First rate : Heat, Carlito’s Way, Infernal Affairs, A Bittersweet Life, Reservoir Dogs, The Killer.
Middle rate : Scarface, Donnie Brasco, Snatch
Bottom rate : The Godfather part 3
The Godfather Part III, bottom rate? Gimme a break.
Is Heat really a gangster film? Anyway, it is your opinion and I totally agree with Scarface and Donnie Brasco. Have you seen The Godfather, Once Upon a Time in America (which is my favourite all time movie) or The Godfather Part II, or Goodfellas or Casino and where would you rank them?
I think that if the Godfather Part III wasn’t following up from the previous two it would be viewed as a perfectly respectable middle rate gangster film
@TAKAAWESOME
Yes it’s THAT bad.
@JOEY T
Well it depends if your definition includes crime dramas.
Godfather I & II, OUTIA are first rate, Goodfellas and Casino are middle rate IMO.
Fair enough
I’m surprised there’s been no mention of anything from the ’30s
A select few:
Top tier
Once Upon a Time in America
Scarface (original)
Little Caeser
The Public Enemy
Goodfellas
The Godfather
Middle tier
The Godfather III
Casino
The Funeral
The Untouchables
Bottom tier
Scarface (remake)
Heat
I agree with you, I forgot about films like Public Enemy, White Heat and the original Scarface. The remake is tosh!
Is there any chance @Maximillian that like me Once Upon a Time in America is your favourite film!?
Joey, it used to be! But a couple of years ago I saw American Graffiti
Well what is it now?
Sorry didn’t see that
Casino etc.
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Middle Tier
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Bottom Tier
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Godfather Part 3
Is it really that bad, I have not seen it but it can’t be that awful. I do agree with you on Casino though, what would be your middle and bottom tier films?
^ Yeah sorry about the edit, haha
Having said that, I still think it’s easily the greatest achievement of post-New Hollywood cinema
Precisely, going a bit off subject, but did you like Taxi Driver? It is my second favourite and I think it is just stunning, I guess you can tell who my favourite actor is!
Yeah I love it – both Taxi Driver and Raging Bull were two of the films that first got me into cinema. See you’re also a fan of The Deer Hunter… have you seen Heaven’s Gate?
No, in fact I have never heard of it
White Heat is top of the world.
It’s a stark contrast to Deer Hunter, which is really bizarre since it was Cimino’s next film. It has probably the most intriguing history of any film I’ve ever heard of, and it completely divides audiences – people seem to either hail it as an epic masterpiece or call it a colossal waste of time.
Well I have just read up about it and heard it has a horrible rape scene and real horse blood on the actors and real animal violence. But I will give it a go, even as a 12 year old I have seen worse
^ Oh yeah, forgot about White Heat – tier 1
Trust me, the rape scene isn’t bad. Irreversible has a bad rape scene…
As does the film we were just talking about, Once Upon a Time in America, as does another of my favourite films, American History X
Indeed they do. How did we get this off topic? lol
Has anyone seen The Funeral by the way? Worth seeing for Chris Penn alone.
I’m guessing that you are a big Christopher Walken fan?
Yeah I like him, but he’s not my favorite to be honest.
Is Pulp Fiction a gangster film? If it is then it is second tier in my opinion, I did not like it that greatly I must say
Joey T –
Is it really that bad, I have not seen it but it can’t be that awful.
I would say so, yes. Just pretend they never made it.
My grading would be something like:
Top
Casino
Rififi
Touchez Pas Au Grisbi
The Godfather I & II
Goodfellas
Le Cercle Rouge
White Heat
Middle
The Public Enemy
The Roaring Twenties
Infernal Affairs
Once Upon A Time In America
Scarface
Scarface
Bottom
The Untouchables
The Departed
Carlito’s Way
Heat*
Donnie Brasco*
Crap
Public Enemies
American Gangster
Godfather 3
I mostly don’t like the bottom tier films much at all. Although there are some things I like in the ones with a * ie the performances of DeNiro and Pacino respectively. (Pacino in Donnie Brasco, not in Heat – he was fucking awful in that).
@ Scampi. The Departed won best picture of the year at the Academy Awards. A legendary all star cast. One of the greatest directors of all time. While I don’t watch the film religiously because I am not a huge gangster movie buff, I can say that at worst, The Departed is Middle tier stuff. And Once Upon A Time in America in the middle tier? Below Casino? No way was Casino better than a Sergio Leone picture. And Scarface is top tier dude.
joey Noodles
I have been thinking about this for a while and basically what I am trying to get at is that gangster films come in what I would say are three different categories.
At the top is the first rate films, The Godfather, Once Upon a Time in America, Goodfellas, The Godfather Part II, Casino, Mean Streets (in my opinion)
Then you have the next tier where most gangster films could be said to be. You have films like The Departed, American Gangster, Miller’s Crossing, which are all very good films but are not the masterpieces that the above ones are.
Finally there are the ones that are not so top notch. The ones that get poorly reviewed or are overly ambitious or something. The only one I can think of that fits in this category is The Death Collector.
I was wondering if a few people could list what they consider first rate, in the middle and bottom rate gangster films?