Characters from Once Upon a Time in America, Scarface, and The Untouchables
The 1970s was a particularly good decade for gangster movies because it saw the release of Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather and The Godfather: Part II alone; two undoubtedly great films about organized crime. Then, in the 1990s, Martin Scorsese made boundary-pushing classics like Goodfellas and Casino. Though both Coppola and Scorsese stayed away from the genre in the 1980s, there were thankfully other filmmakers around to pick up the slack, so to speak.
Mona Lisa unfolds in a way that makes it more of a neo-noir movie than a gangster film strictly speaking, but there are hints of that throughout, mostly due to various shady and/or criminal characters playing major roles in the narrative. It’s a film with one of Hoskins’s best performances, and Michael Caine’s in it too, turning in a strong supporting performance.
7 'Diva' Director: Jean-Jacques Beineix Close Diva is a style-over-substance kind of movie, but not in a way that’s detrimental at all. It’s a film where it feels like the point is to be cool and create an intoxicating vibe that’s easy to fall into. That being said, there’s still some story here, mostly focused on a young man whose love for an opera singer eventually sees him clashing with organized crime members .
5 'The Long Good Friday' Director: John Mackenzie Mona Lisa wasn’t the only good crime movie from the ‘80s to star Bob Hoskins, as he was also in The Long Good Friday, playing a slightly more well-off gangster this time around. His character, Harold Shand, has wealth and a certain amount of power, but is shown having a pretty awful time throughout The Long Good Friday, with various threats and a possible traitor in his ranks causing him difficulties while he tries to go legit.
The Untouchables takes a haphazard approach to its Prohibition-era story as far as historical accuracy is concerned, but the broad strokes are there and the old-fashioned artificiality of it all feels intentional. It’s a cops vs. criminals premise that simplifies things to a great extent, but the spirit and entertainment value of The Untouchables ultimately make it work .
2 'Scarface' Director: Brian De Palma If one were to crown a movie as the most iconic or well-known gangster film of the 1980s, Scarface would probably have to be a contender, if not an outright winner. It feels the most ‘80s out of any comparable movie released in the same decade, with bombastic music and a look that feels hyper-1980s throughout.
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