Ajax has once again stepped up to the plate (for shame, fellow Monkey Barn Contriubtors) to produce another Top Ten list, this time:
AJAX'S TOP TEN GANGSTER MOVIES
10. Donnie Brasco: The manufactured friendship between mafia crewmember and undercover FBI agent is compelling, yet hard to watch: you know before the final credits roll, things will resolve themselves, almost certainly in bloodshed.
9. Gangster Number One: How hard, how crazy, how ruthless do you have to be to rise to the top of the British underworld? Well, apparently you need a chisel...
8. Sexy Beast: Kingsley as Don Logan. There are other details, but nothing as gripping and compelling as the man who portrayed Ghandi as the most terrifying British thug ever.
7. Snatch: British gangsters and thugs, astonishing music choices, a diamond the size of a fist, and a Pikey boxing champion, and a caravan. Perriwinkle blue. Fer me ma.
6. Casino: Pesci and DeNiro narrate the rise and fall of mafia-controlled
5. Bugsy: Beatty, Benning, Keitel, and Kingsley. And how could you not feel the psychotic anger that would burst from Beatty when someone called him Bugsy? Whooo.
4. Untouchables: An Oscar for Connery, a career for Andy Garcia, and a notch on the belt for Costner and De Palma.
3. Goodfellas: Joe Pesci transforms himself from small comedic actor to monster (with an Academy Award to show he did it right). You think any casting directors ever laughed when he auditions for serious roles? 'You think I'm funny?'
1 & 2. The Godfather, The Godfather Part II: Argue placement all you want, Coppola's masterpieces stand untouched as the definitive mafia movies. Nothing will be said about any other... (gag) movie (gag) which rides on the coattails of the title, but desecrates the idea of the Corleone family.
[Hyperion's Note: Before I saw the list, I talked over with Ajax his criteria. He said he left off earlier films (like the 1932 SCARFACE) because he hasn't seen them, and others because their connection to Gangs is a tough sell. (For example: GANGS OF NEW YORK is definitely about gangs, but is it a "Gangster" movie?) However, having thought about it for awhile--and still very glad Ajax has helped me out--I have to say that not including Urban Gang movies is a huge oversight. BOYZ IN THE HOOD should be a given, and I personally would include NEW JACK CITY. There may even be others. Even worse than that, though, how the hell can you omit The Apple Dumpling Gang?]
