10 Gangster Movies Ranked From Glamorous To Brutal

10 Gangster Movies, Ranked From Glamorous To Brutal

From glamorous hits like Live By Night to brutal classics like Goodfellas, City of God, and Scarface, gangster movies have it all.

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When it comes to gangster movies, it’s almost impossible not to glamorize the characters’ actions and lifestyles, as the lead characters need to be charismatic in order for the movie to be any good in the first place. However, some gangster movies play into how glamorous the lifestyle is more than others, with some going as far as even glorifying the violence.

Even when it comes to films that are considered to be the greatest gangster epics of all time suffer from depicting the lead characters in somewhat of a “cool” light. But there are others that don’t hold back, and the underlying psychotic nature of being a gangster is on the show more than anything else, and the results can often be horrific.

10 Gangster Squad (2013)

Gangster Squad is almost completely style over substance, as every shot is so visually stunning and the action feels more like a kid playing with action figures than it does anything else. With all of the Tommy guns and pinstripe suits, it’s more reminiscent of Pinstripe from Crash Bandicoot than any other gangster movies.

And considering half of the action shots are in slow-motion, it glamorizes the mafia more than any other mob movie, and that’s why it’s often considered one of the worst movies on the subject.

9 Live By Night (2016)

When it comes to directing, Ben Affleck usually has his finger on the pulse, as he directed the political thriller and Best Picture winner Argo, and the incredible heist movie The Town. However, the actor-director’s Live By Night was a box office bomb, and it’s partly due to how it was criticized for being too style over substance.

Though the movie is a serious drama that follows a notorious gangster commit heinous acts of crime, it plays off like a small price to pay for such a lavish way of life.

8 The Godfather (1972)

As The Godfather is not just considered the greatest gangster movie of all time but also the greatest film of all time, as it’s referenced to no end in other movies and TV shows, its only downfall is its glamorization of the gangster lifestyle. Even from the very first scene in the movie, in which Don Corleone is being treated like a king, living a life of luxury in a giant mansion, Vito, and then Michael in the second movie, are characters that many viewers have surely imagined themselves as.

But the movie also depicts the consequences that come with such a lifestyle too, as Sonny’s murder at the toll booth is brutal as he gets shot countless times by several different machine guns. And the whole Baptism sequence, in which each member of the five families is getting picked off, portrays just how sinister and unglamorous their lives really are.

7 The Irishman (2019)

Audiences should be grateful for The Irishman, as it barely escaped development hell. However, when it did finally get released on Netflix, it was looked at as one the most thought-provoking movies Scorsese had ever made, but it’s inherently cool too.

Even at such old ages, the movie makes the mobsters’ lifestyles look like something for viewers to aspire to, as they’re always fine dining, drinking expensive wine, and they have the nicest cars. But it does drastically take a turn for the worst. The movie delves into the idea of mortality and how the characters don’t have anything left, whether it’s materialistic possessions or family, and it’s truly devastating.

6 Goodfellas (1990)

Martin Scorsese has been accused of glorifying bad lifestyles in the past, and not just with gangster movies but with other biopics too, and some viewers have accused Goodfellas of doing that very thing. However, the movie is almost the opposite, as though the characters have nice suits and are able to jump the queues at comedy clubs, they’re never really seen having that good of a time, which is what’s so masterful about the movie.

All of the main characters are always paranoid and consistently freaking out from sniffing too much coke or laundering money. What’s even better is that, almost ironically, the only time the characters seem truly satisfied with their lives, is when they’re actually in prison together.

5 Scarface (1983)

Scarface depicts the good and the bad more than any other gangster movie, as the film is set in a sun-drenched Miami where all the gangsters are found milling about in Hawaiian shirts, drinking cocktails, and hanging out in night clubs.

The movie totally fetishizes Tony Montana, as he relaxes in his jacuzzi and hangs out with his tiger, and there are many scenes that could be considered “badass,” but it’s also disgustingly brutal. From that chainsaw scene in the bathroom to the very finale, in which Tony gets filled with bullets and dies in a fountain that ironically says, “the world is yours,” Scarface is a bloody mess.

4 King Of New York (1990)

King of New York is a flashy movie, as the characters walk around with swagger, huge gold chains, and the most expensive shades, but the movie also has more merciless and soulless brutality than most other movies of the 1990s.

In getting revenge for the murder of Jimmy Jump, Frank White literally blows Dennis’ brains out with a shotgun and such close range. And that’s one of many of the visually disgusting scenes in the film that few other movies from the era could ever match.

3 Legend (2015)

There’s nothing about Legend that glamorizes anything, as even the life that either of the Kray brothers considers “luxurious,” few others would. The movie follows the Kray twins, who were involved in murder, armed robbery, and protection rackets. Being based in London in the 1960s, audiences just feel dirty even seeing the bleak industrial backdrop of the movie itself.

And then there’s the violence, which is on a whole other level of brutality. As Reggie Kray was a boxer, and Ronald Kray was just straight up depraved, it led to some scenes that viewers couldn’t even imagine being based on a true story, but they are.

2 Gomorra (2008)

When people imagine the Italian mafia, they think of fancy suits, nice cars, and cannolis, but that’s far from the reality of it. Gomorra shows the true reality of the mafia in Naples in the modern-day, and it’s shockingly unbelievable, as it intertwines the stories of five people who were affected by the mob.

The movie is in no way glamorous, and as stylish as it gets at the beginning, when the mobsters are relaxing in a tanning salon, that quickly comes to an end when it erupts in gunfire.

1 City Of God

City of God is one of the most exhaustingly realistic portrayals of gang crime. The movie takes place in a suburb of Rio de Janeiro and depicts children forced to turn to crime when they live in squalor and poverty.

What makes the content of the movie even more brutal is not the act of violence itself, but how young children are forced to do the criminals’ dirty work for them. And with the way the movie is expertly shot, it makes getting shot in the foot seem so much worse than any murder that takes place in a Hollywood movie.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/gangster-movies-most-glamorous-brutal/

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