Casey Chong with a selection of mob movies you may have missed…
Mob movies have been around almost as long as cinema, stretching way back to the ‘30s with staples like The Public Enemy and Scarface. Some of the greatest and most well-known mob movies made their way from the 1970s New Hollywood onwards with genre classics like Mean Streets and the first two Godfather films. As time went by, more great mob movies were produced from Brian De Palma’s violent remake of Scarface to Martin Scorsese’s seminal Goodfellas, to name but a few. But despite the enduring popularity of the genre, we’ve seen plenty of mob-related films that either slipped under the radar or found themselves unfairly eclipsed by the similarly-themed but more popular mafia or gangster movies. With that in mind, we have unearthed seven mob movie gems that are worth your time if you’re yet to see them…
Blood In, Blood Out (1993)
Otherwise known as Bound by Honor, Taylor Hackford’s three-hour epic crime drama centered on three Chicano cousins – Jesse Borrego’s Cruz, Benjamin Bratt’s Paco and Damian Chapa’s Miklo — and how their paths change forever after an incident. The movie barely made an impact at the time of its release but has since been seen as a rediscovered gem among many Latino audiences especially.
Hackford’s gritty portrait of the lives of Chicano communities in East Los Angeles plagued by familial tension, societal hardship, gang violence and police brutality may have been unabashedly theatrical in its tone and style. Not to mention the actors, namely Damian Chapa tends to overact in some scenes or resort to shouting contests. But it’s hard to deny the primary characters’ varied personalities and ideologies seen in the dynamics of Borrego, Bratt and Chapa’s committed performances. Look out for early performances from future recognizable stars such as Delroy Lindo, Ving Rhames and Billy Bob Thornton.
The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973)
Peter Yates made his name in Bullitt and The Deep, proving his versatility in transcending across different genres. But The Friends of Eddie Coyle didn’t do well back in 1973 even with the critics singing the praises of the movie. Perhaps the epic popularity of Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather has changed the audiences’ perception of how they see a mob movie in general.By contrast, Peter Yates’ crime thriller on a lowly Irish mob gunrunner played by Robert Mitchum is rather low-key in its execution.
The mundane nature of the movie de-glamorizes the inner workings of a mob, which may be a turn-off for some viewers. The story is as stark as it goes while depicting Mitchum’s titular character as a sympathetic criminal-turned-informant for the ATF to avoid imprisonment. The movie is notable for delving into Coyle’s desperation and Mitchum does a subtle work portraying a world-weary aging mob gunrunner who has seen better days. Yates deserves praise for his matter-of-fact, procedural-like direction without relying heavily on big or loud moments to make a point here.
Miller’s Crossing (1990)
The Coen brothers’ distinct filmmaking style has given us some of the best movies in the contemporary era from their influential debut in Blood Simple to the pop-culture phenomenon seen in Fargo, The Big Lebowski and No Country for Old Men. One of their earlier directorial features, Miller’s Crossing was largely seen as an underrated effort that didn’t gain as much attention as those aforementioned movies. Impeccably shot by Barry Sonnenfeld, this Prohibition-era gangster movie is equivalent to the Coen brothers’ quirky and violent take on Akira Kurosawa’s Yojimbo, where the main character played by Gabriel Byrne in one of his finest performances to date, is working both sides of the rival gangs.
The movie benefits from its intricate plotting that nothing is what it seems in the Coen brothers’ mob world. It is twisted, morally corrupt and filled with betrayals and double-crosses that playing catch-up is part of the fun of watching this nearly two-hour movie unfold. Despite the offbeat nature of the movie, the Coens do not hold back when comes to depicting graphic violence, which at one point we see Albert Finney’s no-nonsense mob boss Liam “Leo” O’Bannon go trigger-happy firing a Tommy gun.
Kill the Irishman (2011)
Jonathan Hensleigh is better known for his blockbuster screenplays like Die Hard with a Vengeance, Jumanji and Armageddon rather than a director, but the otherwise underappreciated Kill the Irishman finally proved he has what it takes to direct an entertaining mob picture. The movie is pretty straightforward but packed with enough verve, thanks to his muscular direction charting the rise and fall of the real-life Irish-American gangster Danny Greene.
It also helps the movie have Ray Stevenson stealing the show as the brash and fearsome lead character with strong support from Val Kilmer, Christopher Walken and Vincent D’Onofrio. Kill the Irishman has the style and pacing of a lively action movie, despite being a biographical crime drama. It’s just too bad this movie failed to find enough audiences, bringing in only a paltry $1.2 million against its $12 million budget.
The Funeral (1996)
The Funeral may have been a crime drama about a 1930s family of mobsters but Abel Ferrara, working from his frequent collaborator Nicholas St. John’s screenplay, delivered what is best described as an antithesis of a mob movie. It emphasizes more on the grief of the family, particularly brothers Ray (Christopher Walken) and Chez (Chris Penn) over the death of their younger sibling played by Vincent Gallo as Johnny. There is none of the romanticizing or glamorizing take on the mob lifestyle as we see how Ray and Chez deal with the aftermath of their brother’s death.
The movie is both morally and thematically bleak in its execution while credits also go to Ferrara for using the flashback-heavy narrative detailing how Gallo’s Johnny subsequently ends up dead in the first place. Violence remains the recurring theme that defines Ferrara’s works but only this time, he mostly internalizes it to explore how rage and anger slowly consume a person inside out before reaching a breaking point. The Funeral once again has Ferrara reteams with his King of New York’s Christopher Walken, who gives a subtle performance as Ray while Chris Penn steals the show playing the volatile Chez.
Saints and Sinners (1994)
This little-seen, direct-to-video Saints and Sinners may feel like it’s lifted from State of Grace since both movies follow a character returning to his old neighborhood and reuniting with his childhood best friend as they work together to run a criminal organization. That character turns out to be an undercover cop. So, Damian Chapa’s Pooch is like embodying Sean Penn’s Terry while Scott Plank’s Big Boy is essentially Gary Oldman’s Jackie.
Even with the similarity, writer-director Paul Mones still manages to bring out the best in Chapa and Plank’s performances as two sworn brothers who even go as far as sharing Pooch’s girlfriend played by the sultry Jennifer Rubin. The latter provides an extra edge of giving this otherwise familiar crime drama with an erotically charged drama. Rubin may have been an object of desire in this movie but at least Mones take a step further by making her character somewhat manipulative and questionable in her actions.
Little Odessa (1995)
Long before James Gray made The Yards and Ad Astra, he got his earlier start making a low-key directorial debut in the crime drama Little Odessa. Instead of focusing on the glamorization of a Russian-Jewish mafia, the movie is more somber in its tone as Gray, who also wrote the screenplay, utilizes the deliberate slow-burn approach to tell his story between the sibling relationship of mafia hitman Joshua (Tim Roth) and his younger brother Reuben (Edward Furlong).
The tension mostly comes from the family conflict, notably how his estranged, yet pragmatic father Arkady (Maximilian Schell in a strong supporting turn) despised Joshua’s presence for coming back home. The movie is as thematically cold and rigid as the wintry backdrop shot on location in Brooklyn. Gray gets mileage from Tim Roth, best known for his memorable performance in Reservoir Dogs at the time, with his engaging lead turn as Joshua while Edward Furlong shows some promise in his dramatic role outside his Terminator 2: Judgment Day fame.
What are your underrated mob movie recommendations? Let us know on our social channels @FlickeringMyth…
Casey Chong
