Gangsters have always made for popular film characters.
Gangster movies alsocover a wide swath of filmmakers from different eras and from all over the world.
If someone were to start watching every single gangster movie today, they would probably finish sometime next Christmas.
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To begin though,these are the ten gangster movies that are the most essential.
Few actors have been as synonymous with tough guy roles than the late New York native.
His performances inAngels With Dirty Faces,The Public Enemy, andthe gangster epicThe Roaring Twentiesare all iconic.
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His most memorable of all came in aclassic film that influenced generations of crime movies,White Heat.
On the global map of gangster movies, this one sits right on top of the world.
It’s a perfectly executed sequence at the center of one of the best modern gangster movies ever made.
The original debut film remains an iconic gangster movie that influenced major American filmmakers likeMartin ScorseseandQuentin Tarantino.
Battles Without Honor and Humanityis available to rent on Prime Video in the U.S.
The film that best personifies the greed and excess of the American Dream turned criminal isBrian De Palma’s80s epicScarface.
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It remainsone of the most rewatchable crime movies ever made.
One other major city that has been host to multiple gangster movies is Boston.
His sad criminal existence is completely stripped ofthe romanticism of the gangster lifestyle often depicted in the genre.
One is Martin Scorsese’sperfectly directed, genre-definingGoodFellas.
The production of the filmwas influenced by the real mafia.
That tension bleeds on to the screen and is felt in every performance.
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Truly an offer any self-respecting movie lover cannot refuse.
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