Confession: I’ve never seen The Godfather. I now invite you to pelt me with rotten vegetables and call me names. How can I possibly come up with a list of the greatest crime movies of all time without having first seen the Greatest Crime Movie of All Time™? Sheer audacity, that’s how. While I may have never seen what I’m told is Francis Ford Coppola’s masterpiece, I’ve seen plenty of other crime movies that are pretty darn good. Godfather good? That’s for a cinephile like you to decide. Maybe after I’ve showered off the smell of rotten cabbage and worked out all the name calling in therapy, I’ll be able to have an informed opinion, but for now I’m gonna let the trauma win and skip The Godfather entirely.
Badlands
Terrence Malick’s Badlands is easily one of the most underrated crime films of all time. Can you really call The Godfather The Greatest™ without first having seen this criminal anti-romance? Perhaps, perhaps not. The film was inspired by the real life story of Charles Starkweather, a 20 year old who rode around The Midwest killing people accompanied by his fourteen year old hostage/girlfriend. The film follows Kit Carruthers, a Vietnam vet/James Dean lookalike who seduces Holly, a sign painter’s young daughter. After killing her father, Kit takes young Holly on a cross country odyssey to evade the authorities – the teenage girl’s emotions too blunted by shock to do anything about it. It’s ultimately a film about a young person adapting to a violent world, one who becomes a passive onlooker in her own life in order to ensure her survival. Murderous and melancholy in equal measure.
The Shawshank Redemption
A rare instance of the film being better than the book, Frank Darabont’s The Shawshank Redemption is an adaptation of a Stephen King novel of the same name. It’s the story of Andy Dufresne, a man wrongfully convicted of killing his wife and her lover. Taken to the infamously brutal Shawshank prison, Andy is forced to fight for his survival behind bars. The film refuses to shy away from the horrifying realities of incarceration, Andy is the target of assault and abuse from fellow prisoners and guards. His luck changes after he’s befriended by fellow inmate Ellis Boyd “Red” Redding, and the pair depend on each other to weather inmate violence and administrative corruption. Like the penal classic The Count of Monte Cristo, The Shawshank Redemption is the story of a man who refuses to be broken by a broken system – and ultimately comes out on top.
Bound
Directed by the Wachowskis, Bound is the erotic lesbian crime thriller you didn’t know you needed. It’s the story of ex-con Corky, who strikes up a covert relationship with Voilet – the girlfriend of a mafia money launderer named Caesar. After deciding leave the scumbag boyfriend behind, Violet and Corky come up with a scheme to make off with millions of the mob’s money – framing Caesar for the theft. The plan goes anything but according to plan. Bound is a gritty game of cat and mouse, two women against a world full of masculine violence. When they’re not fighting for their lives, they find more intimate ways to occupy their time – making this film one of the steamiest crime thrillers around. Bound walked so Love Lies Bleeding could fly.
No Country For Old Men
One of the darkest crime dramas in recent memory, No Country For Old Men is a neo-Western adapted from a Cormac McCarthy novel of the same name. The film follows Llewelyn Moss, a blue collar Texan who stumbles upon the bloody aftermath of a drug deal gone wrong – along with a suitcase full of cash. Thinking he’s made off scot-free, Moss finds out his mistake when he becomes the target of Anton Chigurh – a psychopathic hitman hired to recover the money. The result is a game of cat and mouse through Texas hill country, escalating in increasingly horrifying acts of violence. The silenced shotgun shootout, the cattle bolt pistol killings, Chigurh’s horrifying haircut, this film is chock full of atrocity. Despite the best efforts of ill-prepared authorities, No Country For Old Man a morally grey morass of murder with no clear victor.
Goodfellas
The other greatest mafia movie of all time, Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas is the story of mafioso turned informant Henry Hill. As far back as Hill can remember, he wanted to be a gangster – an aspiration he fondly recalls while transporting corpses in the trunk of a car. As Hill works his way up the mafia ladder, he discovers that the glitz and glamour of organized crime can’t quite cover up the ugliness beneath. As his made-man friends turn against one another, Hill realizes that he’ll need wrap himself up in the long arms of the law in order to make it out alive. While the police informant drama serves as the main plot, the show is stolen by Joe Pesci, whose performance as loose cannon killer Tommy DeVito landed him a spot in the Mob Movie Hall of Fame.
Good Time
Directed by Josh and Benny Safdie, Good Time is the story of Connie Nikas – a small time crook attempting to spring his intellectually disabled brother Nick out of jail. After a botched bank robbery, Nick has been taken to Rikers – and Connie needs to come up with bail while evading Johnny Law. The film completely demystifies the allure of the criminal, Connie’s existence is totally devoid of the glitz and glamour of crime thrillers past. The ultimate exercise in “the ends justify the means” logic, Connie’s methods to come up with the cash become increasingly more depraved. Stealing his girlfriend’s mom’s credit card, poisoning people with LSD, name a low and odds are Connie will stoop to it.
BlacKkKlansman
Inspired by the true story of Ron Stallworth, Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman is the story of a Black police officer who successfully infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan. The first Black officer hired by the Colorado Springs police department, Stallworth is scorned and dismissed by his white peers – so he decides to take on his own case. After calling in to a local Klan chapter posing as a white man, Ron slowly earns the organization’s trust with the help of his Jewish coworker Flip Zimmerman. As the duo get in deeper, they discover that the Klan is plotting violence, and they’re the only ones who can stop it. A tense dramedy about two outcasts sticking it to bigots, BlacKkKlansman is a story of underdogs coming out on top.
City of God
One of the greatest films of the 21st century, Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund’s City of God follows an ensemble cast in the Cidade de Deus suburb of Rio de Janeiro. One of the most dangerous favelas in the nation, the Cidade de Deus if populated by groups of young criminals hoping to make names for themselves – and aspiring teen photojournalist Rocket is documenting them all. The film is an exploration of the cyclical nature of violence and crime. Old gangster train the young, the young grow into the old, the old take a new generation under their wing – the cycle repeats. City of God doesn’t try to break that cycle – but put it on display without judgement. Rocket documents the rise and fall of his peers, and the result is sweeping and spectacular tragedy.
Thelma and Louise
Ridley Scott’s Thelma and Louise is a story of best friendship. After all, who but a bestie would help you cover up a murder and flee the police? After Louise shoots her friend Thelma’s attacker dead in a parking lot, the women make a break for the Mexican border – thinking that the police won’t believe their justified story of self defense. As the authorities close in on all sides, Thelma and Louise embark on a last ditch odyssey in pursuit of freedom: physical, emotional, spiritual, sexual, freedom of all kinds. This film is a love letter to best friendships everywhere, the story of two women who take on the world together – and ultimately decide to leave it hand in hand.
Fargo
The most polite murder story ever written, Fargo is a crime caper full of homespun charm. This is the story of Jerry Lundegaard, a nebbish car salesman who plots to have his own wife kidnapped, and then extort his wealthy father-in-law to come up with $80,000 worth of ransom money. If this sounds like a laughably bad idea to you, you betcha it is! After meeting two local lowlifes, Jerry attempts to hire them for the kidnapping, then unsuccessfully tries to call it off after mistakenly thinking he’s secured some cash elsewhere. The kidnappers have other plans, and decide to carry out the crime. The result is a black comedy of errors featuring Minnesotan accents, spur of the moment murders, and one very gruesome encounter with a woodchipper. Messy, macabre, unapologeticaly Midwestern – Fargo is a criminal classic.
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