenplay written by Steven Knight. The film tells of a British midwife's interactions with the Russian Mafia in London and stars Viggo Mortensen, Naomi Watts and Vincent Cassel. The film has won several awards, including...

By Sergio Leone, 1984.

Starring Robert De Niro, James Woods, Elizabeth McGovern

Director Sergio Leone's sprawling crime epic follows a group of Jewish mobsters (including Robert De Niro, James Woods and Elizabeth McGovern) who rise in the ranks of organized crime in 1920s New York. Their story unfolds in flashbacks as ringleader Noodles (De Niro) returns to Brooklyn some 30...

By Harold Ramis, 2002.

Starring Robert De Niro, Billy Crystal, Lisa Kudrow

Mafioso Paul Vitti (Robert De Niro) is released into the custody of his overworked psychiatrist Ben Sobel (Billy Crystal), much to the dismay of the doctor's wife (Lisa Kudrow). Despite Ben's attempts to help Paul get a legitimate job, sort out his life and stick to the straight and narrow, Paul's...

By Joel Coen, 1990.

Starring Ethan Coen, Gabriel Byrne, Marcia Gay Harden

Trusted adviser to 1920s Irish crime boss Lee O'Bannon, Tom Reagan's loyalty is tested when he takes up with O'Bannon's gal pal, Verna Bernbaum. Meanwhile, rivals Johnny Caspar and Eddie Dane threaten O'Bannon's racket. Gabriel Byrne, John Turturro, Albert Finney, Steve Buscemi, Jon Polito, J.E...

By Robert De Niro, 1993.

Starring Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Chazz Palminteri

An evocative slice-of-life film. A Bronx boy (Lillo Brancato) grows to adulthood worshipping disparate heroes: his hardworking father (Robert De Niro), who drives a city bus, and the neighborhood mob boss (Chazz Palminteri), who becomes a kind of surrogate dad.

By Raoul Walsh, 1949.

Starring James Cagney, Virginia Mayo, Edmond O'Brien

"Made it, Ma, top of the world!" James Cagney is riveting as homicidal gangster Cody Jarrett (complete with an "insane mother" complex) in this hard-boiled movie that costars Virginia Mayo as his two-timing wife. Edmund O'Brien's the cop who infiltrates Cody's gang to bring him down -- and that he...