Back in May Jon and I saw this show called AFI’s 10 Top 10. It recapped AFI’s Top 10 movies in 10 different genres. While there were a lot of movies we had seen there were also a lot of movies (mostly older movies) that we had never seen. We decided we were going to watch AFI’s 10 Top 10. We started with the Gangster genre (Jon’s choice) and we finished the 10th movie this past weekend. I just realized that I only recapped 4 of the movies – oops! I will give you an overview in this post of our thoughts of the Top 10 Gangster movies according to the American Film Institute and then I’ll come back next week and give short recaps on the 6 movies we watched that I didn’t post reviews for…sound like a plan?
Below is a list of the movies – our star rating for each movie is in parentheses next to the title.
AFI’s Ranking of the Top 10 Gangster Movies
1. The Godfather (5 Stars)
2. Goodfellas (5 Stars)
3. The Godfather, Part II (5 Stars)
4. White Heat (4 Stars)
5. Bonnie & Clyde (3 Stars)
6. Scarface (the Original) (3 Stars)
7. Pulp Fiction (4 Stars)
8. The Public Enemy (3 Stars)
9. Little Caesar (3 Stars)
10. Scarface (the Remake) (3 Stars)
We were very happy that we did this challenge. I had only seen Pulp Fiction & Goodfellas prior to starting the Gangster Challenge. It was of course great to see some amazing classics – like The Godfather (great book too!) I would say that overall we agreed with the ranking provided by AFI. The only movie we thought was in the wrong position was Bonnie & Clyde. We would have put that 10th and bumped everything up. It wasn’t that Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway weren’t amazing, because they were, but there just really wasn’t much to the story, it was very choppy and we were surprised it was ranked 5th.
Honorable Mentions:
Casino (4 Stars) – We felt that this should have been in the bottom half of the Top 10.
The Departed (5 Stars) – We felt that this should have been ranked 5th. While not a traditional gangster movie, neither were Pulp Fiction or Bonnie & Clyde, so we felt that this could have been included.
Boyz in the Hood – I personally have not watched this movie, but Jon has and he felt strongly also, that while not a traditional gangster movie, it was worth including.
What we did realize is that Robert DiNero is in the Top 3 Gangster movies. We were thinking that maybe that’s why Casino wasn’t included because they felt they needed more variety. DiNero is a pretty impressive gangster! Of the older movies White Heat was definitely our favorite, what a classic movie. And the line at the end, “Made it Ma! Top of the World!” is a classic. I’ve heard it used like 3-4 times since I’ve seen White Heat. We were also impressed with James Cagney and Edward G. Robinson. We felt that in the older movies the emphasis was much more on the acting then on the entertainment value (ie: the original Scarface vs. the remake – not that Pacino didn’t play that character well – because he did, he was crazy - but the movies were almost identical with way more special effects in the remake.)
I’m not in love with the gangster genre, but I feel like I gained an appreciation for it after watching these 10 movies. I definitely want to finish the Godfather series and I would certainly seek out some more James Cagney movies. I’m just happy that I broadened my movie mind. Next on the list is the Mystery Genre, of which I’ve only seen one of the movies. I am excited – and hopefully you’re excited to read about it.
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What is your favorite Gangster Movie? My favorite is The Godfather, Part II!
